[b54red]

Over the last few years where I have spent a great deal of time and effort trying to lessen foliage diseases and problems with fungicides, support methods and pruning I have noticed a few varieties that usually give me more than the normal amount of trouble.

Dester: Probably the worst foliage of any plant I have ever grown. Very Early Blight prone and susceptible to other diseases. Plant when healthy looks almost sick with curling and drooping leaves. Fairly early in the season each year the plant has to have lots of leaves removed. Despite this it is a productive large tomato with great flavor.

JD's Special C Tex: Like most black tomatoes it has a problem with gray mold but unlike most of the others it is more prone to it and loses more leaves faster than the others most of the time. It is almost always the first tomato in my garden to get gray mold and the most severely affected. Despite that it is also probably my favorite black tomato for flavor and size.

Zogola: Not really prone to more foliage diseases but spider mites love them. When other plants have a few stems covered with spider mites Zogola seems to get them from top to bottom. It is a great heat setting tomato if you can keep the spider mites at bay and very productive.

Red Barn: One of my favorite large fruited varieties that can produce and set fruit in very hot weather. It makes a huge healthy looking plant but is more prone to Early Blight than most and the fruit is the worst to get sun scald of any variety I have grown despite heavy vegetation. If one of the tomatoes sticks out from the foliage just a bit where the hot sun can hit it for a few hours it will tend to scald at least down here where the sun is very intense.

These are not just one time occurrences but rather a pattern that I have seen over and over no matter where the plants are in the garden. I would like to know if anyone else has noticed any regular disease problems with certain varieties more so than most other varieties?

Bill