BTW, I've lost about half of my NARs for the past three years to disease. Have other people noticed that NAR is more susceptible to diseases than other varieties?

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/

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

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.

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'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

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 24” 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 don’t think it’s 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 it’s basically a goner.