It was also called the love apple. We should thank the Italians for first embracing the tomato and introducing it into their cuisine. When browsing through seed catalogues at the vast array of available tomato varieties, and if you propose, as I do, to grow your plants out-of doors this summer look for those that take the shortest time to maturity. You will no doubt also find that in some catalogues information about disease or pest resistance of each variety is given. Both Veticillium and Fusarium cause wilting of the leaves of tomato plants.
Nematodes are microscopic worms that attack, and eventually destroy a tomato plant's roots system.
Buying resistant seeds does not guarantee healthy tomato plants, but it will give your plants a far better chance of growing well until it is time to harvest the fruit, providing the plants are well cared for in terms of watering and fertilizer application. We can divide tomato varieties into two groups - early and main season. Early tomatoes are usually determinate in their growth habit. Such varieties grow to a certain size, flower, form fruit and then die. These varieties do not have to be supported.