![]() If republishing our news, please acknowledge the source (“From Northeast IPM Insights”) along with a link to our website.After a discussion on Gardeners Question Time recently where it was claimed that blight-resistant tomatoes are 'a marketing tag', the Burpee Europe team wanted to share their side of the blight-resistant breeding story. The Northeastern IPM Center promotes integrated pest management for reducing risks to human health and the environment. She says she is confident that her team will continue to develop tomato plants that can withstand a wide range of pest insects and diseases spread by them. What’s more, Mutschler is combining genes for different traits to solve other problems. Mutschler hopes to breed tomato lines with even stronger resistance to early blight. ![]() This means there is much work to be done. “At this rate, new varieties might come out yearly,” she predicts. “The process is moving fast,” says Mutschler. More new hybrids with the trait are expected to be released by several seed companies in the next few years. See the Vegetable MD Online website:Īmong the varieties already on the market for the 2013 growing season is the new triple-fungal resistant tomato hybrid “Iron Lady” (High Mowing Organic Seeds). To make selection easier for growers, Mutschler and Zitter developed a list of tomato variety characteristics with their resistance and tolerance capabilities. Thus they can add the triple fungal resistant trait to their new varieties. All seed companies have access to the triple-resistant tomato lines and the molecular markers for the Ph2 and Ph3 resistance genes. Mutschler and her collaborators release their tomato lines nonexclusively. Mutschler’s varieties underwent testing in both organic and conventional settings to meet the needs of diverse growing methods. They naturally resist the effects of late blight and septoria. Tomato breeds that contain genetic control of all three diseases have little to no need for fungicide applications. ![]() Mutschler and her team of collaborators-including Tom Zitter of Cornell, Kelly Ivors and Randy Gardner of North Carolina State University’s Mountain Research Station, and many extension partners in New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina-learned that plants carrying the genes Ph2 and Ph3 formed the gold standard of late-blight resistance. With a USDA Regional IPM Competitive Grant from the Northeastern IPM Center in her corner, Mutschler prepared to go the distance to combine the winning genetic characteristics for fungal resistance in tomato crops. Martha Mutschler of Cornell University stepped into the ring with a goal of knocking out this fungal triple threat. In addition to late blight, early blight and septoria leaf spot also threaten Northeastern tomato crops. Scientists stepped up creation of blight-resistant tomato varieties, working with new urgency on research they had begun years before. Some growers in the region reported total tomato crop loss. In 2009, airborne fungus late blight, which can spread through a garden or field in just a few days, decimated tomato crops in the Northeast. They also have been named the most purchased vegetable in the United States. Tomatoes rank first among the top ten most popular vegetables grown in home gardens and fifth among the most profitable vegetables to grow. When food lovers choose items for a grocery list or plan a garden plot, tomatoes take the prize. Source: Mike Gloss, Kingbird Farm Martha Mutschler, Cornell University. Tomatoes susceptible to late blight, on the left, contrast with tomato hybrids resistant to late blight, early blight, and septoria leaf spot.
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