In this year of fungus diseases for me the best (no disease symptoms) are Jet Star, Florida 91, Cherokee Purples (in containers), Granny Cantrell, Giant Pink Oxheart (excellent!!!), Arkansas Traveler, German Strawberry, Early Red Chief, Bloody Butcher, Rutgers, Bris, Champion, Better Boy and Brandy Boy.

Middle of the road with early blight symptoms but still ok to good production is NAR, Aussie, Watermelon, German Giant, Moreton (the new ones), Porter Imp., Giant Belgium, and several others I can't think of off hand. Raining now so I'll give you more names later.

Wiped out is all the Mexico, Boxcar Willie, and Paul Robeson and the Brandywines and Royal Hillbilly are on their way down the tubes. :(

San Marzanos and Aunt Lucy and Amish Paste all had some BER but it quit.

I have done no spraying this year except my usual compost tea sprays - no fungicides as far too much rain to make it worthwhile.

Dave

My two most tolerant have been Indian Stripe, which is just now losing a significant number of lower leaves to the various stressors, and my last minute throw in plant, an Old German. OG has a few yellow leaves, but is otherwise looking fabulous, just over 6 feet tall and has about a dozen fruit on it right now, with the first one seeming like it may blush any time now. Meanwhile, most everything else is toast, a few plants have one or two fruit left on them and one I.S. has 5-6 fruit left. To call O.G. late is a huge understatement. Still more shocking, it has set two fruit in the last couple of weeks and our temps have been consistently over 100 in the day, "cooling" down it the low 80s by about 7 a.m. with an uncomfortable level of humidity. I think I will let this O.G. stay and try to keep it gowing all summer, whereas fall plants are about ready to harden off an go in the rest of the garden. Hope it tastes good and if so, it might be the plant that helps me get from end of spring to beggining of fall plants!

A pretty good rule of thumb for me is that PL varieties do much better at resisting the various specs and spots leaf diseases than RL. Also a better job against Early Blight. For instance, KBX does way better than KB. There are anamolies. This year Earl's faux is my second worst leaf infected variety. (Jetstar is by far the worst this year.)

But my other PL's are hanging in there very well again this year compared to the RL's.

As far as the healthiest looking plants I've ever grown they would be the Mountain series. I guess that's why most commercial market grower farmers around here grow them. About as reliable as can be I suppose. I believe there was a new Mountain variety issued this past year? If anyone has info on it please post here! TIA

I grow organically. I spray nothing. I use proper spacing, soaker hoses, deep organic mulch and plenty of compost. I grow in strong cages and use only a little fish/kelp fertilizer mostly at seedling and transplant stage. Most years this works fine. I had a disease filled year last year though which was my first in 19 years. This year so far so good...

Thanks, guys! Your input is much appreciated.

I plan to keep a clipping of this thread to have a record of tomatoes that people say do and do not produce well for them this year in regard to all blight diseases. I don't see how things will improve next year, though I hope I'm wrong.

The more information, the better.

Like many others I have experienced lots of rain this spring, followed by cool weather, then dry as a bone for the last couple of weeks, so early blight has raised it's head big time.

I have two gardens 13 miles apart. One is troubled badly by blight (that one here in eastern Ohio located at lakeside), the other is blight free!!! (that one located in western PA).

Tomato plants in both were grown in the same greenhouse. I
drenched the roots of plants before setout with an Activia/molasses solution and also put a bit of epsom salts in each hole.

Here are the only differences in treatment of the two locations I can come up with:

1. The location with blight has been sprayed twice with
   Activia plus Daconil once and with Mancozeb the second time, and both times with potassium bicarbonate added as an adjunct. The location without blight has never needed spraying.
2. The location without blight was planted 10 days earlier than the location with blight. The earlier planting had to be covered several evenings to avoid harm from frosts.
3. At planting time I installed a controlled drip
   irrigation system on the earlier planted garden (which has
   NO BLIGHT!) The later planted garden depends on nature and
   my hose for water. The water is pumped from the lake when I need to water and I have done this so far only on two occasions. Both gardens are very fertile and both were fertilized with mushroom manure from the same source this spring. Both had some blight last year but it was controlled adequately with sprays.
4. The plants in the garden with drip irrigation are
   lush, deep green, and some are six foot tall with 3 to 4 leaders. Fruit set is moderate to very good.
5. Plants in the lakeside garden without irrigation
   are unusually varied in size and health. I will actually be taking out several which just didn't develop right and are stunted or badly infected with blight. The maximum height of any plant is about 4.5 feet with many far less.
   Color is less than dark green. Fruit set is surprisingly good!
6. Soil tests had showed I was a bit shy on phosphorous
   at the lake garden so I applied ground phosphate rock to it
   according to directions on the rock phosphate bag.

I'm thinking that the regular watering on a fixed schedule
from the drip irrigation system led to healthier early development of the plants, somehow resulting in better health than the ones at the other garden. However, contrary
to that thought is the fact that both gardens were nearly drowned by mother natures frequent rains and cold winds in late May and early June.

I'm also experiencing early blight at the lake garden on varieties that have been pretty "tolerant or resistant" in prior years. Coustralee is suffering badly, Dixie Golden Giant, Giant Belgian, Goldie and Ukranian Heart are infected. NAR, Muleteam, and Tefft's Old German are stunted but show no blight. All very puzzling.

Thought and suggestions would be appreciated.

Larry

For me individual conditions trump variety of plant. I have a dozen each Better Boy and SS100 in the ground and they represent both my healthiest and sickest plants. I can trace the results, good and bad, back to the handling of the seedlings. Some are in perfect health, have provided good yields, continue to do so, and have no yellowing at all. Some have died with almost no fruit set. I plan on recreating the treatment and conditions of the healthiest plants for the entire property next year. Basically, they were planted very young in deep horse poop (fully composted and aged).

3 Champions and a Porter's Dark Cherry are also very healthy and are being nursed through for fall harvests. Porter's Dark Cherry set fruit this week and it never got below 77 degrees while being between 105 and 111 every day. My hero. It is the only plant to set fruit lately.

Reasonable health and may make it to fall. Arkansas Traveler, Yellow Pear, Goliath Hybrid, Jet Star, Big Boy, Early Girl, Sungold.

The following were planted late (early to mid May) and have not set fruit, so I am trying to nurse them through the worst of it, all doing reasonably under shade cloth, signs of early blight here and there. Black Prince, Eva Purple Ball, Great White, Pruden's Purple, Moskvich, Japanese Black Trifele, Rose, Green Zebra, Brandywine and Yellow Brandywine.

Juliet, Park's Whopper, Wonder Light and Nepal have been duds.

Going to seed after decent yields, Celebrity, Ace, Husky Cherry, Red Beefsteak.

"What are the tomato varieties that you have experienced are the most tolerant of diseases?"

From the first year I grew Indian Stripe (2006) right through until the present 2009 crop, good ol' Indian Stripe has been the most disease and stress tolerant open pollinated variety I've grown.

In my photobucket are pictures of the 2006 Indian Stripe with a few leaf blemishes from Early Blight, but out of 10 plants, only one went down to the point that I removed it from the garden.

In 2006, I noticed two of the 10 Indian Stripe plants that showed particularly high tolerance to Early Blight and extreme heat and humidity. Those are the plants from which I saved and regrew seeds. Subsequently, I have saved the seeds from the best examples of hardy and productive vines that showed tolerance to leaf disorders and weather stress. So, again this year I have two particularly good examples of Indian Stripe that are giving larger tomatoes and higher production than ever before. They are both in 10-gallon tubs which I have used now for 3 years in a row trying to develop a selection of Indian Stripe adapted to containers in hot, humid Ohio River Valley conditions.

For the past 2 years, the selected Indian Stripe in containers have not shown any appreciable distress or loss of growth or production from Early Blight, Septoria or leaf wilts that are present on other tomato vines in the same plot both in containers and in raised beds. At the beginning of the growing season and until conditions dried off and warmed up, there was some insignificant Septoria on the lower leaves. That has stopped completely on the Indian Stripe but persists a bit on several other varieties including a few spots showing up on ripe fruit.

Other open pollinated varieties that are showing good tolerance to fungal disorders are Golden Cherokee, Willard Wynn (although it has failed to set fruit!), Creole, Cherokee (Red), and a Pusa Ruby type foundation breeding line I acquired from India. The last two in that list have not shown the first spot of leaf disorder at all.

Hybrid varieties that have shown high tolerance of the same fungal disorders that are present in my garden are Mountain Glory, Sun Gold, Sweet Quartz and Bolseno. Mountain Glory surprises me since I lost one plant to Septoria last summer but this summer it shows no signs although two plants next to it had Septoria on lower leaves earlier in June.

"Which ones have been least tolerant of diseases for you this year?"

Several store bought Bradley transplants all had to be destroyed this year due to severe Septoria infestation that was spreading to my home starts. Two previous years I had no problem with Bradley and I guess I will revisit saved seeds from those grow-outs next year. All the Wisconsin 55 Gold had to be destroyed as transplants because they got the Septoria from nearby Bradleys. In 2006, WI-55 Gold was second only to Indian Stripe in tolerance so this year was a disappointment. Hillbilly Potato Leaf extremely susceptible to Septoria. Tiny Tim very susceptible to Septoria and another unidentified leaf wilt.

"If you've taken steps to deal with the diseases in either case, what steps did you take?"

Since I do not use fungicides of any kind, I practice the following methods: Starting seeds later in the spring and setting transplants out in the garden later than previous years to avoid early wet/cold conditions. Strip off, bag and dispose of any leaves that show any signs of Septoria, Early Blight or any discoloration indicating a leaf wilt. Regular pruning to open up plants to air circulation and general garden sanitation including tool sanitizing. Immediate removal of plants that show high susceptibility to disease. Saving and purchase of seeds from a selection of plants and varieties that show apparent high tolerances to the diseases known to infest my garden and local gardens.

Best - NAR, Chapman, Black Cherry, Goose Creek, Omar's Lebanese, Cherokee Purple, Carbon, Gary O'Sena

So-so - KBX, Earl's Faux/Brandywine Sudduth, JD Special C Tex, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom

Worst - Black Prince, Kellog's Breakfast

My own apparently disease-tolerant tomato plants are the NARs and the Mortgage Lifters that finally began producing tomatoes, no browning leaves at all on the bottom. The Cuostralees seem to be doing fine, too, but the deer have been munching on the leaves and taking bites out of ALL varieties of ripe tomatoes.

The Brandy Boys, Big Beef, and New Girl tomato plants all have had signs of Early Blight though they're still producing tomatoes.

I've been spraying every couple of weeks with Ortho Garden Disease Control.

Well I had already planned on growing Indian Stripe next year, it's good to see it's getting so many nons for disease resistance as well as in the other favorite threads.

I'd really be interested in a compiled list of Heirlooms w/ disease resistance/tolerance.

Some good examples of how it is the garden and location and not the variety in this discussion. ;)

IE: Jet Star great for some but bad for others, same for NAR, etc.

Dave

I agree totally Dave. Many here rave about Jetfire. Here I get wimpy sickly things. Many here moan about poor Brandywine fruit set. Does fine for me here. Not many varieties do poorly here but Jet Star certainly does. I fold. Deal me in another variety...:)

Best are:

Ananas Noire
Banjan Roomii
Black from Tula
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
JD's Special C-Tex
Huang Se Chieh
Lithuanian
Rhoades Heirloom
Russian 117
Shuntuksi Velikan
Soldacki
Ukrainian Pear

Worst are:
KBX (deceased)
NAR (struggling)

digdirt

I agree that it is the garden and location that are probably the primary determiners of whether tomato varieties get by with few problems or not. There are many factors that affect plant health.

But I also think that the extent of funguses and diseases present in other varieties grown are not useless measures for concluding that some varieties do better than others in the presence of the funguses. For instance, if all varieties but one get early blight, and they're grown in the same place under the same beneficial conditions, it's likely that that variety is more tolerant of early blight than others, particularly if it happens several years in a row.

We really don't have any other way of deciding which plants are hardiest under blight conditions except observation and anecdotal information, since there are so many varieties. I'm sure researchers and developers are working round the clock these days because of the late blight plague. So in the meantime we glean what information we can and use it to make our decisions.

What I'm now wondering is whether home-grafted tomatoes that use a rootstock that's tolerant of blights would be worthwhile. So, of course, you'd have to know which ones are!

In 2006 (Maine) conditions were far worse than this 2009 disaster. That year the sun merely partially shined only seven times between mid-April and mid-July. Every other day was fog or rain. August was worse.

In 2006, almost my entire tomato garden was wiped out by blight. That year Lemon Boy was entirely untouched by pathogens. It was large, healthy and thick with tomatoes.

2009 - I'm growing 25 varieties under lousy conditions. I'm fighting three fungal infections on my tomato plants. Lemon Boy is, again, my healthiest plant and entirely untouched by pathogens.

Here in the northeast we expect early blight towards the end of the season and some of us don't even pay any attention to it as the tomatoes are doing fine anyway. THIS year it's a different story since Spring was nothing but cold and wet. Early blight with teeth I tell you. It hasn't been bad with Black Cherry but it's really taking out the NAR. But alas, the Black Cherry are grown in whiskey barrels and the NAR are in the soil. Soil borne?, you bet. The torrential rains splashed mud up over two feet of the plants and alas, early blight. Spraying didn't help as it rained almost daily. Go with the containers friends, at least in the northeast.

We really don't have any other way of deciding which plants are hardiest under blight conditions except observation and anecdotal information...

Oh I agree with you anney...to a degree. ;) I think observation and anecdotal information is very useful but that same info from our own garden is the most useful. So garden journals are great tools.

For example we have talked about Park's Whopper before and how good it does for me year in and year out (didn't plant any this year) but is a chronic problem for you.

And even "my own garden info" has it's limits given the drastic weather changes. EX: based on this exceptionally wet year here I'd be real tempted to plant 50 Jet Stars and 50 Giant Pink Oxheart and another 50 Arkansas Traveler for next year and plant them all in mounded in-ground rows or in containers.

But I also know the odds are that next year's weather will be much more dry than this year, more normal. So if I did that I'd be watering like crazy, it would deprive me of all those other great tomatoes, and likely the Jet Stars would go belly-up on me. ;)

So all we can do is play the odds, cross our fingers, and cover our variety a**es. :^)

Dave

I, like digdirt, have had good luck with Park's Whopper. I planted three in the middle of March, along with one Early Girl. All four plants have done extremely well, with the Whoppers clearly outperforming the Girl. She is coming on strong lately, though. All together, I have picked 683 total from them. All were free of ber.

Maybe two or three weeks ago, septoria symptoms appeared in the area of the Early Girl (the vines from all plants run together like crazy). The septoria stuff appears to have spread to all plants now. Tomorrow, I intend to look closely to determine if it is truly on all the plants.

I am also very impressed by Park's Whopper. Large, healthy and producing earlier than Early Girl.

Just to clarify, I didn't have disease problems with the Whopper tomato. The problem was BER.

I'd grown it for several years in other locations and never had any problems with it, but when I moved here to Georgia, for two years running, I had to discard 75-80% of the fruits throughout the season due to BER. It was a real disappointment because they'd been a great producer of tasty big red tomatoes. I decided not to grow it any more since there were so many other good tomato varieties.

What I'm now wondering is whether home-grafted tomatoes that use a rootstock that's tolerant of blights would be worthwhile. So, of course, you'd have to know which ones are!

****

The word blight is totally non-specific as you know. ( wink)

Almost everyone in this thread is talking about foliage diseases as far as I can tell and with two exceptions that I know of, both commercial varieties and with minimal EB tolerance, there are no tolerant varieties out there in terms of known varieties that everyone agrees on as to Foliage disease tolerance.Ja, I said everyone or at least several to many folks having the same experience which is difficult to determine.

I think it's good to remember that the fungal spores and the bacteria that can cause foliage diseases are egalitarians at heart and will land on the foliage of ANY variety without respect to race, religion or political affiliation. LOL

And no two seasona are the same in terms of the presence of those foliage pathogens in air, rain or dust.

A person may grow a variety for one season and note that it's either tolerant or not to this or that foliage disease, but that's just one season.

If the same variety is grown for many seasons and other varieties are coming down with this and that, then that's much more meaningful, as pennyrile noted above with his Indian Stripe selection.

Anney, I can't see doing any grafting to help prevent foliage diseases. maybe some systemic diseases depending on what the problem is every year in a certain area with systemic diseases, and depending on the specific root stock seeds that are purchased, which aren't cheap, mind you, b'c it just wouldn't help b'c the foliage is still out there and susceptible to the bad guy spores and bacteria that drop in for a visit from time to time from season to season or in any one season.

About the only observation I have made is that PL varieties, for me, are more tolerant of both fungal and bacterial foliage diseases. Near the end of the season my RL's may be struggling but the PL's almost always do much better.

And with the non-stop rain and cool weather where I grow my tomatoes here in the NE it's looking like I may not get much fruit production at all. Here it is almost August and no blossoms, no fruit set yet. They couldn't go out earlier b'c we had two frost in June/ And then there's the Late Blight issue to be faced as well here in the NE. Quadruple Sigh.

Carolyn

I remember reading all the Late Blight news the last couple weeks and a gov or edu site, besides mentioning Legend, said MATT'S WILD CHERRY was "resistant." I will see if I bookmarked it.

Matt's is one of my favorite cherries, with a taste explosion on your tongue!

I remember reading all the Late Blight news the last couple weeks and a gov or edu site, besides mentioning Legend, said MATT'S WILD CHERRY was "resistant." I will see if I bookmarked it.
Matt's is one of my favorite cherries, with a taste explosion on your tongue!

***

Mark, Legend was bred by Dr Baggett for Late Blight tolerance and just ask anyone in the PNW and they'll tell you it isn't.

There really is no such thing as total resistance.

West Virginia 63 has also been mentioned for LB tolerance and yes, I've seen Matt's listed somewhere as well.

But I don't know if the Matt's reference is just anecdotal comments from some home growers in some years, and I stress the some years or documented by LB challenge. I suspect the former. ( smile)

Glad you like Matt's, b'c I don't like the taste at all. LOL

My fave tiny red is Sara's Galapagos.

Carolyn

OK, here it is, from OSU:

"Cultivar Resistance: The cultivar 'Legend' has late blight resistance in OSU-trials. WSU researchers have shown that 'Legend' may not be resistant to late blight under high disease pressure. Some cherry tomato cultivars ('Red Cherry' and 'Sweetie') were more tolerant to late blight in WSU trials. 'Matt's Wild Cherry' was considered resistant. The cultivar developed by OSU, Legend, is also considered resistant."

It almost sounds like WSU blew Legend out of the water.

Interesting they used the words "more tolerant" for Sweetie & Red Cherry, and "resistant" for Matt's (and Legend, though my concern was Matt's being called resistant instead of tolerant.)

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) -- Late Blight

I hear you Mark, I do, but it's one thing to suggest something is true for someone somewhere without saying that challenge experiemnts have been done and quite another thing for home growers to deal with these issues.

And Yes, I guess WSU feels the same way about Legend that folks who live in the PNW have said, as in, not all that great.

And why didn't they even mention WVA 63 which was splashed all over the net as being resistant/tolerant when LB first entered the US with that new serotype in about 1990?

Carolyn

We got 5+ weeks of rain here in Long Island and I've lost or soon will lose my first 2 sets of heirloom tomatoes to septoria leaf spot.

Pennyrile has the best idea; grow from seed and transplant later! I have one group of tomatoes that might truly flourish - "group III" I call them, because I grew 3 staggered sets of tomatoes. Group III was the latest set I planted. They sat pathetic, rootbound and neglected on my front porch while I tended to my older ones already out in raised beds. The porch tomatoes were are Black Krim, Red Ace and Cherokee Black. Planted 'em out a few days ago and hoping for the best.

Have destroyed half of older plants but I am letting the rest (growing tips clipped off) mature, so at least I can get the fruits.

Although the older plants were stunted and stressed It looks like I will get some fruit. Got some nice looking green tomatoes. It will be interesting to see which types still produced under these circumstances. I'll send pix when the tomatoes start to blush and perhaps someone could help me identify which of.the 10 or so varieties (NONE are Krim, Black Cherokee or Ace) in the seed pack performed best.

They sat pathetic, rootbound and neglected on my front porch

Oh, I have more than a few of those myself.... [Oddly, a surprising percentage with forked stems.]