Traditionally, each year in August, Sakata Seed America holds its annual California Field Days. This year, instead of organizing a full-scale, in-person event, the company brought the field trials directly to customers by sharing two videos that showcase trial crops from the company’s Salinas and Woodland research locations. In Salinas, cool-weather crops like broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach are trialed and featured; whereas the warmer climate in Woodland is more suitable to crops like tomatoes, melons and peppers.
Matt Linder, Senior Product Manager with Sakata Seed, discusses the field trials in Salinas. At this research station, vegetable trials started in 1988 and have been organized every year since. “We show a living catalogue. Instead of seeing it in a book, we show the products in the field and the performance of each product under the Salinas, California weather conditions,” Linder said. Main crops trialed in Salinas are broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, swiss chard, and lettuce.
The 3-minute video below shows more detailed information about each of the vegetable varieties trialed at the Salinas Research Station. One of the featured products is Eastern Crown: a broccoli variety that performs well in long daylight growing conditions as well as moderate heat. Twister cauliflower is a grower favorite because of its uniform harvest and strong adaptability. Also featured are Godzilla broccoli, Seaside spinach, Countryside spinach, Fire Fresh Swiss chard, Ruby Fresh Swiss chard, Teton romaine lettuce, and Cielo Verde green leaf lettuce. In addition to the trial videos, Sakata Seed just released a video detailing the scope of its recently acquired, comprehensive lettuce program, which includes categories such as iceberg, romaine, and red and green loose leaf.
Overview of vegetable varieties trialed in Salinas, California.
Sakata lettuce portfolio.
At the Woodland Innovation Center, Justin Davis, Vegetable Sales & Marketing Director, discusses warm season crops, including tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, watermelons, and melons. Within the tomato category, the STM2255 determinate salad tomato offers great flavor and fruit size with optimal yield potential for growers. The Amai grape tomato, on the other hand, is adapted to both indoor and outdoor production, offering a reliable fruit set and uniform shape and consistent size. In addition, the 3-minute video below features Jalapeῆo peppers, Serrano peppers, bell peppers, snacking peppers, long shelf life (LSL) melons, and Sakata’s watermelon varieties, well-known for their earliness.
Woodland, California trials.
Contact:
Alicia Suits
Sakata Seed America, Inc.
Tel: (+1) 408-782-5391
asuits@sakata.com
www.sakata.com