Sandy, would that there would be such lists, but no variety, hybrid or heirloom or non-heirloom OP, is tolerant ( not resistant) to the common foliage diseases of Early Blight ( A.solani), Septoria Leaf Spot, Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot. And it's the foliage diseases that are THE most common diseases of tomatoes.

Resistance implies to most folks total resistance , as in the plant will never get a specific disease, but 100% total resistance to any disease is not found.

I can only suggest that for the other diseases you take a look at places such as TGS and note which varieties have alphabetic notations after the variety name which indicate which tolerances have been bred into the variety.

There have been a couple of Early Blight tolerant varieties released, but they're of greater use to the large commercial farmer b'c as Dr. Randy Gardner shared with me, it just means that they need to be sprayed maybe every 6-7 days when they were sprayed more frequently than that, and that's a huge savings for the commercial farmer. But again, only a couple of those EB tolerant varieties are out there.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Thanks, Carolyn. Yes, your information helps. I knew about the resistant/tolerant problem but didn't realize that nobody wanted to list those that were at least somewhat tolerant. TGS does mention resistance to gray leaf spot & alternaria in a few (very few!) varieties. I guess I'll just have to scan the listings and make up my own list.

It's a wonder that nobody has developed a variety that does well when these diseases are present. I expect that someday GMOs will show up that are resistant. Not 100% sure I want them, though! LOL

Thanks again.
Sandy

Quote: There have been a couple of Early Blight tolerant varieties released, but they're of greater use to the large commercial farmer b'c as Dr. Randy Gardner shared with me, it just means that they need to be sprayed maybe every 6-7 days when they were sprayed more frequently than that, and that's a huge savings for the commercial farmer. "
Welcome me to the real world. Here I though that I was the only one with problems and started a spray program this year "More frequently?" How dang often were they spraying and with what?
Kenny, hoping he can keep them alive longer this year.

It's a wonder that nobody has developed a variety that does well when these diseases are present. I expect that someday GMOs will show up that are resistant. Not 100% sure I want them, though! LOL

*****

Sandy, it has nada to do with GMOs. What it's all about is the inability to ID and isolate the genes responsible for so many of the diseases.

Do you have any idea how long both Dr. Randy Gardner and Dr. Tom Zitter, both worldwide known tomato folks have been trying to develop varieties tolerant to Early Blight which is the most common foliage disease in the world?

So far nothing much except what I mentioned above re spray schedules..

So if a gene, or genes, responsible for imparting resistance/tolerance to a specific disease can't be IDed, you don't have to worry about anyone developing any GMO varieties.

There were two GMO varieties developed quite a few years back, one was Flvr Saver and I forget the other one, but neither one had to do with disease and both were complete failures.

I don't see GMO tomato varieties appearing any time soon when conventional breeding is probably still the best way to go once the relavant genes can be IDed. Just My opinion.

Carolyn

Check to see if your county or the state of Virginia has an Agricultural Extension Service. They would have a list of the tomatoes that grow well in your area and which are disease free or resistant.

Carolyn, that's interesting information. I don't know much about how resistance is developed nor much about genes, so you've taught me a lot in just a few sentences. I was sure somebody was working on it since it's such an economic problem throughout the world but was hoping more progress had been made than obviously has.

Orchid126, I'm a master gardener volunteer with the county extension so I have easy access to all of that information. Unfortunately the Virginia Tech literature only lists six varieties and most of their resistance is to fusarium and/or verticillium wilt. The only one listed as resistant to "leaf spots" is Big Beef.

Sigh... it was only a hope.

Sandy

orchid, Sorry, but the ag extension is clueless re which varieties to grow. Their recommendations are almost always 30 or more years out of date and often include hybrids that are no longer available.

DarJones

LOL DarJones, you're right. Our list is only 10 or so years out of date but imagine how many new varieties have come on the market in that time! That's why I'm asking here. With the wide audience this forum has, I figured somebody would have answers that I could at least research more easily. Laziness on my part? Probably. Since my garden spot has become home to at least one fungus now, I'll need to spend some time this winter researching and asking and generally making a pest of myself until I have exhausted the possibilities.

Sandy

What it's all about is the inability to ID and isolate the genes responsible for so many of the diseases.

****

I goofed.

That should have read.....is the inability to ID and isolate the gene(s) responsible for RESISTANCE/TOLERANCE to many diseases.

Carolyn, who is totally spaced out by the 6 hrs of constant T-storms yesterday as well as another 5 hours of same today, especially since her house was hit by lightning last June. It's been wet and cold for the past two months; this is NOT an auspicious start to what was to be a hopeful growing season since last summer was about the same. My poor tomato plants out there. Sigh.

If there are no tomatoes that are truly resistant/tolerant to things like alternaria or stemphylium, might the experts "splice" into the tomato a gene from some other plant (maybe another solenacious one) that is resistant and thereby give the tomato resistance, or at least tolerance? Surely they will eventually isolate these genes. (Just curious, but why are these particular genes so difficult to isolate? Not that I know much about this stuff but I enjoy learning.)

I'm sorry you've had such bad weather lately. My MIL always hid in bed with the covers over her head when it stormed. (She's an Alzheimer's patient now and doesn't seem to care much anymore.) There are storms just west of us right now that look like they might give us some rain. Our weather was stormy and rainy for most of May and early June but it's changed to drier and hotter in the last couple of weeks. More like our summer should be.

Sandy