Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Disease resistant vegetables
If you’re new to gardening or just tired of fighting diseased plants, you may consider planting disease resistant varieties of vegetables. These are plants that have been bred with plants that are naturally more disease resistant. These are not genetically engineered with certain herbicides or pesticides. For more on GMO vs Hybrids
In your catalogs you’ll find codes listed for some vegetables. Here’s a comprehensive list from Johnny’s Seeds.
One of their new 2019 introductions is a small cherry tomato called ‘Edox’. Check the link for all the codes of disease resistance. They sell to a lot of commercial growers.
Cornell University that has a very comprehensive list of disease resistant veggie varieties.
If a plant is listed as “Good disease resistance” without any initials, it’s not really telling you anything except that the plant is vigorous.
Tomatoes are usually the first choice for new gardeners. There are many disease resistant varieties including “Quick Pick”, “Champion”, “Better Boy” and “Supersteak”. These are all resistant to Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt and root knot nematodes.
Here is a list from Burpee on disease resistant tomatoes. Some have multiple resistances. ‘Umamin’ is one I just ordered and will try this summer. It’s codes are F – Fusarium wilt, V – Verticillium, TMV – Tobacco Mosaic and N – Nematodes
‘Mama Mia Giallo’ is a wonderful sweet pepper resistant to TMV, there are many peppers like it but this one stands out to me!
Crop rotation will make a big difference in plant production. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.