Into the blue
Value-added, premium products bringing attention to Canadian blueberries. | 10
Coming to a crop near you
Researchers hoping robots can help out on the farm. | 14
Labour of love
Nova Scotia’s newest vineyard & winery | 18
January/February 2016
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Into the blue
Value-added, premium products are bringing attention to Canadian blueberries.
4
News 6
Trends 8 2016 New Varieties 22 2016 Disease charts 28 Marketing Matters 34
B.C.’s master storytellers By
Cathy Bartolic
14 18 20
Coming to a crop near you
Researchers hoping robots can help out on the farm
Labour of love
Planter’s Ridge is Nova Scotia’s newest vineyard and winery
BY HUGH MCELHONE
BY DAN WOOLLEY
Going organic
Nova Scotia couple operate community supported agriculture program BY
DAN WOOLLEY
You have to hand it to the Brits. They definitely know how to make their male citizens eat blueberries and drink red wine – not that I would think it would be all that hard to convince them to do so.
According to a recent research paper released by the University of East Anglia and Harvard University, eating foods rich in certain flavonoids – such as those found in blueberries and red wine – can reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction in men.
Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study examined several flavonoids and discovered flavonoids such as anthocyanins – found in blueberries, cherries, blackberries, black currants and radishes – plus flavanones and flavones – found in citrus fruit – had the greatest benefits in preventing erectile dysfunction.
“We examined six main types of commonly consumed flavonoids and found that three in particular – anthocyanins, flavanones and flavones – are beneficial,” said lead
reported experiencing erectile dysfunction but those who ate foods rich in anthocyanins, flavanones and flavones were less likely to experience the condition. And those who consumed the beneficial flavonoid rich foods plus were physically active had the lowest risk.
“Men with erectile dysfunction are likely to be highly motivated to make healthier lifestyle choices, such as ... eating the right foods,” said Dr. Eric Rimm, senior author of the study and professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
You think?
There’s a long-standing joke in my family that my marketing skills are so bad, I couldn’t sell blankets to people dying from hypothermia. But I think, armed with a few hundred printouts of this study, I might be able to sell my weight in blueberries, cherries and red wine. After all, according to the study, more than half of all middle-aged and older men are affected by erectile dysfunction.
Maybe this is what’s leading
“I couldn’t sell blankets to people dying from hypothermia.”
researcher, Professor Aedin Cassidy from the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School. “Men who regularly consumed foods high in these flavonoids were 10 per cent less likely to suffer erectile dysfunction. In terms of quantity, we’re talking just a few portions a week.”
This was a long-term study involving collecting information as far back as 1986. Dietary information was also collected every four years. More than one-third of the 50,000 middle-aged men surveyed
Canadians’ current interest in valueadded blueberry products. Fruit and Vegetable Magazine did a roundup of some of the more exotic and innovative blueberry-based products on the Canadian market. You can see that article starting on page 10.
Readers can also check out the latest varieties of flavonoid-rich fruits and vegetables in the 2016 New Varieties showcase, starting on page 22.
Enjoy.
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Prince Edward Island farmers are being supported in their environmental practices through a new working relationship with environment officers. An Agriculture Environment Officer unit will be established within the Department of Communities, Land and Environment. It will work directly with farmers and take a proactive approach in explaining and clarifying environmental regulations. The office will be staffed by a full-time officer and three seasonal officers to respond to agricultural-related enquiries.
In response to concerns raised by industry representatives, they will not wear a uniform or carry firearms. This follows a successful pilot project that took place over the summer. “Our agriculture community relies on a healthy environment for its success and understands the importance of sustainable land and water resources,” said Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Alan McIsaac. “We will continue to work together with other departments and the industry to continue to build a strong working relationship.”
At the recent 70th annual meeting of the North Central Weed Science Society (NCWSS) in Indianapolis, Dr. Darren Robinson, associate professor with plant agriculture with the University of Guelph, received the Distinguished
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66.5% ORGANIC FARMS GREW BY SINCE 2001
As a well-respected Ontario agricultural scientist, Dr. Robinson has published 85 peer reviewed manuscripts, authored or co-authored three book chapters, supervised or cosupervised 14 graduate students, presented 74 papers at scientific conferences and given over 120 extension presentations and helped deliver 19 short courses.
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He has served on the board of the Canadian Weed Science Society and is an associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Plant Science and Weed Technology.
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The governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing more than $582,000 in equipment so a Portage la Prairie company can transform Manitoba-grown produce into purées.
Canadian Prairie Garden Purée Products Inc. has acquired new equipment and modified its existing operation in order to cook more types of fruits, vegetables and pulse crops –like chickpeas, navy beans and lentils – then rapidly chill and package the puréed products into sterile pouches. It is the only company in the world with this technology, which is more costeffective and environmentally friendly than traditional processing methods. The technology also ensures the purées retain better colour, flavour, texture and nutritional benefits without any preservatives or additives.
The company’s expansion will allow it to purchase millions of tonnes of culled vegetables that might otherwise be sent to a landfill or sold at a lower price for animal feed. In five years, the company plans to expand to nearly 60 employees from its current nine.
The purées can be sold to other food manufacturers and other food service customers. The company’s process allows purées to be stored at room temperature for up to two years. The sterile packaging system also uses 30 per cent less water and energy than other processes currently in use in the industry.
Government funding represents 50 per cent of the cost of the new equipment.
The 2015 growing season was a tough one for tomato researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York state, as bacterial speck disease descended on their field, but those infected plants may one day save others from a similar, spotted fate.
Cool weather and heavy rains in early summer created the perfect environment for speck. The outbreak of speck turned the researchers’ tomato field in Freeville, NY, into a withered, mottled mess.
When BTI tomato researchers saw spots, the farm manager called in Chris Smart, a plant pathologist at Cornell University, and BTI professor Greg Martin to diagnose the problem. Martin specializes in
the study of tomato’s interactions with the bacterium that causes speck, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato.
Since 2009, speck has been an issue for commercial producers who grow heirloom and fresh market tomatoes.
“There are very few control products for bacterial diseases of vegetables,” said Smart. “If the symptoms are present in the field, the only thing they can do is to spray copper-based bactericides.”
In a new paper published in The Plant Genome, Martin reports finding a segment of DNA from a wild relative of the cultivated tomato, which imparts resistance to race 1 bacteria.
To find this stretch of chromosome, researchers in his lab screened seeds from the Tomato Genetics Resource Center at the University of California at Davis. One sample of the fuzzy, greenfruited species Solanaum habrochaites, showed resistance. They hybridized it to a cultivated tomato and then did the genetic work to map out the location of the gene.
Martin and Smart plan to use the speck-infested Freeville field in 2016 to field-test different plants’ resistance to the natural speck strains there.
New research reveals that irradiation can also be effective for treating blueberries and grapes for export without compromising fruit quality.
It is often necessary to treat produce for insects in order to transport crops out of quarantine areas. Fumigation with methyl bromide, one of the most common treatments, is in the process of being phased out because of its depleting effect on the ozone layer. Alternately, ionizing irradiation at low doses is being used worldwide as a promising phytosanitary treatment for fruit such as guava, rambutan, and mango.
Star, Jewel, and Snowchaser blueberries and Sugraone and Crimson Seedless grapes were irradiated at a target dose of 400 Gy (range of 400590 Gy for blueberries and 400-500 Gy for grapes) and stored for three and 18 days under refrigeration, plus three days at ambient temperatures.
The fruit was then evaluated for soluble solids concentration, titratable acidity, and weight loss. With respect to these quality attributes, the results showed differences among fruit varieties, but the researchers found treatment effects to be “not significant.”
The study also involved sensory tests in which consumers evaluated the fruit on appearance, flavour, texture, and overall “liking.”
“Firmness was the primary attribute affected by irradiation for both varieties of grapes, but sensory testing showed that consumers did not have a preference for control or irradiated fruit,” the authors said. “However, sensory scores for flavour were higher for the irradiated berries than the control berries after storage, suggesting a decline in quality of the control blueberries with time.”
The authors said the research showed that (in terms of quality) irradiation at 400 Gy can maintain blueberry and table grape quality sufficiently to meet transportation, distribution, and storage needs for overseas markets.
“Our results show that both blueberries and grapes have a high tolerance for phytosanitary irradiation and that storage affects their quality more than irradiation treatment,” they concluded.
Value-added premium products are bringing more attention to Canadian blueberries, at home and beyond
BY TREENA HEIN
Whether they are wild or cultivated, organic, or conventionally grown, Canadian blueberries are famous for their health properties. They’ve stood their ground against stiff competition from exotic “super berries,” and are now gaining greater popularity through value-added products being created by some Canadian companies. We’ve rounded up some of the newest, most successful and most innovative of these products – ones you may want to try. Please let us know about anything innovative or new we might have missed.
Van Dyk’s 100% Pure Wild Blueberry Juice
Van Dyk’s 100% Pure Wild Blueberry Juice, containing only wild Nova Scotia blueberries, has
been on the market since 2000. The company manages more than 600 acres of wild blueberries from Caledonia to Yarmouth.
Van Dyk’s worked on a proprietary process to make the juice (including flash pasteurization), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at the Atlantic Horticulture Research Facility in Kentville, NS. The work also received support from the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program.
“The initial research took two years,” notes Randy MacDonald, Van Dyk’s business manager. “The focus was on preserving the health properties (polyphenolic compounds found in abundance in wild blueberries).
ABOVE Blueberry Enzyme Drink is so popular, owner Fred Liu is shipping it back to Canada to be sold on farm. INSET Van Dyk’s 100% Pure Wild Blueberry Juice contains only wild Nova Scotia blueberries sourced from the company’s more than 600 acres of wild blueberries.
75
Sybaris
56 day, straight medium size deep green pods, uniform high quality bean.
“Over the ensuing three years, more research focused on scaling up the process and still retaining the properties of the final product.”
A 500-ml bottle ranges in price from $10.99 in the Maritimes to $14.99 in Western Canada, available through Loblaws and Sobeys, as well as regional grocery, health food and specialty stores. Van Dyk’s also exports the juice to China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, UK and the U.S.
Containing only Canadian wild blueberries, this pasteurized juice is made in Upper Tantallon, NS. It costs about $7 for a 375 ml bottle or $16 for a litre. Acadian Maple is the largest purchaser and processor of Nova Scotia-produced maple syrup and the firm exports maple products to markets worldwide, as well as hosting more than 30,000 agro-tourists each year. The Acadian Maple Blueberry Syrup is concentrated from the juice.
CAL-SAN Enterprises in Richmond, B.C., created Blueberry Puffs some years ago, a dried cultivated blueberry with a difference. Blueberry Puffs retain their shape, colour, flavour and nutrients and are very popular in products such as breakfast cereals. The technology used to make them (by Vancouver-based EnWave) combines vacuum drying and radiant energy. The company also makes Blueberry Powder, which is used in health drinks.
Also in Richmond, B.C., is Lohas Blueberry Farm, where 30,000 pounds of organic blueberries are grown each year on about 10 acres. Some berries are sold and donated locally, but the majority are exported fresh or frozen to Taiwan and made into a product called Blueberry Enzyme Drink. It’s been so popular in Taiwan that owner Fred Liu is now shipping it back to be sold here in Canada (just from the farm right now). Liu and his family immigrated to Canada from Taiwan in 2005 and first sent back blueberries to relatives and friends. Orders grew to 6,000 pounds within two years, and Liu began looking to make a value-added product available year-round. In 2012, on a visit to Taiwan, he saw fruit-enzyme drinks selling for up to $800 a bottle. The trend started
PURE Blueberries wild blueberry purée is made from P.E.I. blueberries and hit the market in 2013, winning the 2015 inaugural P.E.I. New Food Product Award.
in Japan and quickly spread throughout Asia, he says, with purported digestive health benefits.
Liu partnered with Taiwanese Buddhist health-food producer Leezen to develop the drink, which contains blueberries, mulberries, isomalt oligosaccharides, brown sugar and sugar.
“The drink is fermented, thus it tastes not only sweet but also slightly sour, depending on the degree of dilution with water,” Liu explains. “It does not taste like plain blueberry juice with fizziness, not only because of the fermentation the product has gone through, but because the isomalts give the drink a different texture.”
The drink can currently be purchased in Canada at the farm for $75 per 375 ml bottle. After getting good feedback from Caucasian consumers, Liu is looking at U.S. and European markets and perhaps building a processing plant in Canada. If expansion occurs, he will buy blueberries from other B.C. growers. He’s already purchased B.C. cranberries and shipped them to Taiwan, where a cranberry enzyme drink is about to hit the market. Liu also plans to make raspberry and blackberry enzyme drinks, in addition to a Pure Blueberry Enzyme Drink, which will contain only blueberries.
DECO Wild Canadian Blueberry supplement
Platinum Naturals in Richmond Hill, Ont., makes DECO Wild Canadian Blueberry supplement. It combines wild
Canadian blueberries and premium dark chocolate made through natural fermentation, a process that enhances the absorption and digestion of the nutrients in both the chocolate and blueberries. Platinum uses only sustainably-sourced, traditionally-grown cocoa, with no dairy, plus GMO-free lecithin.
PURE Blueberries wild blueberry purée At P.E.I. Berries in Montague, P.E.I., wild blueberries from the farm’s 400-plus acres plus other growers are going into a purée drink. President Kevin Carver established the company in 2007 and believes in on-farm research using natural farming methods.
Several years after he founded P.E.I. Berries, Carver was introduced to a technology called hydrothermodynamics (HTD), which can take the entire blueberry and process it into a very smooth purée. The low-temperature process protects the antioxidants in the berries. Research on the HTD technology was done at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and it took a number of years to achieve full-scale manufacturing.
PURE Blueberries hit the market in 2013, and sells for $6.99 per 350 ml bottle at Sobeys in Atlantic Canada and Metro grocery stores in Quebec. It will be available across the county in future. The company also ships the purée to the U.S., Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China and is looking to expand into more international markets. PURE Blueberries won the 2015 P.E.I. New Food Product Award.
Researchers at the University of Guelph are looking to robots to help farmers bring in fruit and vegetable crops of the future
BY HUGH MCELHONE
Bill Gates predicted that every home in South Korea would have a robot by 2015, says Medhat Moussa, a professor with the school of engineering at University of Guelph, adding that Japan’s robotic industry would reach $50 billion in sales by 2025.
“That hasn’t happened,” he admits. “However, every year has seen record sales of robots for the last five years. Every year breaks the record. Some of that is due to the auto sector but also to technological advances in robotics.”
What does that mean for agriculture?
“A recent market study predicted that the agricultural robot market would grow from $817 million in 2013 to $16.3 billion in 2020, that’s just
seven years,” Moussa says.
This growth is happening and researchers at the University of Guelph are helping it along.
A lettuce-thinning robot, created by Blue River Technology in California, is used for the thinning and weeding of lettuce to increase yield. Its vision system scrutinizes each plant then applies “advanced artificial intelligence algorithms that make plant-by-plant decisions,” says Moussa, to optimize yield and then eliminate unwanted plants according to its programming.
Agrobot S.L., a company based in Spain, has developed a strawberry harvester that uses cameras
ABOVE The closed structure and controlled environment of the greenhouse makes for an ideal place for robot technology to flourish but there are many challenges. INSET Medhat Moussa
BY
the robot that goes and does the job.”
This robot can gently pick an individual beefsteak tomato, or properly select a tomato cluster for supper. The robot also has a different arm adapted for trimming foliage and de-leafing.
During a workshop in 2012, Moussa was asked by some growers if GIGAS could be used for disease scouting.
“This is very preliminary, but we can actually scan for powdery mildew and detect it early on,” he says.
One technical challenge is giving the robot full functional capabilities. For a robot to work well, to pick the crop and deliver the harvest, it has to be connected with the rest of the infrastructure in the greenhouse and this has not been done.
“This is more of an engineering issue than a research one,” Moussa says.
“Our vision system now is about 60 to 70 per cent accurate and we are working to increase that. We are also looking at multiple cameras and other sensors like laser.
“As for the gripping system, we are doing very well. This is our last iteration and we have tested many exotic designs
Agrobot S.L., a company based in Spain, has developed a strawberry harvester that uses cameras to analyze the plant and find the ripest berries
with multi-fingered hands but the more exotic, the more costly it becomes and no one can afford it. So the dual-finger gripper can be picked up from many manufacturers, I can adjust that, add sensors and a controller then you can have
something that is reasonably priced.”
Moussa predicts that in four to five years, they will have developed a commercially viable robot for harvesting and de-leafing.
For now, the industry waits.
“We think you make a much better wine by blending,” he says. “We tend to make our wines dry to off-dry. We don’t make sweet wines.”
The couple also buys grapes from other local growers and is in the process of buying another vineyard in the Annapolis Valley.
In the spring of 2014, McLarty and Law bottled their first wine, a learning experience.
“The wine is really made in the vineyard from great grapes,” says McLarty.
Planter’s Ridge grapes are hand harvested and closely inspected for disease or damage, he says, adding the fruit is handled gently to avoid contamination from bitter compounds in the stems and grapes, such as pyroxene.
Red grapes are de-stemmed and thinned of immature grapes, which can contain the undesirable compounds.
“It makes for a better wine, but it reduces your grape harvest by about seven per cent.”
McLarty covers the vineyard’s 6.5 acres with bird nets, a management practice that costs about $10,000 but the nets can last up to 10 years.
“If you don’t put on nets, you don’t get ripe grapes because the birds pick the vines,” he says. “Nets are expensive but they are usually key in my mind to making great wines.”
Once the grapes reach his winery –located in the extensively re-modeled 150-year-old barn – they are carefully processed to ensure high quality wine in the latest, top-of-the-line, German-made machinery consisting of four, stainless steel fermentation tanks, a de-stemmer and wine press.
The fermentation tanks are temperature-controlled, McLarty explains, adding he ferments his white wine at 12 C. Without temperature controls, the temperature in the fermentation tanks could range as high as 20 to 22 C, “which blows off the aromatics in the wine and prolongs the finish.”
Located beneath the fermentation tanks is a barrel cellar containing European oak barrels where the red wines are aged for more than 10 months. The barrel cellar, one of only three of its kind in Nova Scotia, is comprised of stone foundation on three sides and glass doors on the fourth, providing the perfect condition for red wine aging, McLarty says.
intimate dinners, he adds. Meetings can also be held in the wine tasting room and reception area next to the wine making room.
Planter’s Ridge wines are available for sale at the reception desk in the barn, plus at local restaurants, farmers’ markets, several Nova Scotia Liquor Commission outlets and a number of private wine and spirit stores.
“Anyone can make wine, but not everyone can make great wine,” McLarty believes.
He has retained an experienced wine industry consultant, Natalie Spytkowsky, from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula who owns Vines to Vintages, a wine industry consulting firm that has advised some 40 wineries in Canada and the U.S., to help Planter’s Ridge achieve the edge of excellence the vineyard seeks in its winemaking.
Currently, she is consulting and making wine for wineries in Beamsville and Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario as well as Planter’s Ridge near Port Williams, NS.
The barrel cellar is also an ideal rental location for business meetings or small,
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in a field covered with black plastic mulch.
The couple sells their vegetables in two sizes. The small box is suitable for two people and costs about $700 for an annual share, which averages out to about $14 weekly. The large box, suitable for up to four people, has an annual share price of $1,150 or about $23 weekly. The farm’s large fruit box has an annual share price of $750, about $15 weekly, and the small fruit box has a $400 share price, about $8 weekly.
The contents of the boxes vary during the year depending on what crops are being harvested and how well those crops do in storage or, if they are preserved, dried or frozen.
Every three months, the produce allocations change. In the spring, alfalfa sprouts, pea shoots, apples, sweet apple cider, potatoes, early greens, rhubarb, asparagus, stinging nettles, Jerusalem artichokes, cabbage, radishes, pea shoots, preserved and frozen vegetables will be in the vegetable boxes. In the fall, leeks, Napa and savoy cabbages, beets, pumpkins, squash, greens, carrots, apples, kale, onion, garlic, celeriac, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip/rutabaga, potatoes and sweet potatoes will be supplied to CSA customers.
preserves, dried and frozen fruits and fruit juice.
The fruit from Noggins Corner Farm is non-organic but grower Andrew Bishop, father of Patricia Bishop, uses Integrated Pest Management and less harsh pesticides to lessen possible adverse environmental impacts.
Tap Root and Noggins Corner Farm partner to provide produce for the fruit boxes, filling them with peaches, pears, plums, sweet cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, Arctic kiwi and more than 50 varieties of apples, plus fruit
Tap Root also raises farm animals, such as beef cows, sheep, pastured pigs and freerange chickens.
Periodically, the couple fallows a vegetable plot and rotationally grazes the cows and sheep on the plots, while the swine root in the soil as the ruminant animals fertilize it with manure.
Oulton has an agreement with a nearby young farmer to supply non-GMO feed and grains that are fed to Tap Root’s cattle, sheep, pigs and free-range chickens.
Tap Root’s animals also provide meat and eggs to its CSA program customers.
Oulton and Bishop are also developing Tap Root into a farm tourism destination. During the summer, they present several jerk pork and chicken dinners prepared by one of the operation’s seasonal workers from Jamaica.
But Bishop emphasizes it’s the CSA program and its off-farm shareholders that supports their expanded organic production.
High tunnels or hoophouses are used on Tap Root Farms to grow some of the crops.
Matures 120 days; purple with heavy, tight heads; upright plant, spineless.
Courtesy of Norseco
Half-long cylindrical shape, results in high yields; dark red, smooth roots with little zoning; small crowns, small tap roots; good flavour.
Courtesy of Sakata Seeds
(Chinese) CR MINI TOP F1
Matures 45-55 days after transplanting; mini-type, dark green outer leaves, yellow internal colour; slow bolting; CR, DM resistant.
Courtesy of Agro Haitai
Matures 70 days; slower bolting Genovese basil with intermediate resistance to fusarium.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Performs best long day conditions with moderate heat; mid to mid-late maturing; tight dome, small dark green beads; for bunch, crown cut, processing; excellent shelf life.
Courtesy of Sakata Seeds
(Chinese) CR NAPA
Matures 60 days after transplanting; slow bolting, CR resistant; dark green outer leaves, yellow internal colour.
Courtesy of Agro Haitai
Matures 53 days; medium dark colour, straight pods; performs very well in heat; very good yield potential; HR resistance to BCMV, Rust, BCTV.
Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Matures 54 days; pods 5.3 inches long; green colour; will set well in summer heat; high resistance bean common mosaic virus, anthracnose, aerial Pythium.
Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Matures 100 days; tall plants with straight stems, work well for selling whole; sprout quality excellent; solid, dark green; excellent field-holding ability.
Courtesy of Seedway
Fresh-market variety; attractive green to blue-green colour; very round head, heavy weight, dense solid interior, short core; excellent tight wrapper leaves, strong frame; good holding ability, excellent yield potential.
Courtesy of Sakata Seeds
Matures 93 days; flavourful, medium-small sprouts, mature quickly, hold well in field.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Matures 73 days; mid-season red with slightly sweet, peppery flavour.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Matures 60-65 days from transplanting; uniform, flat head, excellent shape, 2.0-2.5kg; tolerant to heat, cold, bursting.
Courtesy of Agro Haitai
Early maturing, vigorous plant, overall great fruit quality, shape, colour; high yields; higher intermediate resistance to Downy Mildew.
Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Matures 80 days; high yielding organic fennel; uniform, heavy bulbs; traditional anise flavour.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Brilliantly coloured purple cauliflower; produces large, heavy head; some heat tolerance; suited to early spring, fall plantings.
Courtesy of Seedway
Dark green slicer; exceptional size, shape; widely adapted, consistent production, high yields.
Courtesy of Siegers Seed
Matures 55 days; vigorous, winterbor-type, open pollinated; hardy organic option.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Matures 60 days; ultra early; short field holding; excellent quality.
of Norseco
Pickling variety, multi-virus resistant vines; dark colour, uniform size, classy appearance for high pack-out.
Courtesy of Siegers Seed
Matures 45 days; best performing, open pollinated purple kohlrabi; organic seed.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Matures 100 days; smooth, parallel sides, petioles; less side shoots; tolerant to Fusarium yellows.
of Norseco
Matures 50 days; eye catching white pickling cucumber; excellent flavour; powdery mildew tolerance.
Courtesy of Norseco
Matures 58 days; best adapted to northern climates; very few seeds; early, very productive.
of Norseco
Storage onion well adapted to long growing season; produces large globe shaped bulbs with heavy dark coloured skin; excellent quality coming out of storage.
Courtesy of Norseco, Stokes Seeds
Matures 55 days; half-size yellow corno di toro pepper; very early, sweet; perfect for grilling.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Matures 74 days (green) or 94 days (yellow); highly productive super hot pepper with golden yellow fruit.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Prince class-type; resistance to Downy mildew; easy growing, yielding large bulbs with long storage potential.
Courtesy of Seedway
Matures 60 days; half-size red corno di toro pepper; very early, sweet; perfect for grilling. Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Sweet bell pepper, high quality, yield potential with strong agronomic package including Phytophthora resistance. Courtesy of Siegers Seed, Stokes Seeds
Large, uniform with consistent deep red internal colour; best if grown from transplants; longterm storage potential.
Courtesy of Seedway
Matures 60 days (green) or 80 days (yellow); corno di toro pepper; gorgeous shape, flavour.
Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Fruit 22-28 lbs; unique upright shape, excellent yield potential; large dark green handles, medium dark orange exterior; intermediate resistance to powdery mildew. Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Matures 35-40 days; short, compact; good for baby Shanghai Pak Choy, small-sized Shanghai Pak Choy.
Courtesy of Agro Haitai
Dark green fruit, firm and blocky; early excellent yields; intermediate resistance to Phytophthora; fruit set wellspaced in plant.
Courtesy of Seedway
Matures 105 days; bright white pumpkin; excellent yield, slight ribbing; holds colour well; 4-6 lbs, medium vine; intermediate resistance to powdery mildew. Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Early maturing, big jack o’lantern; well ribbed, thick, medium length handle, upright shape; 30 + lbs.
Dark red, round; ideal for bunching or cello pack; yields high quality, extremely uniform roots; excellent internal, external colour; high pack-out rate.
Courtesy of Sakata Seeds
High yielding hybrid; similar size to the standard O.P. variety with nice canary-yellow skin colour at maturity; excellent uniformity in size, shape.
Pie-class; fruits weigh about 3 lbs. dark orange exterior, dark green embedded handles; very uniform in size, shape; high fruit numbers per plant, excellent yield potential.
of Sakata Seeds, Siegers
Matures 50 days; dark green for spring & fall; high yield; oval, thick leaves; holds well in field.
of Norseco
Large pumpkin 20-30 lbs; flat-round shape; very strong vine with large firmly attached handles; medium dark orange exterior; intermediate resistance to powdery mildew.
Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Semi-savoy; does very well in cool to cold weather; can be used for baby-leaf and full-sized bunched or bagged. DM 1-11.
Courtesy of Seedway
Exceptional uniformity of size, shape, thick neck, small seed cavity; strong vigorous plant produces high number of fruit; smooth tan exterior, bright orange flesh.
Matures 73 days; bi-colour, great eating quality; tender, sweet; excellent yield and tip fill; for shipping or fresh market.
Medium large 16-20 lbs; handles are large dark green; exterior is medium dark orange; round shape, medium ribbing, consistent size for shipping; IR to powdery mildew
Courtesy of Stokes Seeds
Matures 88 days; personal-sized spaghetti squash; high yield; 14-15 fruit per plant; sweet, nutty flavour. Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Early yellow synergistic; offers great flavour, cold soil performance, plant/ear characteristics; 7.5-8 inches filled to the tip with yellow, sweet kernels.
Courtesy of Norseco, Stokes Seeds