Quote:
Originally Posted by carolyn137
Since you're in a probably a zoine 5 area, I lose this post if I go back to check, I don't see how any of those that you listed will be of help to you in growing tomatoes there. No Fusarium, grey Leaf Mold, not common, no gene for BER and no documented indication that it's tolerant to Early Blight. Few varieties are so documented and not at a high level.
So, will it be Manalucie?
What specific tomato diseases do you have there? I doubt many systemic soil borne ones, which leaves the four major Foliage diseases, two fungal and two bacterial, and that doesn't include Late Blight ( P. infestans), which was a problem for many two years ago, but much less this past season as tracked by Cornell. And I sit in the middle of the LAte Blight area myself, or should I say my tomatoes do.  |
You are correct, a large portion of Ohio is in zone 5, but the southern most part is zone 6a (includes cincy). Manalucie interested me for two reasons: 1. heat tolerance to 90-95 degrees and the disease tolerance.
I was thinking of grafting 2 or 3 tomato plants using Manalucie as the root stock as an experiment this year (didn't want to pay for commercial root stock for just 2 or 3 plants). Last summer, I contacted Matt Kleinhenz at OSU about grafting, and he said most of the research to date has dealt with soil borne diseases and not heat tolerance (I had asked whether heat tolerance would carry over in a root stock).
As you point out, soil borne diseases aren't a major issue here. Early blight is my biggest problem (luckily I have never had late blight).
Based on the information you provided, and information I have gathered, I think I am coming to the conclusion that grafting has little to no value to me.
OSU recommends the active ingredient chlorothalonil (Ortho Max contains 29%) for early blight. I guess my time is better spent spraying my plants from the time I plant them until the first fruit set rather than spend it on grafting. This will get my plants off to a good start and keep them healthier throughout the entire year. I have never sprayed tomato plants before (I try to minimize the use of chemicals), but I doubt I would have to spray beyond the first fruit set (as early blight arrives here early in the season).