Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Bing on December 17, 2014, 12:22
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Just read this and I should share it here,
Suttons Seeds launches 'blight resistant' tomato
9 December 2014, by Matthew Appleby, Be the first to comment
'Crimson Crush' is new and excusive to Suttons Seeds for 2015 and is claimed to be the world's first fully blight resistant variety.
Crimson Crush has two resistance genes against blight - PH2 and PH3 genes - which make it resistant to all common blight strains in UK including "Pink 6" and "Blue 13", says Suttons, which is undergoing a management buy-out.
The variety is available from 9 January at £7.99 for three seedlings.
Breeder is Simon Crawford and Bangor University's James Stroud.
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That's interesting. Not sure I would pay that premium without knowing how they taste. I might leave it a bit till others have tried and reviewed the flavour. It would be great to avoid the heartache of blight though.
Didn't know Suttons was also Carters and Dobies. Hope they can survive now they are out on their own.
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Yes, very interesting, although I suspect the price will raise a few eyebrows amongst those who like to think that growing their own is both satisfying and cost-effective. ;)
This (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2875487/The-tomato-fight-blight-Crimson-Crush-breed-species-commercially-available-amateur-gardeners.html) is what the Daily Mail says about it - hope the story is more accurate than some of their spelling ('Seedinlings' indeed! :tongue2:)
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Is it just "resistant" or actually "immune"?
Surely we already have loads of varieties of Tomato that are "resistant" ... if this is a breakthrough surely it must be something more than that?
(I've read "on two genes rather than just one" for example).
... those who like to think that growing their own is both satisfying and cost-effective.
Justifiable as cost-effective if the alternative is no crop, perhaps?
Do any of the grafted routes provide some measure of resistance to blight?
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A 19p packet of soluble Aspirin from Superdrug for me I think http://www.countryliving.co.uk/news/aspirin-treatment-for-tomato-blight. I'm sure a Moderator will be on the case informing us that European Law say we must not play with such non sanctioned things on the allotment or garden.
The Hitch Hackers Guide to the Galaxy that was discovered recently having fallen through a worm hole in time says The European Politicians that passed all these laws were the first ones placed up against a wall and shot when the revolution finally happened.
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I think I'll wait for the seeds "next year". If it works, they'll be available. If it doesn't, they won't.
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I never did see a review to those Tomatoes crossed with a potato they were banging on about this year
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A 19p packet of soluble Aspirin from Superdrug for me I think http://www.countryliving.co.uk/news/aspirin-treatment-for-tomato-blight. I'm sure a Moderator will be on the case informing us that European Law say we must not play with such non sanctioned things on the allotment or garden.
To be fair, we don't tell you that you mustn't - we tell you that it's illegal to do so - as it's not licensed, in order to cover the forum.
What you do is always up to you, silly Billy :lol:
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I never did see a review to those Tomatoes crossed with a potato they were banging on about this year
I was wondering how those turned out. When I first heard about them I thought the idea was completely ridiculous! Great idea to splice two plants together that are both susceptible to blight, which seems like a huge issue in the UK. Still can't understand the genius behind that one😯
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My friend's Mum had one as a present. Lots of tomatoes, 2 spuds. She wasn't impressed.
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I never did see a review to those Tomatoes crossed with a potato they were banging on about this year
My friend bought a few; she said lovely tomatoes but very few potatoes.
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From Beechgrove factsheet No 24
( the pdf link doesn't seem to work, so you need to Google it, if you want to check, but I've copied the whole piece for you ; ) )
Carole also looked at the Tomtato, which is a grafted plant with tomatoes growing above ground and potatoes below. Both tomatoes and potatoes are members of the Solanaceae family and are therefore naturally compatible. We had had a really good crop of tomatoes but when Carole lifted the plant there were only 2 potatoes. At a cost of £15 per plant, Carole commented that she would sooner grow her tomatoes and potatoes separately.
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£7:99 a packet AND £4:99 p & p. I think I'll wait and see if they come into the G/Cs nearer the time. :nowink:
Cheers, Tony.
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I've merged your new thread with the existing one, Tony. And it's not £7.99 a packet, that's for three seedlings!
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Blightproof tomato - the
first truly immune variety, Crimson Crush
- the photo looks encouraging, we have to wait to 2016 to buy seed to try. Though plants will be available this year, according to this...........
http://blog.suttons.co.uk/vegetable-growing/crimson-crush-fully-blight-resistant-tomato/#more-5290
Fingers crossed!
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blo ody ell 7 99 a plant lol
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ACTUALLY it says................
available as super plug plants with 3 plants costing £7.99.
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Fabulous for the community poly yipppe do dah well found MOS
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I'll wait for MOS's report on success/failure/taste in c. September 2015 and then perhaps buy some seeds... ;)
Pip pip,
Balders
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Are they F1's could you seed save?
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Well I think it will be worth getting a few plants to try especially as the seeds I bought last year that were supposed to be blight resistant and weren't. :(
It will be the flavour that will be as important as the blight resistance
Thanks for the heads up on this one MOS.
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Fully agree with Mrs Bee. If the flavours not good no need being blight resistant. Having said that I lost all my outdoor tomatoes last year. Never had a problem in the greenhouse.
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arrrrr 3 plants thats better lol
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Hmmmmmm. We all want blight free toms, that's for sure, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss for a year or two and see how things develop. £7.99 PLUS £4.99 postage = £12.98 for 3 plants !..... it's cheaper to just buy tomatoes from the shop.
Blight resistant, not immune, and still vulnerable to our old fungal friend that causes my greenhouse toms more problems than blight. They seem to have seen it important to stress no genetically modified methods have been used. I must say as soon as I see scientists involved in vegetable genes, as in this case, my ears prick up.
Are they F1's could you seed save?
Suttons haven't said yet whether the plant will be marketed as F1 or open pollinated. My guess would be F1 and hence no useful seeds. In the past, good hybrids using the F1 methods have been worked on for generations of plants, and eventually become regarded as open pollinated, and viable where seed saving is concerned. Rutger tomatoes are an example I think I have read somewhere, but it does take time.
I see John of allotment-garden wrote on Crimson Crush a few weeks back
http://allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/3313/blight-free-tomato-armillatox-end/ (http://allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/3313/blight-free-tomato-armillatox-end/)
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At £7.99 - nope - I'll be spraying with aspirin and Bordeaux like last year and believing what our forbears used to do!
Worked well, but you have to watch what's going on!
We're planning to grow six dozen plants this year, so £192.00 for a few toms doesn't actually fill me with the joys of spring!
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We're planning to grow six dozen plants this year, so £192.00 for a few toms doesn't actually fill me with the joys of spring!
"Armpit cuttings" would give you that stock only a few weeks behind the original Mother plants ...
I'm only interested in flavour, and often disease resistance comes at a compromise on flavour. It certainly did with Blight resistant spuds, although that has improved of late.
Of course growing only best-flavour and then having a total-loss of the crop is not much cop! but I'm still head-in-sand on my preferred varieties (of all veg, not just Toms)
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The suttons seeds blog says that seeds will be available for 2016 as part of their 2015 catalogue. So I'm waiting until then. My guess is they'll still be expensive but nothing like as expensive as the plants.
Unfortunately Suttons have exclusive rights so they'll never be cheap.
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We're planning to grow six dozen plants this year, so £192.00 for a few toms doesn't actually fill me with the joys of spring!
"Armpit cuttings" would give you that stock only a few weeks behind the original Mother plants ...
I'm only interested in flavour, and often disease resistance comes at a compromise on flavour. It certainly did with Blight resistant spuds, although that has improved of late.
Of course growing only best-flavour and then having a total-loss of the crop is not much cop! but I'm still head-in-sand on my preferred varieties (of all veg, not just Toms)
Took me a while to understand what you meant, Kristen, (the term you used is not far from my name, and used to be a nick-name when I was a kid, so I was sitting here wondering how on earth you knew who I was), but yes you're right, unless the plants revert in some way, which I doubt!
I'm trying a new experiment this year, by using Sungold seed from last year, which may revert to a bigger specimen of fruit, but have the same flavour!
Nothing wrong with head in the sand, it means you're closer to nature!
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Of course I would never condone taking the Armpit cuttings at the garden centre, thus enabling the garden centre to sell Cordons with all the side shoots correctly removed ... :D
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That would just be helping them, wouldn't it Kristen? :lol:
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Yes, but you'd be working for nothing, hence I couldn't possibly condone it :D
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Well, thanks for that information Kristen, very helpful.. I never really thought of the cutting thing from an F1 that would grow true that same year, and quick enough to produce fruit. Never gave it a thought.
Should work quite well with an early purchased Floridity F1 plant for 99p when I see one, as such varieties have a long fruiting period, almost through to December in a good year.
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Armpit cuttings are so new to me, I've never really got as far as watching one grow, although I did get one away last year, and far too late...
Naaaah, I think I'll just stick to what I know, and not get too bothered about too many new-fangled ideas, rather like all the old boys I used to meet down on the Patch all those years ago, and grew huge, lusty vegetables!
Old fashioned - me?
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Hullo fellow gardeners (Happy New Year to you all).
I read about those crimson crush tomatoes that are supposedly 100% blight-resistant. They are avaiable for order right now. I looked on the site (Sutton seeds) I think that are selling them as plant "plugs" (I know what they mean but I had never had of them term before). Apparently, they only send "plug" by post to addresses within the UK. Never mind, I thought I can buy they seeds. Another blank. They will not be available until the autumn.
So my question is if I get my sister in England to order the "plugs" and send them out to me here in Belgium are they likely to survive the journey (they would take a week to reach me, I imagine)?
Failing that, has anybody heard anything about Tomato Seeds - F1 Lizzano, which BangorUniversity claimed were the most blight-resistant species hitherto? Moreover, what does F1 mean?
Anton
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It's anyone's guess whether they would survive the journey, especially as you don't know yet how warm the weather will be, and exactly how long they might take to arrive - if your sister is willing you could get her to at least water them and possibly improve the packaging if necessary.
Don't know anything about Lizzano, but like all F1's they will be the first generation of seeds from 2 very carefully selected parents, and as such have to be considered a one-off (i.e. not suitable for seed-saving the following year because they will produce plants with different characteristics which are impossible to predict in advance.)
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Perhaps need to check you are allowed to import plants.
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Perhaps need to check you are allowed to import plants.
Should not be a problem within EU (with some exceptions, such as Ash due to Ash-die-back disease)
like all F1's they will be the first generation of seeds from 2 very carefully selected parents, and as such have to be considered a one-off (i.e. not suitable for seed-saving the following year because they will produce plants with different characteristics which are impossible to predict in advance.)
I think the issue here is that Suttons are selling plants this year, and have said they will market seed from this Autumn - so no seed available this Spring. presumably to recoup some of their development cost, or because seed supply is small and can get more added-value by growing them as plants.
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like all F1's they will be the first generation of seeds from 2 very carefully selected parents, and as such have to be considered a one-off (i.e. not suitable for seed-saving the following year because they will produce plants with different characteristics which are impossible to predict in advance.)
I think the issue here is that Suttons are selling plants this year, and have said they will market seed from this Autumn - so no seed available this Spring. presumably to recoup some of their development cost, or because seed supply is small and can get more added-value by growing them as plants.
Kristen: The above quote was referring to the Lazzano seeds (until you edited it out! ::)) rather than Sutton's Crimson Crush - we probably won't know whether they are F1 seeds or not until they go on sale, although I wouldn't bet against them being just that! ;)
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The above quote was referring to the Lazzano seeds (until you edited it out! ::)) rather than Sutton's Crimson Crush
So I see now I've re-read your original :) being dyslexic I'm inclined to make that sort of mistake, sorry about that :)
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No worries Kristen - I'm perfectly capable of making mistakes like that without being dyslexic! ;)