2011 Season,blight resistance

Been looking at old threads to glean info first hand rather than what the sellers tell us.

These varieties of tomatoes have been trialled by our members,

Legend,

Ferline and Koralik.

More info from our lovely blight resistant members here,

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/blight-resistant-tomatoes-t29536.html

Couldn't find anything about blight resistant potatoes so will have to go with what they tell us, unless you guys & gals know different :tnp:

http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/blight-resistant-potatoes-c23.html?gclid=CK728ILa9qUCFc0e4Qodwwsupw

Having lost so much produce to blight last year, I don't want to take the chance this year so I will be using bordeaux mixture even though I prefer organic methods.

 

Some trials results :

http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/gr.../10/13/potato-sunrise-new-from-d-t-brown.aspx

Not a taste trial here, but an interesting article about breeding versus GM

http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2010/06/tom-wagner-blight-resistant-potato-trials/

And an RHS trial,

http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/0d/0d52c1ec-6bf7-41fe-91ec-7fecd2fbae74.pdf

To sum that one up,

Blight Resistant,

Amandine - yellow waxy salad baker ( No mention of flavour )

Charlotte - Yellow waxy, good flavour.

Princess - Cream coloured flowery flesh, good flavour.

Some Blight Resistance,

Cherie - Yellow waxy good flavour.

 

Hi!

Read great reports about Charlotte a few years ago, so I gave it a go!
The result was bad slug damage and terrible taste, the wife refused to cook them, when I brought then in, she used to say, is that those potatoes again, so I had to dump what was left!

Another terrible tasting one is Vales Sovereign,supposedly exclusive to Tesco's and the greatest tasting potato ever according to Tesco'S!
We tried them and they were almost uneatable, I kept two and planted them to see if they tasted better home grown, they were the same!

when I started growing potatoes at first, I used to grow Desiree, but always have some blight on some and none on the other varieties grown in the same place and at the same time!
It got so bad that I gave up growing Desiree.
A new plot holder moved into the next plot, he was growing potatoes. When he was harvesting them I happened to be there, as they were "reds" I asked him what variety they were, he said Desiree, they were a perfect shape and NO blight on them!
He stayed a few years and then disappeared, he always grew desiree and insisted he never had blight! His soil is much finer than mine, he never used any of the free manure were have, only growmore!

Some one else moved in after him, but they only messed about and let it all become over grown.
Last year an older man moved in, cleared the lot very quickly, planted potatoes, yes Desiree and they were perfect in shape and no blight showing.

This year, same potatoes, same result, but over winter he had barrowed loads of manure onto and dug into his soil!

I know blight is an air borne disease, he is about 10yards at most from where mine are planted, so why are mine destroyed and his not?

.

 

This make for interesting reading about late blight,

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/lateblighthg.htm


This could be part of the answer to your problem,

"
Q Why does the blight seem to be worse (or milder) in my garden than in my neighbourâ??s? Or worse in one part of the garden than another?
A Rain-spread spores can cause spotty outbreaks. Also, disease development depends on the temperature and humidity around your plants. Plants in warmer, drier, sunny spots will have less disease. For example, plants that receive the morning sun will dry off more quickly from nightly dew and fog. Plants grown in a high moisture-holding soil or planting mix will have a cooler and more humid environment which is more favourable for disease, than plants grown on a sandy soil or plastic mulch."

 

.

Hi ziggy,

Had a look at the site, it would appear to relate to my situation.

As my mother in law says- you learn something new up until the day you die. :D

Cheers!

 

Cheers MB, that site has taught me a bit about garden hygiene too. Will be a bit more vigilant in future.

 

I'm looking through my T&M catalogue that was delivered today complete with a £5 voucher, have decided to blow the lot on some blight resistant tomato seeds and was thinking of:

Blight Resistant Collection 1pkt Ferline (£2.40) + 1pkt Legend (£2.19), both for 'only' £3.19, together with a pkt Losetto @ £3.49, a total of £6.68 + £2.29 P&P -£5 Voucher = £3.97 for 3 pkts incl P&P.

Does anyone have more up to date info on Ferline and Legend, or know anything about this 'new' Losetto variety?

P.S. I think Ferline & Legend have been mistaken for one another it that old thread. The link above doesn't work now, but I'm assuming it's this one: http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/Thread-Blight-resistant-tomatoes.html

 

Hi Scrungee,

I settled for Losetto & tamina in the end, didn't see the others in the nursery.

Think I may have been burned on the Losetto though, only saw the "exceptional tolerance
to late blight fungus" bit on the packet.

When I got them home & read further, the 2 years trials involved patio & basket growing. Well they probably wouldn't get blight if they were grown 6 foot away from any actual soil would they.

Better get some hanging baskets then:DOH:

Mind you, only need 6 of them.

 

After suffering from blight on my veg plot for too many years now, I turned all the rear window boxes (GF & FF), tubs, chimney pots, etc. over to toms a couple of years ago. I still plant flowers at the front despite it being only the neighbours who can enjoy them.

EDIT: Sorting through my tom seeds I've found that I already have the Koralik variety mentioned here, obtained from RealSeeds a while ago for sowing this year.

 

£3.49 for 6 seeds, only 4 germinated and one of those was a useless runt. I thought the seeds looked rubbish quality (compared to tom seeds I save myself) when I opened the packet, which I always retain in case there's a problem. So it's complain to T&M time.

Has anyone else had a problem with Losetto germination rate?

 

Blimey, i'd forgotten about this thread:OUCH:

There were 9 seeds in my pack of 6 Losetto, 5 of which germinated, one got broken so I now have 4 plants in the ground under polythene.

Loads of the Tamina germinated, the biggest 2 are also under polythene in the ground, some are planted out direct into the greenhouse soil.

Have also got some Gardiners delight curtesy of Atticus L, who sent me every seed from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hopefully, with an earlier start this year, and a bucket of bordeaux mixture, I might get a crop before the blight kicks in.

 

Your 5 out of 9 (55%) and my 3 (excluding the runt) out of 6 (50%) seem like pretty poor germination rates to me, especially when the seeds cost nearly 60p each.

Re "in the ground under polythene" aren't these supposed to be a trailing type for tubs, baskets, etc.?