Disease resistant varieties?

[kathyd]

Has anyone tried any of these, and if so a) do they work and b) do they taste OK? Are they worth the money?

Ta

[Kirk]

Which veg are you refering to ?

[Bill HH]

I have a problem with powdery mildew, it wipes out my cucumbers and courgettes, this year I tried an all female mildew resistent cucumber (Swing F1). All I can say is the courgette next to them is no more, deceased, an x courgette but the cucumber shows no sign of mildew whatsoever.

[zazen999]

I have two self sown Koralik blight resistant toms growing in the garden; they are bigger than any grown in my greenhouse and have hundreds of toms coming. Taste just fine. Just about to go and see if any are ripe now as it happens.

[marchogaeth]

I'm convinced the Urbikany tomatoes I grew last year were, if not blight resistant at least blight tolerant. I am loving my Sarpo Mira potatoes at the minute as they are still looking healthy (apart from one that got "catted"). I know people say they are tasteless but this is a good start as far as I'm concerned.

[Alison]

I don't tend to grow a lot of the old varieties which have natural resistance to whatever disease, on the whole I find that they have stood the test of time and if I like the flavour they become a standard fixture on my plot. This is particularly true of my spuds, I didn't think much to the recent ones (sarpo and the like) but have found there are a good number of old varieties that seem to do well and taste better out my soil.

[kathyd]

OK thanks people - a mixed bag of opinions, as usual - and I wouldn't expect anything less from a dedicated bunch of experts and enthusiasts!

I'm not asking about any particular type of veg at the moment, just in general, both for myself to try and for 2 other reasons:

1. I've signed up to join a 'compost and natural gardening' working party with the local council, which starts later this month - at least I 'think' that's what I've signed up for, lol! They're trying to get people to recycle more, and waste less, and make their own compost, and use fewer chemicals in the garden etc - it all seems to be a bit behind the UK on this score around here. I figured that possibly one way to help things along might be to choose resistant varieties of things in the first place, but they seem to cost more than normal seeds and everyone around here seems to do things on half a shoestring, so I'd have to be able to justify suggesting them.

2. I've been wanting to set up a very small business doing something I really enjoy and which fits in with my life here, so what better than a little retailer selling a few gardening products, focused around 'natural gardening', online and at local markets? So I wondered if offering a small selection of 'resistant variety' seeds as part of my range would be worth it or not. If they work and they taste good, fair enough, otherwise I'll find something different to fill my virtual shelves .

[Two_Sheds]

what better than a little retailer selling a few gardening products, focused around 'natural gardening'

but what works in Norfolk might not work in Brittany. I think you really need to do the groundwork yourself, if you're wanting to build any kind of reputation.

btw, Resistafly carrots (they come in different names) don't work at all

[binley100]

they worked for me ......... I've had some great carrots this year

[Bill HH]

Disease resistance is hard to measure, maybe your resistant plants did not get exposed to carrot flies in the first place! my carrots are not resitant yet I have had no problem this year. Until you have one variety attacked and another resistant variety in close proximity not attacked can you asses their worth.

[kathyd]

I think that's the problem really isn't it? What works for some doesn't for others, and even Brittany is a big place with lots of different climates and soils depending on where you are.

The one disease resistant veg seeds I did buy was the resistafly carrots strangely, but then I planted out some nantes instead and so far haven't had any problems with them, so I still don't know if the resistafly work!

The point of the question really is a general one though - as far as I can make out from reading about them (yes TS, I did do some research this time!), none of the resisant varieties is actually guaranteed to be totally resistant anyway, a bit like stainless steel which isn't stainless at all, it just stains less than ordinary steel!

So I was just wondering whether people had tried anything 'in general', and whether 'in general' you feel they perform better than the non-resistant varieties. I suppose they may be worth a try, can't do any harm - it's just another weapon in the anti-pest and weather arsenal isn't it? Maybe I'll try mould-resistant curcubits next year .