About the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement Project (TOMI)
The Tomato Organic Management and Improvement Project (TOMI): Part II is a multi-state, interdisciplinary project developing an integrated approach to manage foliar pathogens while allowing growers to deliver tomatoes with exceptional flavor to the local marketplace.
TOMI is responding to the rapidly growing demand for organic, fresh-market tomatoes. Customers shopping in these markets expect fruit to have superior flavor in comparison to fruit purchased in supermarkets. Currently, organic growers struggle to meet this demand because many existing varieties with superior flavor are susceptible to foliar pathogens that cause late blight, early blight and Septoria leaf spot.
TOMI aims to meet these organic grower needs through three main components.
- Research focused on the biological control of pathogens
- Research focused on induced systemic resistance
- Participatory plant breeding
Outreach activities such as field days, conference presentations, webinars, video tutorials, peer-reviewed articles, and how-to publications, are integrated into each interrelated component to best deliver project results to organic growers.
View the TOMI project scientific research poster here.
Funding
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This project was funded in 2014 and 2019 by the Organic Research and Extension Initiative grant, part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Award numbers 2014-51300-22267 and 2019-51300-30245