Reducing the risk of bacterial diseases in tomatoes

These days, with the availability of good-quality hybrid seed, an infection is less likely to occur in your tomato crop. However, you still have to safeguard against bacterial canker and other threats, cautions Bill Kerr.

- Bill Kerr

The foliar bacterial diseases that attack tomatoes are mostly, Fortunately, T seed-transmitted these have become less common today thanks to the hybrid seeds which now dominate the market. In the past, many seed companies would produce seed for tomato varieties, and this usually resulted in a price war, with farmers buying the cheapest seed.

Modern hybrids have been hand-pollinated and each company has sole ownership of the varieties developed. It is therefore in its interest to ensure that the seed is disease-free and of good quality, rather than taking shortcuts to produce cheaper seeds in order to generate sales. That said, there are still some open-pollinated varieties being grown, and many seedling nurseries use these to produce plants that are sold 'on spec'. This provides stock to sell at a good price without the loss of expensive seeds if plants are not purchased.