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Publication #Circular 1440

New Plants for Florida: Tomato1

Jay Scott2

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Fresh market tomato is grown in Florida from October through June. The 50,000 acres under tomato production in Florida generate a farm gate value of over $500 million per year. The program at FAES has provided improvements that have allowed tomato to be grown successfully in Florida and has had a significant impact on production worldwide. Tomatoes are a good source of minerals, vitamins C and A, and carotenoids, such as lycopene, that are beneficial as cancer-preventing antioxidants.

Major achievements in the Florida breeding program have been the development of disease-resistant varieties and the improvement of fruit quality. Manalucie, developed by breeder J.M. Walter, was a major breeding achievement of the 1950s, due to its multiple disease resistance and improved fruit quality. Homestead was widely grown in Florida for much of the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1960s, race 2 of Fusarium wilt was causing major losses to the Florida tomato industry. The release of Walter by J.W. Strobel in 1969 marked the world's first variety with resistance to the Fusarium wilt pathogen. A cooperative project between the FAES and the H. J. Heinz Company resulted in the development of tomato varieties with improved fruit firmness that became the primary source of firmness for breeding programs around the world. This project led to Florida MH-1, a variety that could be machine harvested because it combined firm fruit, concentrated fruit setting, and jointless pedicels that allowed stemless fruit to be harvested. Flora-Dade proved highly adaptable and was grown commercially throughout the southeastern U.S. and in many regions around the world, including Africa and Australia. Floramerica was the first hybrid released by FAES and won a bronze medal in the 1974 All America Vegetable trials. It has been widely grown in home gardens throughout North America. J.W. Scott, FAES's current tomato breeder, began releasing varieties and lines in 1985. Since then, he has released 18 varieties for the industry. Solar Set, produced throughout the 1990s, exhibits a superior flavor and was the first variety to have heat-tolerant fruit-setting ability, a trait that enabled significant expansion of Florida production. The Fusarium wilt-resistance I-3 gene was discovered by FAES scientists, and I-3 is now widely used in tomato-breeding programs around the world. Breeding line Florida 7547 is used in current hybrid varieties with Fusarium wilt race 3 resistance and has proven valuable in breeding line development because of its superior horticultural characteristics. Neptune was the first bacterial wilt-tolerant variety released from the University of Florida. Micro-Tom, a miniature dwarf variety dubbed “the world's smallest tomato,” was released primarily for the nursery industry. There have been six breeding-line releases since 1999, and some will prove useful as parents in future commercial hybrids. Florida 7804 is in the new Fusarium crown-rot-resistant hybrid Sebring from Syngenta Seeds.

For more information about Tomato varieties, see the following EDIS publications:

HS 508 Tomatoes in the Florida Garden

HS 739 Tomato Production in Florida

Tables

Table 1. 

Tomato varieties and breeding lines developed by FAES.

Variety

Date of Released
Marglobe*

1925

Glovel*

1935

Newell, Cardinal King, Ruby Queen

1940

Manasota, Manahill

1949

Manalucie

1953

Homestead*

1953

Manalee

1954

Indian River

1958

Manapal

1960

Floralou

1962

Floradel

1965

Immokalee

1966

Tropi-Red, Tropi-Gro

1967

Tropic, Walther

1969

Florida MH-1

1971

Florida 556

1972

Flora-Dade

1976

Floramerica, Florida 1011, Walter PF, Calypso

1977

Burgis, Hayslip, FL2432, Florida 1A, 1B, 1C, FL Petite, FL Lanai, FL Basket

1981

Horizon, Suncoast

1985

Floragold Basket

1987

Micro-Tom, Solar Set

1989

Equinox, Florida 7547, 7481, Micro-Gold, vNeptune

1994

Florida 7771, Florida 7775, 7781, Micro-Tina*, Micro-Gemma*

1999

Florida 7946, 7804, 7692B

2002
* In cooperation with the USDA

Footnotes

1.

This document is part of Circular 1440, a publication of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, the Agronomy Department and IFAS Communication Services, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication date August 2003. Originally published as a booklet by IFAS Communication Services June 2003. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Jay Scott, Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, Gulf Coast REC--Bradenton, FL. Circular 1440 is edited by Richard L. Jones, Mary L. Duryea, and Berry J. Treat, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Richard L. Jones, Dean for Research, publishes this information to further programs and related activities, available to all persons regardless of race, color, age, sex, disability or national origin. Information about alternate formats is available from IFAS Communication Services, University of Florida, PO Box 110810, Gainesville, FL 32611-0810.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.