Hi, No you need not worry about whether or not they are disease resistant. Most of the disease that tomatoes are resistant to are not very important to the average home gardener. They are bacterial and viral. There are some places down south known to have some problems so down there it is important to know the local problems, but most places it actually doesn't matter. Most diseases that people in home gardens get are Fungal. Early Blight, Late Blight, Septoria, etc. There are no truly resistant varieties. These disease are not on the list of disease you see listed after tomato descriptions. Fungal diseases need the proper weather condtions to thrive. Last year, Late Blight which is the worst hit many people in the northeast. The weather was cold and damp for a long period. Late Blight causes what looks like actual fuzzy mold on plants and black lesions. Plants will die very very fast. There is no cure. If affect plants are removed quickly, you might be able to save some other plants especially if the weather takes a turn for the better. Thankfully, Late Blight is not a common occurance. It also need live material to over winter. So one year of Late Blight does not mean you can't grow tomatoes again. Early Blight is more common. It occurs in humid weather. Leaves get oyster shell looking lesions and then the leaves yellow eventually falling off. Some tomatoes can out grow it. Less vigorous varieties can die. It can be controlled with fungicides. I use copper fungicide when needed. Some people use daconil, and I'm sure there are other choices. Good air circulation helps keep it under control and since Early Blight spores can overwinter, good fall clean up is important. I hope that helps, Remy

I am not sure. Some varieties genetically produce more fruit than others and some are more resistant to certain diseases. I don't think there is a bullet proof tomato that is resistant to all the diseases. I had good luck last season, but not the season before. The best tip is grow them in large pots with a fast draining mix. I grew mine this year on my concrete driveway and they liked it. I think because there wasn't a lot of plant life around to harbor disease. Also an earlier variety would probably be easier because there is less time for something to go wrong.

For a number of years I furnished several restaurants with cherry tomatoes for the dinner salads. The most reliable and least prone to cracks (so long as kept regularly picked) were Chelsea, Tommy Toe, TGS Yellow Plum, and Pink Niblets. I grew many others and also found that the restaurants liked to mix in a couple of larger plum sized ones as Sungella and Jaune Flamme. I have not yet grown Sweet Baby Girl myself but hear it is a good one. Having grown, washed, sorted, deleafed, and packed 82 bezillion of these little treasures weekly over many years I don't want them around me too much anymore! Larry years years

Darrel, you forgot Smarty F1, also bred by Randy. I grew MT Magic, Smarty and Plum Regal last summer, sent to me by Randy as thanks, perhaps, for sending him one heck of a lot of OP's for him to use in his continued breeding programs, even though he's now techincally retired. I first got to know him many years ago when I contacted him about his work with Early BLight tolerance so I could compare what was being done on the same problem by Dr. Zitter at Cornell. And over the years I've gotten to know him better but no one other than Keith knows him as well. And Randy did send seeds to Keith, which I knew b/c he told me so b'c he wanted his feedback re genetics, etc., who posted some pictures here last year and to a couple of others that I know. Just so folks know, Smarty F1 is offered by Johnny'sd Selected Seeds as introduced last year. Bejo Seeds was to introduce and make them available to certain commercial places this year, but seed production in the Netherlands didn't go well, so let's hope for next year. Last year I was surprised when I got an e-mail from a woman in Geneva, NY who was reading what I had said here at GW about those three varieties. She is with Bejo seeds there and we went back and forth with several e-mails. She told me which commercial places Bejo was thinking of for distribution and I was lobbying for some others that I thought were better than some they had on their lsit. LOL Anyway, here's what I thought of the three varieties: Mountain Magic F1, a cherry, was the best for plant vigor, yield and taste. Smarty F1, a grape tomato I'd rate about the same except for taste, which I thought was just not as good as the above. Plum Regal F1 I rated last, a plum, yes,and vigor and yield fine, but the walls are very thick, actually the fruits could last for a couple of weeks on my counter, and I was less pleased with taste and flesh consistency. But to each their own. I was in the midst of the Late Blight ( P. infestans) epidemic here last year and knowing about it early on I had to choose between possibly no tomatoes or Daconil alternating with Kocide, and I chose the latter, so I can't comment about Late Blight tolerance based on my experience last summer. The darn summer was so bad, second in a row, that I didn't even get fruits off about half of the plants that were out there, but these three hybrids being discussed did fine. Carolyn