"Canada: "High production, uniform fruits and and less labour costs"

When we visited the breeding trials at IPR Farms in Ruthven last month, we learned that the breeders of De Ruiter Seeds have been working hard to offer the North American growers some alternative varieties with improved characteristics. Together with the Operation Managers Rick and Josh Mastronardi of IPR Farms and Rafael Lacaz Ruiz of Monsanto, I took a look at the most interesting new yellow pepper varieties with potential to become successful commercial introductions.

IPR Farms is a commercial high tech greenhouse located in Ruthven and Leamington, Ontario. They grow cucumbers and TOV's on 12 acres in Leamington, while they have 15 acres with bell peppers in Ruthven. Besides their commercially grown red, yellow and orange pepper crops, they also serve as a trial partner for De Ruiter Seeds. At IPR Farms, there are currently 5 varieties in trials from De Ruiter Seeds.

Lemoncello

One of the interesting outcomes from De Ruiter's breeding pipeline is the yellow pepper DRO5048PB. "We planted our yellow pepper crops on January 17, and since then the DR5048PB - now named Lemoncello - is one kilogram/m2 ahead of our commercial control crop", said Josh Mastronardi, who makes sure that all of the crop data is registered. Josh said that it is not only the increase in production that makes the Lemoncello interesting. "This new variety produces a very uniform firm fruit size; we are packing 70-80% of the fruits as XXL peppers. The uniformity is beautiful, and the crop doesn't produce small peppers or squatty fruits."

Josh furthermore added; "At the same time, the variety has shown zero problems with Blossom End Rot and Inner Fruit Rot so far, so that is very positive as well, quality wise. This is a big plus because we have very humid summers and the heat pressure can be very hard sometimes. We try to steer the crop generative, and we notice that the Lemoncello has more vigour to drive balance."

The average fruit weight of the Lemoncello is about 250-280 grams. I.P.R. Farms' Operations Manager Josh Mastronardi: "This is ideal for our market, as we do a lot of bulk packing with bigger sized peppers."

All crops are planted at 6,7 heads per square meters. According to the experience of grower Josh Mastronardi, the crop is labour friendly.

Labour friendly
But besides Lemoncello in terms of quality and production, it is also a labour friendly crop said Josh. "The crop is easy to work with, winding and pruning/suckering is easy as the plant is not that tight. Compared to our standard crop, we need 1 worker less per 2 acres, so you can say that it is a very labour friendly crop."

The variety is now available commercially and will be introduced officially as Lemoncello in September 2015.

Besides Lemoncello, De Ruiter is also testing two other new yellow bell pepper varieties that look promising for the Leamington growing climate. The DR6138PB and the DR1908PB. The DR6138PB especially is an interesting variety, that looks extremely suitable shape-wise, with a bigger shape and large average fruit weight.

For more information:

De Ruiter Seeds
Rafael LacazRuiz
www.deruiterseeds.com
info@deruiterseeds.com