Last Updated on September 13, 2024 by Suttons Horticultural Team
Like potatoes – their cousins from the nightshade family – tomatoes are susceptible to blight, a disease that can swiftly decimate even the most healthy of crops. But now you can do something about it – grow blight-resistant tomatoes from Suttons. Here are just four of our favourite tomatoes that have been specially bred to withstand this relatively common problem.
Browse our full range of tomato seeds for even more inspiration. Use the filters on the website to refine your shortlist by hardiness, disease resistance or suitability for greenhouse growing.
What is tomato blight?
Blight is a fungus-like infection whose spores spread on the wind causing tomato plants to wilt and rot in a matter of days. It loves the warm, wet growing conditions typical of many UK summers and spreads rapidly through crops, rendering affected fruit inedible. If your tomato plants pick up blight, your best option is to uproot and destroy them immediately. Do not put blighted plants on your compost heap.
What are blight-resistant tomatoes?
Image: Grafted Tomato Plant F1 ‘Crimson Crush’ from Suttons
Blight-resistant tomatoes are bred specifically to withstand blight. While no tomato plant is 100% blight-proof, we believe our blight-resistant varieties come pretty close. Also capable of mounting a good defence against wilting diseases, Fusarium and Verticillium, these tomatoes offer remarkable resilience without compromising on taste or nutrition.
Suttons blight-resistant tomatoes
Image: Grafted Tomato Plant ‘Crimson Blush’ from Suttons
Employing the latest selective breeding techniques, here are four of the best blight-resistant tomatoes that can be raised from seed or grown from high quality grafted plants:
- Crimson Cherry F1 seeds: A delightfully sweet cherry tomato with a refreshing tang, this blight-resistant variety has exceptional defence against both early and late blight. Suitable for growing outside or in the greenhouse, it thrives in the ground or in containers. One of the most versatile tomatoes we’ve ever produced, it’s also heavy fruiting with harvests that continue until the first frosts.
- Crimson Blush Beefsteak F1 seeds: If you’re looking for a beefsteak variety with superb blight resistance, this is the one for you. Ideal for growing outside, Crimson Blush fruits between July and October and is sweeter than your standard beefsteak tomato. In fact, it has a taste profile that’s closer to a cherry tomato. Definitely worth a try!
- Crimson Crush F1 seeds: A heavy-cropping round tomato with great taste, Crimson Crush is bred for outdoor growing and is the perfect variety for allotments. Even if your plants are infected with blight from neighbouring plots, this variety is strong enough to keep growing with the fruit unaffected.
- Crimson Plum F1 seeds: A ‘Roma’ style tomato with a rich, deep flavour, this plum variety begins to ripen as early as July and continues through to October. Crimson Plum F1 is bred to contain few seeds, making it perfect for a meaty ragu or intense passata. The ideal tomato to enjoy fresh or bottle and store, this is one variety you’ll come back to again and again.
Sowing blight-resistant tomato seeds allows you to grow reliable, heavy yields of delicious tomatoes right through to the autumn. For more advice on recognising, preventing and dealing with blight in potato and tomato crops, head over to our guide.
I grew Crimson Crush in South West London a few years back specifically to try to beat blight. They were all utterly decimated by blight. A pity because they produced the most superb fruit. I didn’t risk eating any.