Great interest in new varieties during open day Rijk Zwaan Canada

On Thursday September 7, Rijk Zwaan organized their annual guided tour through their Demonstration house in Leamington, Ontario. Growers, retailers and traders from Canada and the USA came to view, taste and assess the broad range of tomato varieties the Dutch breeding company has to offer. Rijk Zwaan presented several promising new varieties for next season.

One of the new varieties that performed very well this season is beef tomato Kivu (72-629) RZ. “Kivu showed excellent results and it definitely attracted the attention of the visitors”, says Advisor Greenhouse Crops Marleen van der Torre. “Throughout the season it produced uniform large fruits of 260-280 grams. The production so far is outstanding and due to its generative yet strong plant type, it is easy in labour. The big advantage of this variety is that it hardly drops fruit and that it has the powdery mildew intermediate tolerance.”

Excellent new candidates
Another variety that attracted a lot of interest from visitors is the new large TOV Prodezo. Van der Torre: “Its high yield and consistent large fruit weight makes it an excellent candidate for the upcoming variety choice growers have to make in the coming period. Besides the nice advantage of powdery mildew intermediate tolerance, it has a nice early production and the fruit shape is uniform round throughout the season.”

To play into the increasing consumption of snack vegetables, Rijk Zwaan developed a new yellow grape called Maggino with exceptionally good flavour. It is a valuable addition to so-called medleys, a mix of variously colored grapes. Another trend that Rijk Zwaan plays into is organic. “We have several varieties in this segment, amongst which Endeavour, a much-wanted large TOV variety that is appreciated for its well-balanced taste and outstanding quality, particularly during summer conditions”, Van der Torre states.

Open all season
People who were not able to come during the open house, still have a chance to come and visit the demo greenhouse till mid-October. Also, Rijk Zwaan will be present at the Canadian Greenhouse Conference held October 4th and 5th in Niagara Falls and during the PMA in New Orleans.

Appointments can be made via m.van.der.torre@rijkzwaan.com or by calling the office at 1 519 324 0632. Check the website of Rijk Zwaan for more information regarding their assortment: https://www.rijkzwaan.com.