Tomato Blight

conradmum

Primrose wrote: »

conradmum - thanks for your observation about how saved Ferline seed behaves because I was wondering about that. I only tried growing Ferline for the first time last year and was really pleased with the way they performed.
I seem to be the only person around here who grows my own tomatoes so hopefully that reduces my susceptibility to blight. I think allotment growers must be very vulnerable to the risk where so many plants are grown in close proximity to each other.

Well, I'm on the saved seed of plants grown from saved seed now, so we'll see what happens this year!

Despite the fact that no one around me grows tomatoes, or any other veg, I do still get blight on potatoes if the conditions are favourable for it, so I think it must also live on wild plants. I do agree though that allotment holders are particularly vulnerable. I've seen entire crops wiped out before a single fruit has been picked. It must be heart-breaking.

Ferline does very well, though, doesn't it? Sometimes I can see touches of blight on leaves which I pick off, but the plants stand up to it very well.

Lotus-eater

conradmum wrote: »

Well, I'm on the saved seed of plants grown from saved seed now, so we'll see what happens this year!

Despite the fact that no one around me grows tomatoes, or any other veg, I do still get blight on potatoes if the conditions are favourable for it, so I think it must also live on wild plants. I do agree though that allotment holders are particularly vulnerable. I've seen entire crops wiped out before a single fruit has been picked. It must be heart-breaking.

Ferline does very well, though, doesn't it? Sometimes I can see touches of blight on leaves which I pick off, but the plants stand up to it very well.

I'm very interested to see how your saved saved Ferline seeds do this year.

Blight gets blown into the UK from the continent most of the time, you can see it on the blight maps that are available on blightwatch, the way it moves around the country. It is carried on the wind.

I think Ferline is an exceptional tomato, does well in everything I find, taste, growing and blight resistance. Same as you, I get small patches of blight and pick them off and it carries on. I hardly ever lose a fruit to it either.

conradmum

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I'm very interested to see how your saved saved Ferline seeds do this year.

Blight gets blown into the UK from the continent most of the time, you can see it on the blight maps that are available on blightwatch, the way it moves around the country. It is carried on the wind.

I think Ferline is an exceptional tomato, does well in everything I find, taste, growing and blight resistance. Same as you, I get small patches of blight and pick them off and it carries on. I hardly ever lose a fruit to it either.

I'll file a report at the end of the season. They're only about three inches tall at the moment, and I broke one off at the base the other day carrying the tray out of the greenhouse. They did germinate well, though, so that's a good sign.

Primrose

Yes, Ferline do germinate very well. (Just as well, considering the price of the seed, which isn't cheap compared to other varieties). Interestingly, both my Ferline and False Ferline (i.e. from saved seed) germinated at exactly the same time, so obviously that particular genetic quality remains unaffected. I'm certainly looking forward to doing a comparison between them. I hope we don't have a blight summer but if we do, it will be particularly interesting to compare the blight resistance of the original Ferline F1 versus the False Ferline ones. What I would really like though, is a Ferline tomato with a Gardeners Delight flavour, with just that slight little bit sweet tartness.