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

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

Back in Feb you also posted about this variety saying you were looking for information, so I gave you the description of someone who listed it in the SSE YEarbook and the link to that thread is below. The site where you said you read about it being so tolerant of foliage diseases is no longer available, although it still comes up with a Google search. Aside from the possibility that Bosu may be more tolerant of foliage diseases, for which there really is no data, although M, whose description I alread gave you said he thought it did better in that regard, what else do you like about it that would make you recommend it to others? Just curious after reading the SSE description from M, whom I know, that he was especially impresssed by its response to cold weather and being in WI that's a plus. He also was very impressed with the high yield. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: bosu

I just found your forum and might be able to offer some help.I have been working with late blight for the last 40 years and have some relevant observations. Here in Wales, we have wet summers and lots of blight in our potatoes every year. In our Sarvari Research Trust we are selecting new varieties of potatoes for sustainable and low input growing, the Sarpo varieties. Tomatoes are grown commercially in UK within glasshouses mainly by big multinational companies supplying the supermarkets. Only gardeners and smallholders try to grow tomatoes outside and many lose their entire crop most years. There is clearly a need for varieties that can ripen fruit in years when blight pressures are heavy. Seedsmen in UK offer several blight tolerant varieties and these can be useful in delaying the onset of blight by a few days or even weeks, depending on the season. We have varieties like Ferline and Fantasio from a French breeding programme and Jim Baggett’s Oregon cv Legend. The thing to remember about the pathogen (Phytophthora infestans) is that many strains exist and these will come and go over the years and what looks like a resistant variety one year can be almost totally susceptible the next year. The blight that hit the eastern states so badly last year was caused by new strains of blight that had not been seen previously. Also the blight strains that you have across the pond are quite different from the ones we have here. This means that a variety that is resistant in one region or country may be susceptible in another. So it is necessary to be vigilant and keep sceening potentially resistant material with the newest strains of blight for the region you want to grow in. The breeder’s work is never done. And heirloom varieties? These are old favourites which have survived because they have a great flavour or are good do-ers. You often find that some of the old varieties are a bit more tolerant of disease as these are the ones that are easiest to keep going over the years. But it is rare to find any that are highly resistant. And what other methods can help to control the disease? Glasshouse growers don’t get blight because the plants are kept dry to prevent the “fungus” forming swimming spores on the leaf surface just before infection. This means that if we keep our plants dry by growing them under an umbrella, they will escape infection. I did some trails some years ago to test out the use of polythene cloche “umbrellas”. The results were spectacular. Protected plants remained healthy and gave a massive crop whereas the unprotected ones yielded no healthy fruit. Another way is to avoid the blight by raising the tomato seedlings early and planting out, initially under cloches to hasten maturity. Many gardeners here use the variety Red Alert because it ripens many weeks before the others, and usually before blight arrives, usually in late July here. Also Red Alert is a fairly weedy looking plant and its sparse foliage means that the fruits are exposed to the air and dry off quickly after rain. Varieties like Legend do far better if plants are severely pruned to keep a minimum of foliage around the fruits. Another trick is to use a high temperature treatment to cure fruit that are still green but will not ripen as the blight takes over before the fruit is red. In an article I wrote for The Organic Grower (vol. 11) earlier this year “No more green tomato chutney” I describe experiments with fruits that have a latent infection that is not yet visible. These are kept at 40C (104F) for at least 12 hours and then keep in a dry warm spot indoors to ripen completely. Untreated batches of green fruit rapidly developed nearly 100% blight. So if your plants become infected with late blight, it is often best to pick all the fruit and heat treat in an egg incubator or similar before ripening indoors. Good luck with your growing.