Blight Resistant Tomatoes

[Dadnlad]

Hi, has anyone else tried growing blight resistant toms this year ?

I tried 'Ferline' bought on France trip .....fantastic !
After several years of dodgy toms (no greenhouse), finally seem to have found a winner.
Purposely grew them next to spuds to live really dangerous , and absolutely no blight - RESULT !
Size and taste(which is why we bother) better than most
However Harbinger/San Marzano/Tres CantosThingy(mother-in-law hols in Spain) all brown and smelly by end of September

Will definitely be growing them again next year as T&M selling, which will save the petrol to France !

[dni_dave]

Dadnlad - what area are you living? Couldn't find it on the profile.

I'm growing up in Aberdeenshire and don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel either. I do get some shelf space in the mother in laws polytunnel for seeds though. We get strong winds but we have the 1m high windbreak fabric around our 14m x 20m plot which works well and have more to be able to shelter a specific area. We didn't grom toms at all this year as we thought that we didn't stand a chance of success.

Next spring we hope to have a deep cold frame to try a few more of the exotic items and some more/different salad stuff.

[Lesley Jay]

Ferline are fantastic tomatoes. They were new last year at Thompson and Morgan and as we lost everything the previous year to blight I just had to try them. There is only one word to describe them - fantastic!

We had a pretty miserable summer weather wise where we live and had lots of green tomatoes at the end of the growing season. But I left them on the plants and we were still picking tomatoes in November.

This year Thompson and Morgan also have a blight resistant beefsteak tomato named Legend and Suttons have a blight resistant tomato named Fantasio.

www.suttons-seeds.co.uk www.thompson-morgan.com

[andrewo]

St Pierre

St Pierre did well for me this year and a cherry tomato called Perle (may have got this wrong and will look it up in my notebook).

In the past I've tried golden sunrise and they've done well because they are yellow (yellow seem to do better outside).

NICE TIP: Have a piece of clear plastic ready during the season and if heavy rain is on the cards cover up the toms in an open tent effect, peg down and as soon as the rain is gone, whip off.

As for blight resistant, last year in my greenhouse I had gardners delight and an F1 variety, the latter ended up with blight and borotis. The delight was just a delight!!

Love toms and will be trying black russian and idli next year. If anyone has tried these let me know.

Andrewo

[Lesley Jay]

We grew a russian variety this year and it was dreadful. I will have to take a look at what variety it was.

[andrewo]

Harbinger

Harbinger the year before was a wash out for me, had twenty outdoors and all of them blighted.

But this year, they were great...just goes to show that weather sometimes has a way of making things much much worse.

Andrewo

[Lesley Jay]

Oh yes Andrewo we are at the mercy of the weather!!

[Geordie]

Ferline is reputably the best for blight resistance, but if you grow outdoor toms, have blight and a wind problem (oooh err ) you need to grow Legend.
It grows as a bush rather than a cordon, good flavour, some big fruits and tastes nice as a bonus!

[Lesley Jay]

Geordie our allotment plots are really open to the weather. There's no natural wind breaks apart from the surrounding hedge and the wind is dreadful. But Ferline grew great. I put them at the front of one of our plots but next year I will give them a bit of protection and plant them behind the raspberries.

[nick the grief]

Bob Flowerdew erects what can only be describes as a lean to with no sides and this keeps the rain of the plants but runs off on to the ground and waters them for you, he claims this helps with Blight, never tried it though. It was in a back issue of another Kitchen Garden Mag I can find it out and post a copy of the picture (drawn by me just in case) if your interested.

[Nicos]

Good to know about Ferline. Have grown Red Alert for many years to cook and freeze but each year they get blight. Had to pick them green and ripen indoors last year and still lost about 1/3 of the crop. Was considering giving up on them!

[BAZ]

Blight Resitance Toms

Hi all,
I grew variety Ferline F1, had some blight, not much. I grew them outside on allotment, and also, in my court yard garden, at home. I must say the ones from our house suffered with less blight. However, from 4 plants, at home, we had a very heavy crop, ran out of people to give them to too!

[Lottie]

Hi all,
I grew variety Ferline F1, had some blight, not much. I grew them outside on allotment, and also, in my court yard garden, at home. I must say the ones from our house suffered with less blight. However, from 4 plants, at home, we had a very heavy crop, ran out of people to give them to too!

Oh No - don't give the surplus away - you can make so much easily to freeze.

I have just had chicken in a spicy tomato sauce - the recipe I made up myself and is on my www, do easy. I also made lots of tomato soup - tastes nothing like the tinned tomato soup which I have always hated.

Just put them in a roasting tin in the oven, drizzle a bit of olive oil over them (and basil or other herbs if you have them, but just oil will do) roast them, let them cool, bag them and freeze them. Add them to spag bol - even if you use a packet mix and all sorts of other things.


Please don't give them away after all your nurturing this year!