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Old January 11, 2019   #1
LDiane
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Default Dwarf Project releases and Late Blight?

Are any of the released Dwarfs resistant to Late Blight?

I have just read the descriptions of all of the ones being sold by Victory Seeds, and found a mention of disease resistance in only the following ones, though no disease is named:

'Dwarf Kelly Green' also seems to be quite disease tolerant
'Dwarf Sweet Sue' seems to be quite disease tolerant
Summer Sunrise' plants seem to be quite disease tolerant
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Old January 11, 2019   #2
carolyn137
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Originally Posted by LDiane View Post
Are any of the released Dwarfs resistant to Late Blight?

I have just read the descriptions of all of the ones being sold by Victory Seeds, and found a mention of disease resistance in only the following ones, though no disease is named:

'Dwarf Kelly Green' also seems to be quite disease tolerant
'Dwarf Sweet Sue' seems to be quite disease tolerant
Summer Sunrise' plants seem to be quite disease tolerant
Mike at Victory seeds trials all varieties before he even lists them for sale.

So when he lists quite disease tolerant , no such thing as resistance,it seems to me that Mike is referring only to the year he trialed a specific variety.

Commercial seed sites such as Mike's,save LOTS of seeds of any variety the first time grown so they have several years worth of seeds available and store those seeds under conditions where they will lose the least viability.

Carolyn
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Old January 14, 2019   #3
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The Dwarf Tomato Project really had to focus on what we could with our resources and process - very flexible. We focused on appearance and flavor first and foremost....any work on breeding in any disease tolerances was well beyond our capability.

As far as each release, I would expect that they would reflect the characteristics of the parents used in the crosses. With 106 releases, and having grown a LOT of them (as well as many in the development), it is so hard to judge disease tolerance, because each season varies widely, presence of diseases vary widely.

A next step that is beyond our project, but would be useful going forward, would be to take some of the best and most interesting ones and start working on crosses to breed in some disease tolerance. That is some really hard work to do, though, without lots of people, lots of land, funding, etc
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Old January 15, 2019   #4
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Now, maybe we wouldn't need lots of land. Just a small lab with CRISPR to plug in a couple of resistant genes.
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Old April 27, 2019   #5
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I get what you are saying Carolyn and Craig but it would be interesting if the various people who have now grown these many varieties were to comment on whether any of their various dwarves had survived a wave of disease that 'took out' other plants. That way, there would be a starting point for testing which ones may already have some built in disease resistence. Just a thought!

Pete ��
PS: I have a good little bunch of dwarves started for this year's garden (amongst so non-dwarf varieties) and am happily looking forward to see the fruits at summer's end. ��
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Old April 29, 2019   #6
JosephineRose
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95% of the Dwarf Tomato Project varieties I have grown fell to disease, most before I ever had a crop. I have been experimenting with them for four seasons, and each year they are the first to go down, while others produce volumes.



I have only ever brought three varieties to harvest: Dwarf Purple Heart (small harvest under heavy disease pressure once in three years), Loxton Lad (good harvest, practically all at once) and Uluru Ochre (overwintered and produced a second year).



Uluru Ochre is absolutely my favorite DTP variety and the only one I will grow again. I have moved on the trying older Dwarf varieties instead, and have had better results with Russian Dwarf plants in general.



I loved this project and was thrilled to try these plants but have had too much failure to keep with it. One only gets so many tomato seasons.


BTW, I have been growing in containers since 2016 (after first trying in ground) and after the first year brought in completely new soil each time to try and avert the problem, to no avail. In ground, in Earthboxes, fresh soil, reused soil, solarized soil - same results.

Last edited by JosephineRose; April 29, 2019 at 01:34 PM.
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Old April 29, 2019   #7
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Very good information, JosephineRose - thanks for sharing. There is certainly wide arrays of experience depending upon variety and location. In Raleigh, lots of my seedling customers have gone almost exclusively to the dwarfs, away from indeterminates. Others are having issues with some of them, but they also have issues with indeterminate varieties.

There are simply so many variables. What diseases are you finding impacting the plants?

Backing up, to LDiane's original post, as to Late Blight protection (tolerance or resistance), I think it is fair to say that any dwarf will likely mirror the disease tolerance of its "family" - the impact of both the male and female components, though there is likely to be variability in releases from each family. What complicates this is that little is quantitatively known about specific disease tolerances for non-hybrid tomato varieties in general, and much of it is anecdotal. It also depends upon specific, accurate assessment of the diseases in a given garden.

I think that hot conditions, humid conditions, presence of high populations of spores for alternaria and septoria (those are the diseases that impact me the most), spacing all are significant factors for success or failure. Most of the dwarf varieties are very densely foliaged, and often disease takes hold in the center of the plants, or the rear, away from the sun.

Some well manged inner foliage pruning could be very helpful in minimizing or slowing the spread of the fungal foliage diseases.

I find weather is really impacting success for me in Raleigh as well - last year, tomatoes planted on May 1 did very well, those planted on June 1 did very poorly, with weather (heat, rain, humidity) clearly impacting the later planted specimens.

Clearly, like with all tomato varieties, there is going to be wide variation in how particular varieties do for each of you, and variability season to season is almost guaranteed. Makes it a continual challenge, but also continually worthwhile....we gardeners are optimists, if nothing else!
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Old May 11, 2019   #8
oakley
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If I have another indeterminate failure this year I may just grow all dwarf next season.

In my climate, damp/hot/humid and often cool nights, I'm finding the dwarf solid stems,
compact overall stature very tolerant of the issues I've been having. I can start seeding early
so they have good solid growth without going leggy. They seem pretty happy in small 4inch
pots for some time. They can handle a dilute copper spray and/or stylet-oil without harm,...
where the more tender stems/leaves of an indeterminate suffer.

Dwarf plants need less babying. Practically self-pruning. Can handle strong Spring storms.
I've been dancing trays of indeterminates the past month in and out of protection...where the
dwarfs have been solidly stoic in all weather without harm.

Just today starting to tie these to the railing. I lost a couple more IND seedlings to a sudden
storm and these are fine. I've not needed to water at all yet. My IND's can't go in the garden beds
yet being so wet sensitive. Even in raised beds with good drainage.

I'm just adding 'weather tolerant' to my list of dwarf advantages. In the past couple years three
dozen dwarf plants were just back-up plants...but now are becoming my main crop giving
plenty of all season fruit. Sure I get less quantity of fruit per plant but at least I have a crop.
Last season my 75+ garden toms went down fast in the heat/hailstorms/disease. Half I had to pull
early...
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