What is the best disease resistant tomato. How is the Cherokee Purple or Brandywine?

I've had good luck with Brandywine. They're pretty tough disease-wise. I like that they are a taller plant and are good eating tomatoes.

Plant different kinds keep them sprayed with copper sulfate

Cherokee purple is very sensitive to all blights and has zero disease resistance. They need to be sprayed at least weekly with fungicide if your area is prone to blight.

There is another variant called purple boy that has a better disease resistance package. I have had god luck woth them. If fed and sprayed correctly, they ate heavy producers.

Best advice I can give after 14 years of mistakes is to plant tomatoes of the “plus” variety. Better boy plus, celebrity plus, lemon boy plus, etc. The plus has a mosaic virus immunity which helps tremendously. Celebrity plus are big producers.

Most of your heirlooms have zero disease resistance. There are a lot of heirloom equivalents out there in the plus variety.

A smart farmer gave me some good advice once when I was reluctant to plant anything but heirlooms.

He said, “A dead plant makes nothing.” Since then i have had wonderful harvests.

Since I have plenty of room, I plant a bunch of different disease resistant varieties and plant more that I need. That way I'll have plenty even if (and I always do) lose some plants to blight or whatever. I don't have time to spray or prune either, so this method has always worked for me.

Celebrity I think are most resistant, I plant more than I need to make sure I have enough

I have raised mostly celebrity tomatoes for over the last decade plus. I have only had 2 seasons where disease has been an issue. They are rated high for resistance. They also are a both determinant and indeterminant in their growing pattern, which is rare. I do follow a program of fungicide treatment and ground covering as my tomatoes now are in a heavier clay loam place and there is more dieseae organisms in the soil then in the lighter, sandier garden I had used before.

Bryce

I love my heirlooms but I agree that a good hybrid will be more disease resistant .

I grow predominantly heirlooms and get along well. Pink Girl is a hybrid that seems to be fairly resistant to most issues.

Crop rotation seems to help me.

What ground cover works good for tomatoes. What does a ground cover do to help tomatoes. What is a good fungicide for tomatoes. How do you feed tomatoes. I have always just planted them, tied them up and pinched off the suckers. I am interested in taking it to the next level with some of the suggestions above.

We use saw dust, don’t put it tight to the stem as it will restrict growth, as for water and fertilizer we use the drip pipe so the water goes right to the plant.

Ok, NUMBER ONE, NUMERO UNO, FIRST BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, get a soil test done at your local extension office. The report you will get back will tell you exactly what your soil measurements are and what you need to do to get your soil right for growing vegetables. If you do this you will look like a pro. Measure your garden so you know your square footage.

Know your growth zone. I am in Zone 7. Knowing your zone will give you the ability to plan everything out timing wise.

Draw out your garden so you know where everything will be. Use a tape measure to get maximum poundage of growth out of your garden. It also gives you the ability to rotate crops from year to year. You also know which variety of tomato you will have growing in any given row.

Ground cover I use is mulch. Some people buy compost. You can use leaves, CLEAN hay, straw, pine needles, etc. Something I have used is alfalfa hay, It is high in protein so it is high in nitrogen. It's a bit expensive though. Maple leaves are great as they are the gold standard for nitrogen content and low lignin content. The reason for the ground cover is weed suppression and moisture retention. It works really well.

Fungicides are available in many forms. There are some organic varieties and synthetic varieties. There are systemic and topical varieties also. Be careful with the systemics and apply exactly as directed. Know your fungicide as some are more effective against certain fungus than others. The key on spraying is a regular weekly or more spraying for PREVENTION. If you spray after it is infected you are wasting your time. Once infected, pull the plant and remove at a distance or burn, preferably both.

Spray pesticides in the last light of evening or first light of morning. Pesticides are as varied as fungicides. There's organic, synthetic, topical and systemic. Some are more effective than others. Make sure to get the ones made for a vegetable garden and follow directions according to plant. I specifically spray in the evening so the pesticide gets on the bad bugs and not the bees. Bees are extremely important. If we didn't have bees, we wouldn't have a lot of the fruits and vegetables we have now. DON'T KILL THE BEES!!

Plant beneficial flower mixes around your garden. They bring in the bees and predatory wasps. Flowers will give you a much better garden. Some flowers will run off some insects. Marigolds are very good at this as well as chrysanthemums. Nasturtium, calendula, zinnias, and more are very good as repelling pests and attracting beneficials.

Feeding tomatoes is pretty simple. Once you soil is balanced, I fertilize every two weeks. I use an in ground fertilizing system from Hoss Tools. It is the BOMB!! you can also make a mixture in a five gallon bucket and give each plant one cup. I fertilize for the first two feedings with 34-0-0 as I want a strong viable plant with a great head start. Once the plants start to set blooms I switch to calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0). This fertilizer will prevent blossom and bottom end rot. I have zero bottom rot as long as I maintain fertilizing correctly.

Have a water supply available. Make sure they get at least the equivalent of one inch of rain/week. Drought tomatoes are ugly and stunted and you can't catch up. You have to wait on the next bloom set. Consistent water is a must. Think about how much water is in the plant and fruit. It is also how the plant uptakes nutrients.

As far as suckering goes, I sucker indeterminates. I do not sucker determinates. If you plant a bunch of tomatoes learn the Florida weave for putting them up. It is very fast and very effective. Use metal post only. Wind will take down wood stakes that are loaded with pounds of tomatoes.

The thing I love about gardening is there is always something to learn and if you get in with good gardeners, you will glean knowledge from each other. Plus fresh vegetables make for good friends and family. Few things make me happier than feeding my family venison or a meat I raised and vegetables raised in our garden.

I have 14 years of mistakes and there are a lot of people on here who are better at gardening than me by far. Lots of good help on here so keep asking questions. It's how you learn.

And take pictures as you go. I send and receive lots of pics to and from my friends throughout the year. Good luck and get dirty.

For a ground cover I use the 36 inch by 100 foot rolls of landscaper material, cut in half (18 inches wide) and lay out and pin down. I cut a slot and plant the plants in the slot. I do that for weed control around the plant and the row but also to keep dirt from splashing up on the plants and leaves when it rains. I use a standard fungicide and spray every 7-10 days about 5-6 times per season. Don't use much fungicide the first couple but as the plant grows one uses more. As to fertilizer, we tested 5 years ago and we were well balanced so all we do now is I put dig a small trench along the row when right before planting and covering. I use a 10-10-10 and sprinkle about 1/4 cup per plant and do that once. Our other nutrients comes from a covering of about 2 inches of composted sheep manure over the whole garden. This similar to what is done with first year corn with a lot of OM and N. A bit of starter to get the plant going and then when the soil warms up the soil organisms break down the OM and the plants really take off. I have never been much for pruning or snipping and that has worked well for me.

Bryce

I use the black fabric, and last year when I planted the seedlings I put a sheet of brown paper around the stem to stop the soil from splashing on the plant, it made no difference, I got the same leaf spot as always

If I could only grow one tomato it would be Cherokee Purple. I usually plant 20-40 plants and a dozen of them will be Cherokee Purple. Of those dozen I try to buy plants from diff places and spread the love around b/c some do better than others. Plant them with plenty of spacing so air can move in and around them. One full shovel length between plants in any direction. Keep them dry with air moving around them like that you wont have all the issues to correct. Have good soil with a good starter fertilizer, don't let them sit hot and wet, keep them clean, mulch them, prune them up off the ground and keep the centers of them cleaned up, use concrete wire cages... and you can't hardly beat a cherokee purple.

I agree, it's something you should do every season.