Grafted Tomato Plant - F1 Shirley The blight resistant tomato awarded RHS Garden Merit! The F1 Shirley has the best tolerance to late blight disease we have ever seen! But, as well as its ability to shrug off even the worst blight, F1 Shirley will provide great yields of exceptionally fine tasting, medium, round red tomatoes. Matures early, and crops heavily on short jointed plants. Nicely shaped fruits of fine quality with firm skin and scrumptious taste and texture. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Shirley was awarded RHS Garden Merit winner, Which? Best Buy. Even those gardeners who have had issues with blight in the past will find this variety more reliable. It\'s the tomato plant that everyone should be planting this year! Why have we grafted F1 Shirley?  Grafting onto specific rootstocks of course creates bigger, better, more disease-resistant plants with increased yield. Consequently, we believe, the extra vigour which the plant obtains will provide even better protection to late Blight attack, and the plants will grow away from any infection even more rapidly. This variety is unique in that it has two resistance genes to Phytopthera infestans (Late Blight), giving it full resistance to all strains of blight currently found in the UK. So if blight spores come into contact wth the plant the infection will not spread throughout the plant. It\'s been bred using natural methods and has been tested throughout the breeding process using Marker Assisted Selection (MAS). Please note: With regards to the nature of the blight resistance, plants can still show infection (up to 15-20%) of leaves, stems etc. without effecting fruit quality or yield. The plants having the resistance to be able to grow away from the attack.