With considerably larger fruits than Oregon Spring or Siletz, Legend also sets fruits earlier than Oregon Spring and sometimes earlier than Siletz. The Legend plant appears to be stronger, with larger stiffer leaves than the other two varieties. Legend is a determinate plant, typically spreading to 36 inches in good growing conditions. As a bonus, Legend is resistant to late blight, a fungal disease that kills tomato plants in home and market gardens. Resistance to a disease like late blight is different from immunity, warned Myers.
Gardeners can expect two to three weeks longer harvest period than susceptible tomato cultivars.
But given the right weather, late blight may eventually overcome the resistance. With mid-May planting, the first Legend fruits ripen in the Willamette Valley about Aug. 1, with an early peak of production. Legend fruits are round, averaging about a half-pound each, but may reach or exceed a pound and are up to four inches wide. Legend has more uniform ripening than Siletz or Oregon Spring. Legend was developed by retired OSU vegetable breeder Jim Baggett and Jim Myers, the OSU Baggett-Frazier Professor of Vegetable Breeding.