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Old July 21, 2012   #22
Fusion_power
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alabama
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The Spanish spread currant tomatoes (S. Pimpinellifolium) from Mexico along the Gulf Coast and into FL hundreds of years ago
They were first distributed by native Americans who brought them from the Andes to Mexico and in the process spread them throughout central America. From there, they were spread around the world by Spanish explorers.

S. Pimpinellifolium originated in the Andes, probably near the Peru/Ecuador border. There are several hundred accessions in TGRC. I have grown most of the core collection of about 40 varieties for the species. As a group, they tend to be much more diverse than cultivated tomato. Disease tolerance genes are common including ph2 and sometimes ph3, and perhaps a third that is not currently named. These genes appear to me to ramp up production of glycalkaloids such as tomatene which tend to protect the plant from fungal diseases. One side effect of this is that the compounds produced by disease tolerant plants can often be tasted in the fruit. This is one reason why tomato breeders try to increase plant sugars in the fruit.

Matt's Wild Cherry contains ph2 which gives some protection against a few strains of late blight. It is a reasonably good cherry type tomato.

If you want to try an unusual currant tomato, LA2533 is pretty unique. The best I can tell, it has ph3 which conveys another form of late blight tolerance. Another interesting accession is LA0722 which has 6 different disease tolerance genes that are not found in our cultivated tomatoes.

Tolerance to septoria is another story. Many types of tomato exhibit a weak form of septoria tolerance because they grow fast enough to outgrow the disease. The plants that do this tend to be pea size currant tomatoes which means the plant does not tie up a lot of energy producing fruit. Said another way, it is impossible to get a large fruited tomato that outgrows septoria. Everglades Wild tomato appears to be to be of this type.

DarJones
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