Skykomish

[jwr]

Anyone else seen this?

   We had a terrible year here for late blight. I grew 20 or so varieties of tomatoes. I can report that the foliage of Skykomish was largely unaffected by the blight. The fruit however was completely susceptible. About a week or so after the first signs of lb the fruit were black and rotten. Hanging on a plant without other signs. Which kind of defeats the purpose IMHO. On the bright side this would indicate that whatever causes the lb resistance is localized to the leaves which could help isolate the causative agent. 

Cheers

jwr

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks for the report about the foliage of Skykomish possessing Late Blight resistance, however I share your disappointment that the fruit didn't do well. The history of seven years of performance locally proved much better. I wonder if the strains of blight could be a factor? Where are you located? I have other tomato varieties that might perform better. I will try to look at my local production of varieties in development to review any similar events such as yours.

Other breeders have indicated that growing only Late Blight resistant varieties would go a long ways to protect the fruit.... for a limited amount of time, anyway.

More later. I had quite a few Skykomish sold on grafted rootstock in Oregon and Washington. I will call around.....

[jwr]

I'm in Oshawa, Ontario. No idea what strains are active here, but I do know most of Michigan and Ontario had extremely bad blight this year.

[maidendirt]

I have this line still alive from a grower across town. Hope to see fruits from it before frost.

[Deleted]

I'm in lower Michigan in Kalamazoo County. I will keep in mind to plant a few Skykomish plants in a late blight area next spring. I was hit really hard with Septoria Leaf Spot this year. The worst ever. Once it took hold it was impossible to stop. It killed all the foliage and only new growth kept the plant going.

[yri]

I grew some Skykomish plants this year in Belgium. And while it was one of the best tasting tomatoes ever, it showed absolutely no blight resistance. I grew five different tomato varieties this year and Skykomish was the first one to perish, weeks before the other varieties died. I gave some plants away to friends and they witnessed the same thing there. Is it possible that Skykomish is only resistant to US strains of blight and not to european strains?

[Tom Wagner]

I will do a search about the performance of Skykomish in different parts of the world.

[nathanp]

It is a quite long season tomato for me. It yields very late in the year, almost too late for any yield. I have grown it a few years, and hope to select for earlier production.

[terryinmichigan]

I have Skykomish but have not done anything with it lately. ( health issues) I will when I can.