Researchers from Bangor University are trying to develop a commercially-viable new strain of tomatoes that can be grown outdoors. Researchers from Bangor University growing blight-free outdoor tomatoesExperts from the institution have joined forces with not-for-profit organisation the Sárvári Research Trust to try and grow a hardy tomato that is resistant to late-blight, the organism that usually spells disaster for any outdoor-grown tomato crop – the very same organism that caused the potato blight that led to the Irish potato famine in the mid-nineteenth century.
Typically wet UK summers have scuppered previous attempts at outdoor growing on a large scale, with major commercial growers having long-since given up.
“Outdoor grown tomatoes, when you can grow them, are delicious and tasty as they’ve grown in direct sunlight,” David Shaw, Director of Gwynedd-based Sárvári Research Trust, commented.
“A new hardy variety of blight-resistant tomato could be grown locally by gardeners, allotment holders and market gardeners even in our wet climate. They would be grown without pesticide and so would tick all the boxes for high-quality, sustainable, low-input and locally-grown food.”
This new project aims to build on some of the Sárvári Research Trust’s previous research, which saw it develop seven new types of blight-free potatoes. The Trust will work alongside PhD student James Stroud and Dr Katherine Steele of Bangor University’s School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, with the collaboration funded by the European Union-backed Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) initiative.
In other tomato-based news, a year-long Dutch trial saw tomatoes grown under diffuse glass lead to increased yields. The ‘Het Nieuwe Belichten’ (New Lighting) project funded by industry and the Dutch government saw tomatoes under diffuse glass record yields of 90kg per square metre.
Source: Horticulture Wales – Blight-Resistant Outdoor Tomatoes On The Menu?
