Disease resistant tomatoes for 2013
 

This new hybrid is showing up a few places this year.

[url]http://www.highmowingseeds.com/Organic-Iron-Lady-F1-Hybrid-Tomato-Seeds.html[/url]

DarJones

That looks very interesting, too bad they are back ordered, I need to be planting seeds around Christmas. Not like I dont already have enough to grow...:cute:

If it tastes as bad as most of the super disease resistant tomatoes then I would rather do without. I'll wait for a bit and see if they are any good for fresh eating and if they actually withstand diseases as well as they are saying.

Since I fight a constant battle with fusarium wilt I went ahead and ordered Tasti-Lee seed because they are supposed to be tolerant of all 3 races of fusarium. I heard they were fairly decent tasting so I thought I would give them a try. So far the variety of tomato that has been most tolerant of fusarium has consistently been Big Beef. I have tried a lot of other so called tolerant varieties and they were either not very tolerant or were so inedible that it didn't matter. Some, but not many, of the heirloom varieties show more tolerance to fusarium than a lot of the hybrids.

I'm with you on this one rb54red. Big Beef Hyb is far above any other variety for disease resistance and flavor. My second best is Bella Rosa. Planted both of them in the same area and had a hard time telling the difference excpt Bella is a shorter plant.

I have only been able to have one good plant from Bella Rosa because of my fusarium problem. It is listed as having resistance to two races of fusarium the same as Big Beef but it is far more susceptible to it than BB. The one plant I did get to grow to full size made like crazy and was loaded with bigger fruit than Big Beef.

Have you tried grafting to resistant rootstock?

[QUOTE=b54red;312602]I have only been able to have one good plant from Bella Rosa because of my fusarium problem. It is listed as having resistance to two races of fusarium the same as Big Beef but it is far more susceptible to it than BB. The one plant I did get to grow to full size made like crazy and was loaded with bigger fruit than Big Beef.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=ChrisK;312612]Have you tried grafting to resistant rootstock?[/QUOTE]

I am thinking about doing it this year with seed from a tomato that I have been growing out for two years now. It is not stable but last year showed no signs of fusarium and was very vigorous and productive. This year the plant I set out from the seed is still making tomatoes after being set out on March 8. Every tomato set out in the same bed died by late June from fusarium while this thing just kept growing and putting out small fruit. I have probably picked several hundred tomatoes from golf ball to tennis ball size from it this year. It got burned fairly bad by the 27 degree weather the other day but still has around 75 or so tomatoes on it and if weather permits many of them will get to ripen. If the plant can survive another week it will have been growing for 10 months so I guess it has a bit of fusarium resistance. Far more than any hybrid I have tried and it would appear more than the seed sold for root stock.

The big drawback will be my arthritis which may make it impossible for me to make the cuts and put the stems together without ruining them. I have a lot of varieties that I would like to experiment with and see if I could get more than a couple of fruits from before they die from fusarium. As a matter of fact some of my favorite eating tomatoes are very prone to a quick demise from this plague. I have done extensive experimenting with using bleach to sterilize the plant site and it is very effective with bacterial wilt but only seems to give me an extra week or two with fusarium. Looks like I'll just have to try the grafting.

I recommend Tropic VFT. It is not a hybrid. Anahu also seems to be very disease resistant.

[QUOTE=tomatoguy;313410]I recommend Tropic VFT. It is not a hybrid. Anahu also seems to be very disease resistant.[/QUOTE]

Tropic doesn't seem to be fusarium resistant enough for my garden and I haven't tried Anahu. I tried Tropic for a couple of seasons but it did poorly.

[QUOTE=Fusion_power;312266]This new hybrid is showing up a few places this year.

[URL]http://www.highmowingseeds.com/Organic-Iron-Lady-F1-Hybrid-Tomato-Seeds.html[/URL]

DarJones[/QUOTE]

Daryl,

High Mowing Seeds is only 10 miles from me in Wolcott. That said, any seed company blurb that says "good tomato flavor" means it has supermarket flavor.:?!?:

Still, if people still want to try it there are many other seed sources.

High Mowing apparently has them in stock again.

Linda, I should plant my seeds this month?

Deborah - The normal seeding time is 6-8 weeks before your last frost date. We have a very long growing season and since you have the May Grey and June Gloom you can certainly sow seed later. I have foothills between me and the coast which you do not so you get a lot more of the coastal influence.

You just want to make sure you get the plants planted out in time to set tomatoes before the high heat we get sometimes in July but nearly always by August. A lot of people I know up here like to plant out in April to early May.

I thought maybe my best bet is to put my plants out when they're about a foot tall, on July 1, so I KNOW we're past the gray. What do you think? So for a foot tall, when would I start my seeds?

Off topic question: If 10 seeds cost $3.50, wouldn't 100 seeds cost no more than $35.00? The website has 100 listed at $65. Anyone know if this place is reputable? Maybe I don't understand how seeds are priced.