Blight "resistance" in tomatoes

If you've found the information on the seed packet to be sadly lacking, this is the place to find out more, or add your comments!

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alan refail
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With the unusually early and widespread incidence of blight this year, I thought it might be useful to compile some sort of database of members’ experiences of what has survived to some extent.

Given enough data, I would be very willing to collate the responses later, say late October or November.

With tomatoes I am particularly interested to hear of what has been blighted but has still produced a useful crop.

Please contribute only if your tomato crop has suffered foliage blight.

That way it might be possible to identify those varieties which have shown some resistance to blight on the fruit.

It would be useful if you could follow this format:

Variety
Where grown
Amount of blight on fruit
Any other relevant comment, such as were plants sprayed against blight? what with? and when?

Please do come back to your contribution and edit it if necessary, but please try to avoid general chat about blight, of which there is plenty elsewhere on the forum

Looking forward to some useful information,

Alan
Last edited by alan refail on Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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alan refail
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Here's my first contribution:

Sungold
Polytunnel
Minimal blight on fruit

San Marzano
Polytunnel
Less than 10% blight

Alan
mikepearce45
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Alan,

Good idea.

Just a thought. I am aware that some people automatically spray their outdoor toms against blight from the start, whatever the variety. Would it be an idea for posters to comfirm whether they have used a spray and at what stage?
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alan refail
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Thanks Mike

Yes - I'll edit my first post.

Alan
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Chantal
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Sungold
Roma
Cuor di Bue
Pantono
Tigerella
Ildi
Allotment
All wiped out by blight in one weekend, no spray used.

Sungold
Roma
Cuor di Bue
Pantono
Tigerella
Ildi
Greenhouse
Pathetic crop so far but no blight and not sprayed.
Last edited by Chantal on Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Johnboy
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Hi Alan,
I have lost my outdoor crop of Gardeners Delight for the first time in 35 years.
My crop was well spaced with plenty of ventilation
10 plants in a 33 x 4ft bed with no other vegetation present. It happened so quickly that spraying was out of the question. It affected all 10 plants they had not reached fruiting age. All plants were destroyed by fire.
I have taken no remedy to sterilise the soil and do not intend to do so. I am now growing Pak Choi and
Komatsuna in that bed and will not grow Tomatoes there for a couple of years at least.
JB.
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Primrose
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Ailsa Craig - 3 plants, 10% affected leaves, several blighted fruit.
Gardeners Delight 6 plants, 2 plants with 10% blighted leaves, 1 rotten fruit.
Tigerella - 1 plant, leaves OK, but 2 affected fruit
Moneycross - 12 plants, 50% with lightly affected leaves and 6 rotten fruit.

Growing in south facing border against fence.
Sprayed with Dithane August 3rd for 1st time when all
affected plants still had their upper leaves & existing flowers looked healthy.

Sprayed with Dithane again August 16th. All plants currently holding their own. No more rotten fruit and 2 spare plants (Moneycross) in front garden completely unaffected.

Update Aug 29th on returning from 2 weeks holiday: All plants still surviving except one Moneycross plant which has shrivelled & died back. Slight increase in stem & leaf blight on most other plants but fruits still seem unaffected. Perhaps the Dithane caught it just in time? Soil was kept moist during this time due to irrigation system.

Final update 20th Sept. No further blight spread. All tomatoes now picked, mostly green butstill looking healthy.
Last edited by Primrose on Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Colin_M
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Our experiences were:

Sungold
Grown in allotment & back garden
Blight spread from leaves, stems to all the fruit (some plants affected before fruit had actually formed)
Not sprayed

San Marzano
Grown in allotment & back garden
Blight spread from leaves to stems before fruit had actually formed
Not sprayed

Other comments
- The plants in the allotment were surrounded by blighted potatoes - never stood a chance
- I've never had blight this early (often get it on Sungold, but not before I've had a chance to pick lots of fruit)
- San Marzano & Pantano grown in my greenhouse have both been fine.


Colin
Monika
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Gardeners Delight

Just three plants grown in unheated greenhouse - no sign of blight (yet) on either foliage or tomatoes - not sprayed

Plants are directly under mostly wide open top flap and are regularly rained on
yummyveggies
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All grown outside against a wall in growbags with big pots on top of the growbags to increase root run .. ( a little like ring culture)

Fantasia
no blight so far

Ferline
no blight so far
( this is marketed as a blight resistant variety)

I must admit the labels have faded but there is no distinct difference between the plants.

To add to this I have got blight on the potatoes.
(will add to the potato thread)
yummyveggies
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whoops forgot .. no spray !
Mike Vogel
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I grew all my tomatoes outdoors on the allotment this year. Mulched with straw. Pot or tube in the ground for watering the roots. Fed with a dilution of comfrey leaves crammed into a 20-litre canister, topped up with 5 litres of water and left for 3 weeks, then mixed with water 1:20. No fungicide spray used.

Johnson's Outdoor Girl: [from seed saved from plants grown last year from saved seed]:
Quite a lot of leaves got blighted. Stripped off. Few fruit affected, some still ripening on leafless plants. Reduced yield.

Gardener's delight [from seed bought the previous year]:
Far fewer leaves affected, and stripped off as effects appeared. Fruiting well and no obvious effect on yield.

Potiron Ecarlate Beef tom. [Seed as per GD]:
Very seriously affected, fruit as well as leaves. On five plants I now have one green tom and I have had to throw away all other fruit, about 4 per plant. However, some trusses have gone brown before setting, and I believe the cold has affected yield at least as much as blight. Not really an outdoor variety.

Andine Cornue Large plum tom. Seed as above:
At first suffering like Potirons above, but they have since recovered better. I have had to take off fewer leaves and only one or two fruits from about 5 plants. Now ripening and looking healthy. Not an outdoor variety.

Olirose, this year's seed, a plum-shaped eater:
Not a great deal affected, about the same as Gardener's Delight above, perhaps rather less. No fruit yet discarded, though I have removed a few leaves.

Alicante This year's seed
Hardly any effect at all. Seems to fruit later than other varieties I'm growing. Plants look well-laden. I can't remember even taking any leaves off.

Tigerella This year's seed:
As per Alicante, but fruiting earlier.

I think i've been lucky, but wait until this latest spell of cool and rain is over. I've now protected some plants with large polythene bags and I'll wait to see whether they appear to make any difference.

mike
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Doctor Deb
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In my proper greenhouse, with full ventilation:
1. San marzano
2. Tigerella
3. marmande
All had foliage affected, and some of the marmande and tigerella fruit, but the san marzano fruit have been fine. "Pruned" as hard as I dare the affected leaves and have now had 3 applications of Dithane, each 2 weeks apart. Still getting affected foliage appearing, but the yields are unaffected. New growth seems very healthy now.
In my temporary plastic greenhouse, the same varieties were much less affected, and treated in the same way. I had thoght that it was less well ventilated, but I think the lack of a proper floor and thus nothing to secure the flapping bits of plastic to has been a help!
On the allotment:
1. Gardeners delight- some fruit survived o.k. but most rotted as well as the foilage and stems.
Similar for the Marmandes.
tried dithane-no help!
Granny
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Outdoor tomatoes:

Gardeners Delight - all removed and burnt
Ailsa Craig - all removed and burnt
Tigerella - all removed and burnt
Marmande - all removed and burnt

Ferline - foliage affected and removed bit by bit. New growth after the damp weather seems to be unaffected so far. One or two tomatoes on each of 12 plants showed signs of blight so were removed. All the rest have been fine. Not many ripened yet but that's been discussed on another thread.

Greenhouse tomatoes:

Tigerella
Gardeners Delight
Jelly Bean
Black Cherry
Big Boy
Jersey Devil

All showed signs of blight on foliage which was then removed and burnt. A few fruits on all plants showed signs of blight early on and these were removed. Since then there have been no more affected fruit but I've been removing foliage on a regular basis as neceessary.

Tumbling Tom in pots on the patio and about 100 metres from the veg patch showed no signs of blight at all. Don't know if that's relevant

No spraying.

Very impressed with Ferline.
----------------
Granny
madasafish
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Greenhouse
Sungold
moneymaker
Gardeners Deight.
No Spraying
No blight

Pretty lousy crops

Outside.
Sub Artcic Plenty
No spraying.
No blight
Lousy crops
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