In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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April 18, 2007

VFNTA on tomato tags

Take a look at the plastic tags that come with your tomatoes. In addition to providing information about watering, sun and soil, they often give you clues about the hardiness of a particular variety. Some tags will say “disease resistant,” while others will tell you exactly what diseases a particular variety can resist.

Typically, the tag will say “VFN.” If it says “VFNTA,” you've got a tomato variety that is resistant to some of the main afflictions that plague tomatoes.

V means the variety is resistant to verticillium wilt.
F means the variety shows tolerance to fusarium wilt.
N means nematode resistance.
T means the variety resists the tobacco mosaic virus.
A means it is not susceptible to alterneria root rot.

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