Nature Service holds the exclusivity to sell Sun Black tomatoes, developed by the Università della Tuscia in cooperation with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and rich in anti-oxidants. Other exclusive partners are L'Ortofruttifero in Pisa for plant multiplication and Azienda agricola Vella Raffaele in Syracuse for cultivation.
The first tests were carried out in July 2014 on 150 plants, now we have 7,000 plants. "Yields cannot be compared to other tomato varieties - we are talking about 7 quintals per hectare. We are still at an experimental phase though, as we want to improve our technique and study colour variations in different weather conditions." Planting is carried out every 60 days.
The Sun Black brand was registered in 2009. The variety is available in cherry (packed in 500 gram punnets) or vine tomatoes (in cells). They are accompanied by a brochure describing the characteristics of the product (click here to download it). The average weight of the vine tomatoes is 70 grams, whereas that of cherry tomatoes is of 30 grams.
"While growing, tomatoes turn black on a green background, which becomes red when they are ripe. In open fields, the variety did well against viruses."
Sun Black was developed using traditional hybridisation methods (not biotech), within the "Tomantho" research project (acronym of tomato and anthocyanin) and has a high anthocyanin content, hence its dark colour. The project was coordinated by Istituto di Scienze della Vita della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna together with Università Tuscia di Viterbo the Univeristies of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Pisa.
For further information:
Vincenzo Summo
Nature Service
Via Cesare Lombroso, 54
c/o Ortomercato, Pad. "A" Stands 5-6-7
20137 Milano - Italy
Tel.: +39 025 455526
Fax: +39 025 455526
Mob.: +39 335 453147
Email: info@natureservice.it
Web: www.natureservice.it
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