Robeson woes....

[heirloomdaddy]

This is my first year growing Paul Robeson although I've eaten the fruits before and they are very good. This year I started 2 plants, each grown in different zones, and they were the first two plants to get sick. They started-off looking fantastic but one is already a goner and this one seems like it's on it's way out....it's been struggling for months. Everything including this plant got hit with powdery mildew a while back but everything has responded to serenade and daconil. Also, the ripe tomatoes are not very dark...much lighter than my trifeles and bc's. Can stress or illness make a dark tomato lighter? I would imagine so. It hasn't been particularly hot here either.

I photographed a nearly ripe specimen next to a sweet 100 for color reference. It's lighter but has a bit more brownish-orange going on. The taste of the first two fruits, harvested after the plant started looking pretty sorry, was very bold and tomatoey, but not sweet and rich as expected. Very earthy, but too assertive for my liking...almost as if the sugars didn't develop properly. Attached are photos of the foliage, fruit, and juice which is seems strangely pink to my eye...not much green gel to be found. Please chime in with any diagnoses.

#1- leaf from bottom of plant

#2- middle

#3- new growth- coming out "sick" (i believe the whitish solid is dry daconil....super gloopy from the diluted ready-to-spray bottle)

#4 fruit + sweet 100

#5 splotchy ripenening and very light juice- indicative of any paricular disease?

thanks guys.

[rnewste]

Well,

It would appear in the first photo that you've got some pests roaming on the right side of the leaf. Did you spray with any insecticide? I'm up in the Bay area and we've been hit really hard this Season with Psyllids, which do similar leaf damage.

Raybo

[heirloomdaddy]

WOW!

I can't believe that I didn't see that! Thanks Ray.

I've got a spinosad spray..will that do the trick??

[b54red]

I grew three Paul Robesons last year and only one did well but it did very well. Some of the ones that ripened in late August were very dark and the ones that ripened early in the summer had more of a bronze, brown look. I never had any that looked that red. Are you sure that is Paul Robeson?

[heirloomdaddy]

According to Tomatofest it is a PR...but they hosed me on Opalka so it's definitely feasible. Doesn't look or taste like a black to me. But it does have the PR shape and green shoulders...not sure what's up here

[rnewste]

I would give Spinosad a try. For the Psyllids, I had to move it up to Permethrin to kill them, as Sevin had no effect - - but I did that as an experiment to see if it would kill them, and trashed all of the fruit, as I did not want to take a chance on ingesting this insecticide. Hopefully, the insects you have are not as tough as Psyllids.

Raybo

[DeanRIowa]

Sorry, but I grow Paul Robeson tomatoes every year and I have never seen one even close to that color. I would say with 100% certainly that is not 100% Paul Robeson, IMO. The size appears about right though.

Dean