I'm growing NAR for the first time and so far so good. I planted it in the garden vs a container and there are no issues yet. It was slow to flower and form fruit but now it's doing well. It does look Like some kind of canker or wilt. Keep us posted. I'm sure Dave or Caroline will have an answer

I'm the one who introduced NAR in 2003 and I've followed it through the years at the various message sites where I've participated as well as listings for it in the SSE Yearbooks/

Almost everyone praises the vigor of the plant, the yield and the taste, and I've not heard anyone complain about it being more susceptible to diseases,whether foliar or systemic.

Now I'm not praising it b'c I introduced it for I've introduced many 100's of varieties over the years, and many I didn't like at all.

If you've lost your NAR's to disease I would ask where you got the seeds from b'c they might not have been processed correctly and the seeds may have a seedborne disease, which would only be true if ALL of your other varities were OK.

I see no lesions on the leaves in your pictures which leads me to think that it might be a systemic disease, possiblyFusarium,possibly Verticillium, but is not Bacterial Canker. If there are spots on the leaves that I missed, then there are more possibilities related to specific foliage diseases,several of which sometimes do have black lesions on the stems.

But I'd appreaciate it if you could tell me more about how your friend is growing them, inground,container,etc,and what the source of his seeds was,by trade,purchased commercially,etc.

Same for you,and did you also see black streaks on yours and damaged foliage as your friend did.

Carolyn, who lived in Denver for about 10 years, 1629 Locust, one street down from the 17th Ave Pkwy and one over from Monaco.but moved back east in1982/

Here is a link that might be useful: NAR

Hi Carolyn, I'm one of the people praising NAR's taste. Two years ago, although my one NAR struggled to produce, the few tomatoes that I did get were some of the best I've ever tasted. So last year, I started a whole bunch and gave them out to all my friends. I didn't follow up with most of them to see how they fared, although I did get positive feedback regarding size and taste from a couple of people. As for my own garden, my first NAR had a problem (I can't remember what it was), so I pulled it and replaced it with my backup, which died of a disease (early blight?) before it could produce. I planted another one in a neighbor's back yard that did survive, although the few tomatoes that it produced barely ripened before the first frosts hit. I saved seeds from that plant, which I gave to my friend mentioned in the original post. So I'm the one to blame if those seeds weren't processed correctly. I'll ask him for the details about how he's growing his plant.

BTW, my original seeds came from TGS. I hate to point the finger at them, since it could very well be bad luck on my part, or bad cultural practices, such as planting tomatoes in the same raised bed year after year. I'm encouraged to hear that other people have had great success with NAR. I'll keep trying! Knock on wood, my one NAR is doing well so far this year.

-Mark

Looking at the last picture, I see a badly damaged stem. At one place as if a branch has been broken off , leaving a big wound/scar . Also I can see other damage marks, as if it has been chewed , bitten by something.
The bottom line, IMO, it that the main branch cannot support its upper branches and they are dying.

It is possible that all of that has been caused by some kind of disease in the first place but whatever it it the damage does not seem to be irreversible at this point.

I just finished taking down my Paul Robeson that showed the same symptoms. The last picture of the stem shown here mirrors what mine looked like. I did examine the stem and found a brown ring encircling the inside area.. It appears to be Fusarium Wilt from what I've been told here . All of my other plants are doing quite well including the one (Homer Fike's) that was right next to it. I guess I can attribute the disease to a seed issue as Carolyn mentioned above.

If NAR is said to go down with any of the common foliage pathogens, Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot being fungal, and Bacterial Speck and Spot being the two bacterial ones, that's not specific to NAR since almost ANY variety can be infected by those, especially the fungal ones. All of those are spread by wind and embedded in raindrops as a means of transmission.

And all NEW infections are acquired as I said in the above paragraph.But if plants in a previous year , or so, have had any of those infections, and spores,bacteria, fall to the ground, then the next year or so,splashback infection can happen where rain or irrigation can allow for those to splashback on theplant. And in that case first symptoms are on the lower foliage as opposed to new infections which are usually seen on the top foliage.

TGS does not process their own seeds and I've known Linda Sapp who has run the company since her husband Vince died several years ago, since about 1990.

She subcontracts out for OP seed production but gets her hybrid seed directly from the various companies that either bred the varieties, or those commercial places that offer same. If any seed she gets turns out to have any specific problems ,lowgermination,disease,etc,she would know about it ,especially since she sells seeds in bulk amounts to large scale commercial growers and they would no doubt be the first ones to contact her.

I send seeds for trial to many places each year, TGS being one of them, and many that I sent to Linda have been and are listed. And I'm sure that it was I who sent her the initial seeds for NAR>

It still looks to me like a systemic disease as I mentioned above,
and if growning inground that raises the possibility that some of the systemic diseases were already there or imported by buying infected plants, or seeds that still had some spores adhering to the seed coat that were not removed by fermentation. The bacterial ones are found in the endosperm of the seed so no common method other than hot water treatment can help with that, and don't try the hot water method at home. ( Simile)

Isn't growing tomatoes sometimes fun,fun, fun.LOL

Carolyn

I just wanted to note that if it is a systemic disease it wouldn't be Root Knot nematodes or Fusarium, since both of those are not a problem in areas where the ground freezes deeply each winter as it does in CO. unless of course there's a heavy snow cover which insulates the ground temps

I'd possibly vote for Verticillium, with most of the time leaves wilting on just one side of a plant and can and does overwinter.

Carolyn

FWIW, here's the feedback from my friend on his gardening methods.

My gardens are raised planting beds, amended soil every year, tomatoes never planted in the same bed 2 years in a row. Plants are pretty close together, about 24â apart. This is the only plant that is having issues. All other plants are 100% healthy, planted the same way, and have an identical, automated watering schedule.

I donâÂÂt think itâÂÂs an issue of a damaged stem. That happened as I was planting when I pinched off the lowest branches and the plant has grown just fine for weeks. The brown spots on the stem now go down to the ground. The whole plant has a yellow-grey hue now, and itâÂÂs basically a goner.