Has anyone had success in creating a landrace that is resistant to early blight? I’ll start in 2026 but this is one of my goals for my tomato landrace. If anyone has already had success that has seeds available that I can add to my mix, let me know. Thanks!
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I don’t think I get early blight, at least not bad enough to matter, though I could be wrong. I am getting pretty good at making crosses though so, I would be willing to offer my services for some initial crosses free of charge as long as I can make the crosses with some of my own open-source parents. I’ll look into obtaining some appropriate germplasm. One methodology to try might be to do as large as possible a grow out of the promiscuous tomato project which incorporated quite a few accessions of Solanum habrochaites and one of Solanum penellii. Marglobe Marglobe Tomato - Victory Seed Company which I believe is an heirloom or early modern is supposed to have some resistance. As does Norduke Norduke Tomato - Victory Seed Company. Royal Red Cherry might be useful Royal Red Cherry Tomato - Victory Seed Company
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I’m not sure if I get early blight either, or late blight. Need to learn more about how to tell the difference. But I can say that in the field where I am growing this year, the sungolds and early girls (not mine) are all dying about now, while William’s strain of promiscuous tomatoes is showing only a little damage, and Joseph’s line of obligate outcrossers are showing no blight yet. Last year those did get quite a bit of blight both in my field and other growers (some seeds came from humid kentucky), so some selection pressure may have helped.
They are all in separate patches in the same 2 acre field, and mine were planted a bit later than the hybrid varieties. The William line is growing in the same row where the Joseph line was last year, so there would likely be spores present. The Joseph line is currently growing in a row where there haven’t been tomatoes for at least a couple years.
Cool! Good to hear that they are doing well. I crossed in a few different things that may have more utility for others than for myself. I think frost is the main enemy of tomatoes here. Though I do think they get some minor diseases that just don’t matter much right before frost. Early blight and late blight sound worse. Though they might be present at a low level on occasion even here- just suppressed by the drier climate.
Alternaria alternata resistance
The closest thread on the Open-Source Seed Initiative forum to this one is an interesting one above. By Steph S. of Newfoundland Canada.
This page from Cornell Disease-resistant tomato varieties | Cornell Vegetables suggests the following might be useful amongst genetics I may still have on hand.
Brandywine
Celebrity F1 (Several different generations)
Cloudy Day F1 (May have saved some F2 seed)
Coyote
Geranium Kiss
Homestead (For me via Home Stoop)
Indigo Rose
Matt’s Wild
If I add Black Cherry to that list which Steph suggests is working well, I have quite a few things to make crosses between.
I have a cross with Matt’s Wild and a couple crosses with Home Stoop made this year.
I think I should add Mexico Midget to the list. I have it and its descendant Dwarf Eagle Smiley. My 314 cross is descended from Dwarf Eagle Smiley and I made 11 new crosses with 314 this year, Including Matt’s Wild x 314. So, I might already have a few crosses that need testing for Early Blight and Alternaria resistance.