In search of.... Better disease resistance

Fusion_power · July 29, 2020

It is common for vigorous growing plants to appear resistant to foliage disease. The cycle of foliage disease involves fruit load on the plant. As fruit load increases, the plant diverts more energy to sustaining and developing the fruit and less to leaves and new shoot growth. Said another way, heavy fruit load increases disease susceptibility. I agree that Neves Azorean Red has better tolerance than most open pollinated tomatoes. I would rank Cherokee Purple, Arkansas Traveler, and Eva Purple Ball a bit better.

One of the problems we get into is that it is difficult to identify disease problems. I recently got my hair cut and while there looked at the barber's tomato plants. She was concerned because they were showing quite a bit of foliage disease. I saw gray mold, septoria, and early blight on the leaves. There may have been other diseases present. She only knew that her plants were diseased. The biggest problem was that she had not fertilized them adequately. As they loaded up with tomatoes, the fruit load depleted the leaves making them very susceptible to fungal diseases.

Quadris sprayed a couple of times goes a long way toward controlling foliage disease.

July 29, 2020	#11
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	It is common for vigorous growing plants to appear resistant to foliage disease. The cycle of foliage disease involves fruit load on the plant. As fruit load increases, the plant diverts more energy to sustaining and developing the fruit and less to leaves and new shoot growth. Said another way, heavy fruit load increases disease susceptibility. I agree that Neves Azorean Red has better tolerance than most open pollinated tomatoes. I would rank Cherokee Purple, Arkansas Traveler, and Eva Purple Ball a bit better. One of the problems we get into is that it is difficult to identify disease problems. I recently got my hair cut and while there looked at the barber's tomato plants. She was concerned because they were showing quite a bit of foliage disease. I saw gray mold, septoria, and early blight on the leaves. There may have been other diseases present. She only knew that her plants were diseased. The biggest problem was that she had not fertilized them adequately. As they loaded up with tomatoes, the fruit load depleted the leaves making them very susceptible to fungal diseases. Quadris sprayed a couple of times goes a long way toward controlling foliage disease.