Blight-resistant tomatoes

[Debbie292d]

I looked here for any suggestions, then googled it. Google names these supposedly popular types of blight-resistant tomatoes, yet I've never heard of them: Defiant, Mountain Magic, Jasper, and Legend. Has anyone had experience with these or know of others? I need to order some in the coming months.

Back story is that we live in a high blight area and have done everything known to man to try to beat it, so we know every trick in the book, yet, sitting on our patio, in fresh pots, with fresh dirt, with mulch, all five plants, all disease-resistant, got the early blight.

This spring, I'm getting grow lights and going to grow them in the basement, and if it goes well, just repot and leave them down there. They won't get the bees, but I read you can just shake them a bit next to each other when they bloom. I don't know if it'll work, but we're going to try it.

 

[heirloomgal]

I looked here for any suggestions, then googled it. Google names these supposedly popular types of blight-resistant tomatoes, yet I've never heard of them: Defiant, Mountain Magic, Jasper, and Legend. Has anyone had experience with these or know of others? I need to order some in the coming months.

Back story is that we live in a high blight area and have done everything known to man to try to beat it, so we know every trick in the book, yet, sitting on our patio, in fresh pots, with fresh dirt, with mulch, all five plants, all disease-resistant, got the early blight.

This spring, I'm getting grow lights and going to grow them in the basement, and if it goes well, just repot and leave them down there. They won't get the bees, but I read you can just shake them a bit next to each other when they bloom. I don't know if it'll work, but we're going to try it.

As far as I'm aware @Debbie292d blight is airborne, not necessarily soil born. So fresh soil probably isn't much help. I think with avoiding blight the specific cultivar is really important. Lots of the currant tomatoes have very high blight resistance. I grow tomatoes in my greenhouse, no bees in there, and they grow just fine. I don't even jiggle them. It's a myth that tomatoes need bees.

 

[Debbie292d]

It's both airborne and can be in the soil, thus the reason for the new soil and mulch. We've honestly tried everything, but it's clear that new pots, soil, and mulch have nothing to do with preventing it, at least in our case this year. It's definitely airborne here.

We could use a greenhouse for sure.

 

[flowerbug]

i no longer even try to fight whatever it is here because like you it seems to come along no matter what i do. the plants start losing leaves and sometimes are almost completely empty of leaves by this time.

we did have more leaves on plants this year compared to most of the previous years and much of it was probably from giving them more space and letting them sprawl out and also not having so many tomato worms eating the plants.

 

[Decoy1]

There have been quite a lot of tomato varieties bred in recent years for blight resistance. Some are F1 hybrids like Mountain Magic , Crimson Crush and its relatives, Crimson Cherry etc.
Very promising are some open pollinated varieties bred by the University of Göttingen’s Organic Outdoor Tomato Project. These include Primabella, Sunviva,, Rondobella, Clou etc. I’ve grown Mountain Magic, Crimson Crush, Primabella and Sunviva with good results. I much prefer the last two open pollinated varieties because I can then save my own seed.

 

[Debbie292d]

There have been quite a lot of tomato varieties bred in recent years for blight resistance. Some are F1 hybrids like Mountain Magic , Crimson Crush and its relatives, Crimson Cherry etc.
Very promising are some open pollinated varieties bred by the University of Göttingen’s Organic Outdoor Tomato Project. These include Primabella, Sunviva,, Rondobella, Clou etc. I’ve grown Mountain Magic, Crimson Crush, Primabella and Sunviva with good results. I much prefer the last two open pollinated varieties because I can then save my own seed.

Thank you! Very helpful!

 

[Debbie292d]

i no longer even try to fight whatever it is here because like you it seems to come along no matter what i do. the plants start losing leaves and sometimes are almost completely empty of leaves by this time.

we did have more leaves on plants this year compared to most of the previous years and much of it was probably from giving them more space and letting them sprawl out and also not having so many tomato worms eating the plants.

I think @heirloomgal has the best idea for us: get/build a greenhouse. I would like a small one anyway for growing my own annual flowers.

In lieu of that for the coming year, I'm going to find a couple of those blight-resistant varieties @Decoy1 mentioned. We'll test by growing and leaving a few in the basement, but put a couple of those out in the spring.

 

[Alasgun]

In our 12X24 greenhouse i run a Toyo stove AND a commercial dehumidifier; designed for 2500 sq ft. In our 300 sq ft greenhouse it does wonders keeping down the various “spores” that can and do exist in a “controlled environment”. It’s not a cure all but the difference is night and day since we started using it 5/6 years ago!

This is an old picture but you can see the stove to the left and the
de-hu under the sink. The discharge hose is plumbed into the sink drain. It’s programed for 65% and the cool part is, when it’s running it makes enough heat that the Toyo wont kick on! Later in the year when it’s warmer, the extra heat is not noticed. Of course in Alaska i keep the heater set on 58deg and there’s only a month or so where it doesn’t come on sometime; during the evenings especially.

With overhead louvers and temp controlled fans a lot of air circulates thru during the day but the high capacity de-hu keeps it all in order, constantly cleaning the air!

 

[ducks4you]

In our 12X24 greenhouse i run a Toyo stove AND a commercial dehumidifier

I suggest that you look hard at WHERE you have planted them. We, in Central IL have had a terrible drought in 2025, BUT, my Bartlett Pear, which has had fire blight several years in a row, is doing VERY well, bc it's been so dry.
Since I am up at 3AM (for the GDS puppies), I get to see the dew in the middle of the night.
I am thinking that your tomato growing spots don't dry out enough. Surprisingly, tomatoes need water, BUT, not too much and funguses LOVE humidity.
Just my 2 cents...