Topic: Blight Resistant Spuds & Toms

[Digitalis]

Sarpo spuds and Ferline toms are supposed to be blight resistant/tolerant.

Do they work?

[hippydave]

sarpo were the only spuds that i got to store last year due to blight but they are not the best tasting spud and break up very easily when boiled so i just use them for roasties and jackets, they also grow very large and become hollow, so im not growing them this year just grow earlies and seconds.

[realfood]

Yes, sarpo potato varieties are some of the most blight resistant. The taste improves with age in storage, and is acceptable. Big crops, slug resistance is very good, and Sarpo Axona stores extremely well into March without sprouting, and is therefore the last potato that I have in storage now. I would not be without them!
I love floury potatoes as well as waxy. I cook all of them in the microwave so they do not break up. I seldom get a hollow one.

[PurpleHeather]

Plant them and harvest them as early as possible is my best advice.

 If you have an allotment there is almost certainly the spores around close enough to infect and if you are growing at home then you may be lucky if you have not had any signs of blight in the recent past.

Mid March for planting spuds.

[saddad]

Blight resistance, like colds and flu, is very variable... for a similar reason the pathogen is always mutating... the "Sarpo"s are resistant because they aren't the same plant.... but if we grow thousands of acres of them I bet it (blight) gets to like them...  :-X

[angle shades]

 :) Nicola spuds and Aunty Madge tomatoes for me/ shades x

[cornykev]

I've just this second been reading on AlanRomans about the Sarpo's being resistent to blight and they recomend that you plant them for an extra crop after you have cropped your 1st earlies.     :-\
I'd give Tattieman a PM he'll probably give you sound advise on the spud front.
 ;D ;D ;D

[saddad]

The blight got my Auntie Madge last year...  :-[

[Geoff H]

Tattieman's site is recommending Setanta as the most blight resistant variety.

[Tattieman]

The Sarpo Mira is great at being blight resistant to the Blue 13 strain. Setanta is more blight resistant to other strains of blight so really it just depends on which blight you get as to which will be the most resistant. :)
The Setanta will have the best taste.

[cornykev]

I thought setanta had gone bust,  ??? I prefere sky sports anyway.  :P   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm told that resistant toms are extremely hard to develop. there are resitant species, but they're all cherry-sized. By the time you've bred in a larger size, you've bred out the resistance. Evidently there are several genes involved, but that's all I know.

[Hyacinth]

The blight got my Auntie Madge last year...  :-[

 :o ;D

Ferline tomatoes: I grew them one year because I'd read of their 'blight-resistant' qualities - but I didn't rate the taste as anything special, so have taken my chances with other, more preferred varieties, since.

[plainleaf2]

all blight resistant means is plant survives 2 weeks longer then none blight resistant varieties.
sprays and keeping leaves dry are best options for preventing blight.

[artichoke]

My Sarpos were strikingly resistant last year, a patch of tall green healthy foliage standing out from the wastes around them where the rest of the potatoes had either got blight, or come to the natural end of their lives. The potatoes do collapse on boiling - better to steam or bake.

I've even seen it recommended that you cut the foliage down eventually, to stop the potatoes getting larger. Good article by Romans in The Garden about the Sarpo development. I'm planting Mira and Axona this year.

[SueK]

I'm told that resistant toms are extremely hard to develop. there are resitant species, but they're all cherry-sized.

This is the first year I'm trying a supposedly blight-resistant variety, which is Legend (from RealSeeds but available from elsewhere) and a larger variety - anyone tried this before?

[realfood]

I usually just let my Axona keep on growing till the frosts come.

[Multiveg]

Ryton had Setanta! I'm no sports fan so stayed clear!

Tomatoes - somewhere I read that the smaller fruited tomatoes show some resistance....