Tomayto, tomahto? P.E.I. greenhouses take different approaches to blight resistant varieties

Greenhouses on P.E.I. are taking different approaches when it comes to what kind of tomato varieties they are offering their customers this season.

In 2015, Agriculture Canada launched a campaign to encourage Prince Edward Islanders to grow blight-resistant tomatoes after a new aggressive strain of late blight devastated tomato crops the season earlier.

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Late blight specialist Rick Peters repeated the warning this spring.

"Planting disease-resistant seeds is the best way to prevent the spread of late blight to other gardens and potato farms," said Peters.

Only blight resistant

The threat of blight was enough to convince Kool Breeze Farms in Summerside, P.E.I. to switch over entirely to blight resistant tomato plants.

"This is our third year where we have switched completely to blight resistant tomatoes," said Stephanie Simmons, greenhouse supervisor at Kool Breeze.

"We've made the switch because home gardeners were having a really bad time battling blight."

She attended one of the sessions in 2015 put on by Rick Peters from Agriculture Canada.

"It opened our eyes to how bad it really is so we made the switch completely," said Simmons.

Customers coming back

She said they've had great success with the blight resistant varieties which they also grow and sell to customers.

"A lot of people are scared that the tomato doesn't have flavour like the normal, the older varieties that have been around forever but they are actually really good," said Simmons.

"We grow them ourselves out back to sell them so everyone seems to be really liking them."

This year, there are three or four new varieties of blight resistant tomatoes that Kool Breeze will be selling this year.

"I spoke to two people the other day, it was their first time trying them last year and they came back for them again."

A wide variety

Van Kampen's Greenhouses in Charlottetown offers a mix of traditional, heirloom and blight resistant varieties.

They started selling blight resistant plants four years ago.

"It was market demand for them, there's a number of gardens around the Island like the Legacy Garden, in behind the Farm Centre, that require people planting there to plant blight resistant varieties," said Peter Meijer, sales manager at Van Kampen's.

"Other than that, people who live close to potato fields or high risk areas for blight, it's something they've been asking for."

Meijer, however, suggests there is also to stick with the traditional varieties.

A matter of taste

"There's ways you can make your favourite tomato blight resistant without growing a special variety that does that," explained Meijer.

"You can apply a sulphur dust application so that you can grow your favourite garden variety and make it just as resistant to blight."

Peters warns that sticking with the traditional varieties comes with some risk.

"Sulphur-based products have limited effectiveness against the new aggressive strains of late blight," he said.

Meijer isn't convinced that the blight resistant varieties offer the same taste as some of the more traditional ones.

"Many people find the heirloom varieties of tomatoes to be more flavourful so we still stick to growing a wide variety of tomatoes," said Meijer.

"I'd say there's a few people every year that definitely want it and there's a few people who try it and realize they don't like them nearly as much as the tried, tested and true heirloom types."

Seeds selling well

At Veseys Seeds in York, P.E.I., there is a growing selection of blight resistant varieties this spring, with two new varieties in the catalogue this year, thanks to breeding programs that are creating new tomatoes annually.

"We've gone in the last five years from having no blight resistant varieties to now I think we have five or six really good ones," said Angus Mellish, of Veseys.

There are now blight resistant options in beefsteak, round reds, plum and cherry tomatoes in the Veseys catalogue and on the store shelves in York.

"In our store, the blight resistant tomato seeds sell really well," he says.

'Better neighbours'

"A lot of home gardeners are recognizing the advantage of if you plant a blight resistant tomato it stays healthy, you don't have to worry about spraying it and you don't have to worry about it falling apart in September just as the tomatoes are ripening up."

Mellish adds the blight resistant seeds are more expensive, but he calls it a good investment compared to losing your tomato crop if it's a wet fall and the plants get blight.

"It also makes for better neighbours, if you as a home gardener don't have a whole bunch of blight in your tomato garden that affects your neighbour's tomato garden or here on Prince Edward Island, it also affects the potato industry," he said.

Safer is better

Peters is pleased that more Islanders are going the blight resistant route, adding that similar precautions apply to home gardeners that want to plant potatoes.

He recommended that Islanders use certified disease-free seed potatoes that can be found at garden centres or purchased from a local seed potato grower, and not ones from last year's garden or a grocery store.

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