Evaluation of TYLCV-resistant Tomato Varieties under Commercial Conditions in Southwest Florida

Monica Ozores-Hampton¹, Eugene McAvoy², Eric Simonne³ , Steve Sargent³ and Phil Stansly¹.

¹University of Florida/IFAS, SWFREC, Immokalee, FL. ²Hendry County Extension Service. ³University of Florida, Horticultural Sciences Department, Gainesville, FL.

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), considered by some to be the worst tomato virus worldwide, TYLCV is now endemic to Florida. The disease is caused a begomoviruses transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius). The virus causes stunted growth and flower abortion with early infections resulting in almost no fruit set (Schuster and Stansly, 1996). Symptoms are dwarfed leaves which are cupped, thick and rubbery with chlorotic margins. Tomato growers have focused their attention on whitefly control to reduce losses. Management of whitefly and TYLCV rests primarily on insecticides, particularly the neonicotinoids, and tomato-free planting periods initiated by timely crop destruction after harvest (Schuster and Polston, 1999). However, insufficient control, in part due to insecticide resistance, is creating an urgent need for additional management tools.

The most important of these management tools is to the use of TYLCV-resistant varieties. Companies such as Seminis, Syngenta, De Ruiter, Hazera, Zeraim, Zakata, Harris Moran, and Clause have already developed TYLCV-resistant cultivars adapted to our needs and environment. Some resistant varieties were evaluated 8 years ago (Gilreath et al, 2000) and more recently by Cushman and Stansly (2006). Subsequent trials in spring 2007 included nine round and two plum tomato cultivars resulted in very distinctive performed in the field as well after the post-harvest evaluation under a high virus pressure (Ozores-Hampton et al., 2008). However, information on the virus tolerance and horticultural qualities including post-harvest of many new cultivars is still lacking or insufficient. Therefore, the objective of this study was to document the TYLCV resistant and horticultural characteristics of currently available TYLCV-resistant tomato cultivars under commercial field conditions.

The authors wish like to thanks to Southwest Vegetable Growers Association, Sakata, Hazera, Harris Moran, Seminis, BHN and Six’L Farms for providing monetary or in-king support to this project.

Trials

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