PERFORMANCE OF HEIRLOOM AND LATE BLIGHT RESISTANT HEIRLOOM-TYPE TOMATO HYBRIDS IN ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FIELD TRIALS

Abstract

There is a good market for heirloom tomatoes that, according to many consumers, taste better than regular tomatoes. Unfortunately, most heirloom tomatoes have little disease resistance, tend to crack, are rough in appearance, and are not uniform in size. Randy Gardner recently developed several new indeterminate hybrid tomatoes with the goal of combining the flavor of heirloom tomatoes with the disease resistance, uniform size, and good shipping characteristics of more modern varieties. Two tests, using organic and conventional practices, were conducted in Waynesville, N.C., in which three popular heirloom varieties (German Johnson, Mr. Stripey, and Cherokee Purple) and four late blight resistant hybrids (NC 0455, NC 0571, NC 0576, and NC 05114), replicated four times, were grown using a high trellis system. The highest yields were obtained with German Johnson NC 0455, and NC 0576 in the conventional trial and German Johnson NC 0455, and NC 0571 in the organic trial. Public taste test results revealed that the experimental hybrid cluster type, NC 05114, was ranked by over 82% of the participants as good or excellent. NC 0455 was rated as good or excellent by >83% of the participants, which was better than the popular heirlooms Cherokee Purple and Mr. Stripey. This study demonstrated that the heirloom-type hybrid tomatoes could be successfully grown in organic and conventional systems in Western North Carolina and that two out of the four tested had flavor ratings similar to, or better than, the three heirloom varieties tested.