Blight resistant tomato experiences

[ChocolateMouse]

Hello! I have recently had a problem with blight spotting my san marzano paste tomatoes to death. I presume it's a combo of early and late blight. I live in an extremely wet climate. We get near-rainforest levels of precipitation each year and my area in particular is former swampland... So you can imagine that fungi levels are excessive. They have been especially so the last 2 years.
We have three beds in immediate succession. One is 2'x25', and the next two are 3'x25'. We also have a 3'x15' bed, a 4'x8' bed and a 4'x12' bed, all with at least a 3' gap between the beds and any other beds. One of them is particularly isolated. The 3 consecutive 25' beds have the nicest soil, followed by the 4x8. Our soil is heavy red clay about 6" down. The beds all have a mix of shade to sun because of trees. The 2x25' bed is against a south-facing fence wall and has trellises attached to it.

We mostly grow lots of food to eat and preserve, so we grow a ton of tomatoes to can. Normally I do things super organic and use only open pollinated varieties of plants. I love the San Marzano because we mostly eat tomatoes in sauces and salsas and we like to can a bunch of it.

But this year, with all the fungus issues, I'm thinking of diving into some resistant hybrids and other varieties.

The first variety is Plum Regal. I really like indeterminate tomatoes but this was the only paste tomato I could find with serious blight resistances.
The second variety is Iron lady. This isn't a paste tomato, but it IS indeterminate which is a trait I like. I usually have my tomatoes staked to 8' poles for growing.
I'm also considering Mountain Magic, even though we mostly can tomatoes, because it says it's very prolific. I'm hoping for quantity over size with that one.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these or any other blight resistant varieties? At some point I might be coming back to this thread and documenting my own experiences with blight-resistant varieties, especially if I don't get much info.

Looking forward to learning!

 

[SueT]

I don't remember which resistant varieties I bought, but it solved the problem. I had all my tomatoes suffer from blight 3 years ago. I have not since I started choosing blight resistant. I choose the ones with the most of these on the label but specifically the first 4:
( info from tomatodirt.com)
V Verticillium Wilt
F Fusarium Wilt
FF Fusarium, races 1 and 2
FFF Fusarium, races 1, 2, and 3
N Nematodes
A Alternaria
T Tobacco Mosaic Virus
St Stemphylium (Gray Leaf Spot)
TSWV Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

What do each of these codes really mean?
“V” means the plant is resistant to the fungi that cause verticillium wilt, Verticillium albo-atrum and Verticillium dahliae. The fungi work their way up through the plant’s roots, clogging water-conducting tissue in the stem. They spreads a toxin that wilts leaves and prevents water from reaching branches and leaves, starving the plant. Yellow spots appear on lower leaves, followed by brown veins. Leaves then turn brown and fall off. Infection pattern often resembles a V-shape.

"F," "FF," or “FFF” means the plant is resistant to Fusarium oxysporum fungi that cause fusarium wilt. First signs are yellowing and wilting on one side of the plant – a leaf, single shoot, branch, or several branches. Yellowing and wilting move up the plant as the fungus spreads, clogging water-conducting tissue in the stem and affectively starving the plant. Left unchecked, fusarium wilt can kill tomato plants well before harvest time. Unfortunately, some fusarium fungi have overcome the initial “F” resistance attributes in designated tomatoes. Today, newer cultivars have been bred to be resistant to secondary fusarium strains – hence the “FF” and “FFF” designations.

"N" means the plant is resistant to nematodes, parasitic round worms that often lie dormant in the soil. Nematodes can produce root galls on the plant up to an inch wide. Affected plants are weak, stunted, do not respond to fertilizer, and tend to wilt.

"A" means the plant is resistant to the Alternaria alternata fungus that causes Alternaria stem canker. Brown or black cankers attack tomato stems, leaves, and fruit, often accompanied by streaks. Left unchecked, cankers can spread across the entire plant and kill it before harvest.

"T" means that the plant is resistant to the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), which causes mottling and yellowing in tomato leaves, reduced tomato size and yield, and brown fruit.

"St" means the plant is resistant to Stemphylium or gray leaf spot, caused by the Stemphylium solani fungus. Affected plants develop brown to black spots, which progressively get bigger, turn gray, and drop out – leaving holes.

"TSWV" means plants are resistant to the Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. Symptoms vary from plant to plant, but can include yellow and brown rings on stems, brown streaks on p stems, dead leaf spots and tips, and severely stunted growth. Fruit may be discolored at maturity.

 

[Trish1974]

I have virtually eliminated blight problems by controlling exposed soil underneath my tomato plants. Blight starts from the ground up. Rain hits the ground and splashes the spores up onto lower parts of the plants and spreads upward. The first year I planted tomatoes at my new property I lost all my plants (6 different varieties) to early blight just as they were entering their prime. I had bare soil under the plants. I did some research and learned covering the soil to prevent splashing rain from hitting the bottom parts of the plants was key.
I now use red tomato film mulch as a carpet under my tomato plants. I put landscaping fabric between the rows. In addition, I prune the bottom parts of my plants to where they are almost tree-like, having a bare trunk towards the bottom 6-8"....completely leaf-free. As a further preventative measure I use a copper-based fungicide on the trunk, and up the plant making sure to spray the bottom sides of leaves too which is how the disease travels.

These pictures were taken the year before I started pruning the bottoms. You can see how no soil is exposed (except the little spot in the bottom right hand side of the second picture where the landscaping fabric pulled away) anywhere near the plants. I also utilize the Florida weave method of holding my plants up and zig zag my rows for optimal air flow. This was a learning process over a 2-3 year period. Last year I did NOT have any blight at all! Keeping diseased soil from splashing on to the plant is key!

I too plant San Marzano. My only beef with the San Marzanos is they tend to blossom-end rot before any other variety. I plant many varieties of both slicers and canners and have not had a problem with any of them blighting since incorporating these methods.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Well, I'm absolutely not putting giant sheets of plastic all over my garden. XD I really hate those. I understand the benefits but they feel/look terrible and that's such a waste of plastic IMO. They're even hard to recycle! I would find it so very miserable and defeated trying to throw them out later as they gather tears and crack, I just could never do that.

I do prune judiciously, but in such a wet climate there's only so much one can do. I kept my plants naked their entire bottom 1' last year after they got a little taller and they still all died off in late summer.

Sue, the three varieties I listed all have inbred blight resistance, like you mention. In fact, they're famous for it. Unfortunately, there's not an indeterminate paste tomato with good blight resistance! Especially not an open pollinated one. In the future I'd like to be able to go back to OP paste tomatoes where I can save the seeds each year. So I am hoping trying these out with my extremely blightey garden beds will help!

 

[Al Capon]

I'm trying Rugged Boy this year as it's supposed to be resistant to LB and T, 2 things that seem to get me every year. And I'm going determinate this year with staggered planting. In the past, disease and heat usually get my plants by the end of August anyway, so doesn't really matter if they're Ind or Det.

 

[Relleoms]

You may be able to grow in pots to keep the plants off the ground.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Unfortunately, not in the quantities that I'd like. I grow to eat and can in large numbers. Last year I had dozens of plants. BUT it might be worth considering doing that for just one year to test varieties or cut back on blight spread with an artificial rotation.

Guess I'll throw a lil more info about my beds in the OP.

 

[R2elk]

Unfortunately, there's not an indeterminate paste tomato with good blight resistance!

Have you tried Gladiator? It is an indeterminate Roma that has done well for me. It is a hybrid and is not open pollinated.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Have you tried Gladiator? It is an indeterminate Roma that has done well for me. It is a hybrid and is not open pollinated.

I have not! I have been growing San Marzano almost exclusively for years. I might try that one this year too!

 

[rjohns39]

I'm in the same boat. When I grew tomatoes and peppers in VA, I had beautiful plants that produced great until the first hard freeze, which was generally Jan/Feb. Here in TN I lose my plants by Mid to Late August. My local extension agent told me that indeterminate plants (which I prefer) aren't resistant to the issues we have here in TN. R2, I'm going to try the Gladiator, any suggestions for a nice big red slicer and an early fruiter? I typically plant 12 tomatoes. 3 big beef, 2 early girls (I'll root a couple suckers from the beefs and add them to replace the early girls when they putter out), 6 Roma and one cherry.