New blight resistant toms??

[Jeannine]

There seems to be several  NEW ones appearing in seed catalogues over here  this yearand am curious if the trend is also showing up in the UK.

Tempted to buy the lot  and do a trial.


XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

[grannyjanny]

Is koralik one of them Jeannine. If it is I've got them so don't buy.

[saddad]

I'm fairly certain that, like potatoes, blight resistant tomatoes soon sucuumb. After a few years either the blight finds a way in or the plants kloose their "vigour"....  :-\

[Jayb]

I've read good reports on new blight resistant toms over your way. Those varieties haven't filtered through yet.

Although there have been a couple around for a few years, I've not tried them, from what I've read flavour is not great. But Thompson and Morgan are promoting a new bush cherry Losetto, no mention of F1? But its pricey at £3.49 for 6 seeds! Almost tempted :o

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/tomato-seeds/tomato-losetto/4895TM

[grannyjanny]

Thompson & Morgan have extended their free postage to midnight tonight ::). Could be tempted now ;D.

[chriscross1966]

I'll be trying Ferline outdoors this year, though with both a polytunnel and a GH (hopefully sorted soon) I should have plenty indoors too....

[goodlife]

I've grown Ferline several years now outdoors..and it is only resistant against blight..meaning sooner or later it has always got it ::) Comparing to non-resistant varieties Ferline has been bit more improvement..normally you end up with some fruit when non-resistant barely yield nothing in a bad year.
And mine have been grown totally on open position or against wall but still without cover or protection.

[Chrispy]

I grew Ferline last year, and they are not very tasty.

I will try them again this year, just as an experiment.

Last year I grew a few variates outside, and the Ferline got blight about 2 weeks after the rest, but they were grown quite close together so I think the infected ones passed on the blight.
So this year I will do the same but plant the Ferline a good distance away and upwind from the rest of them and see what difference that makes.

[Jeannine]

Silly me, I just noticed I didn't write the names..

Johnny's have one that they seem  very confident about, it is their own and called Defiant PHR.

Description is ...................Protect against light blight

Bred for both resistance and taste. Has high resistance to late blight and intermediate resistance to early blight. High yeilding, great taste,Deep red internal and external colour,It has been traditionally bred to inherit the Ph-2 qand Ph-e major genes for late blight resistance.Determinate.Exclusive to Johnnys.

SEEDS ARE 20 FOR 4.95 AND 100 FOR 21.50.

Others over here are..

Mountain Magic also new and claiming late blight resistance and excellent flavour.INDET.

Red Pearl has intermediate resistance in grape fruit.


I suspect I wll send for the first two and am happy to buy larger siz to share if anyone wants them.

Usually I don't bother as I have never had blight before, but here in the spot I am in now it is truly terrible so I am very tempted, especially by the first one.

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

We definately don't have those varieties here to try..and never heard here blight being separated for early and late cases..in theory yes.. ::) but normally if it hits it's blight, full stop ;D I think our seed suppliers should envy the descriptions you get on your packets over there.
We seem to get blight 'hitting' our tomatos now every year with out fail...it was bit 'lighter' year last summer but generally I don't tend to get much unless grown in Greenhouse.
I'm looking forward hearing what your experience is after trialing them...
Ferline is not that bad taste wise..but there is room for improvement..

[Unwashed]

Jeannine, are the new varieties genetically modified?  I know they're doing it with potatoes so I'm guessing it's happening with toms too.  How does GM go down in Canada?

[rugbypost]

Reading all the comment on tomatoes grown  last year a lot of us seem to have had  trouble with blight. I am going to grow in hanging baskets this year, my wife bought me a packet from Aldi,s last week no name just says prolific crop. Son,s orders he likes a fry up on the weekend, his wife plays hell with him about all the grease. (HA)

[Jeannine]

Hi Unwashed. It goes down like a spoon ful of hot manure!!

Very much against it.

Almost all of the seed growers sign a pledge to not sell GM seeds, Johnny's is dead agaist it. Frankly I would be greatly amazed to find any seed seller doing so it is such a no no over here . I would have no worries on the home gardening front. I can't answer fot the big commercial ones though that deal with the farms only, but I doubt it for tomatoes.

To the best of my knowledge there was a genetic tom released in the shops several years ago, it said so right on the label, it died a quick death.It was US nit here but the info is on the web.

Hope this helps.

XX Jeannine

[BAK]

I am a smidge cynical about blight resistance claims ... but happy to be proven wrong.

I assume that adverts are really talking about degrees of resistance, as opposed to total resistance?

I tried Fantasio from Suttons several years ago - touted as being blight resistant ... it got the blight. I see that the marketing speak now says "good" blight resistance.

I tried it again the following year and it struggled a bit even though I sprayed it with a copper fungicide. Tamina has been the best variety for me at combating blight (although I do spray it) even though it is not advertised as being resistant at all?!?!

[Jeannine]

Bear in mind they are only claiming degrees of resistance.. high.. intermediate etc,which means they can fight it, they are not claiming tolerance  which means the plant could live with it.this would be a whole new ball game.There is currently no blight tolerant tomato on the market.

XX Jeannine

[Robert_Brenchley]

Some other tomato species are blight resistant, but there's been a problem persuading crosses to produce anything larger than a cherry tom without losing the resistance. What size fruit do these produce?

[Jayb]

I had a horrible dodgy year with blight last season.
I'd be interested in and happy to share costs;
I've read good reports for Mountain Magic and that one would interest me
Defiant PHR, again sounds interesting and certainly worth a trial.

[Jeannine]

Not cherries, these are mid sized toms.

I am going to order the Defiant and Mountain Magic. then add these to other "older" resistant ones and find a spot to do a wee trial.

From the bits and pieces I have read it would appear that the claims for Defiant warrant  giving it a go.

My thought is even if the resistance gave an extra two or three weeks in could be a big help.

XX Jeannine

[Vinlander]

I grew Ferline last year, and they are not very tasty.

I've been given Ferline to try and I grew Koralik last year because the seeds were a free offer.

Neither has any flavour - as to where they come between tasteless Dutch tomatoes and a glass of water and I'd have to say about halfway.

Utterly pointless! The 'lychee tomato' actually tastes better and so does the ground cherry (though not as much like a tomato) - both have total species resistance to blight.

I always hedge my bets by growing both (in case of a really bad year) and keep a few decent Gardeners Delight and Green Tiger under an open-ended cover (in case of a middling bad year) and a load outside (in case of a good year).

In general I find anything that has been bred to do one thing does that and nothing else - the baby (the flavour genes) goes out with the bathwater.

Somebody may get lucky on the genetic lottery in 20 years or so but it won't be the big companies - they are too blinkered by yield obsession to produce anything worthwhile.

Cheers.

[Tonythegardener]

I think that I will stick with Gardener's Delight and grow them in the greenhouse where they rarely get blight.