Enza Zaden’s ToBRFV Myth Series

Jennifer Polanz

International breeder Enza Zaden recently released a series of videos dispelling a variety of myths related to Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) and their high resistance varieties branded HREZ.

I wanted to include this information because while the cover story of the Autumn Issue of Inside Grower highlighted a number of problems tomatoes can encounter, it did not touch on ToBRFV. You can find a wide variety of information about the origins of ToBRFV and development of HREZ on the Enza Zaden website.

The series I mentioned above highlights the nuances of the science and selection behind HREZ varieties and answers some questions about them. Each “myth” includes both a video and an extensive blog post:

1. “Resistance always comes at a price of yield and production”
2. “Hot days permanently break HREZ resistance”
3. “More genes are better than one gene”
4. “HREZ will be easily broken by mutant strains”
5. “Hygiene doesn’t matter when you grow HREZ”

Bonus episode: “With a resistant scion, you don’t need a resistant rootstock