Syngenta Vegetable Seeds Hosts Americas Tour

Syngenta recently welcomed customers to the Syngenta Vegetable Seeds Americas Tour, consisting of several trial events held at research stations across the country. These stations are incubators for innovation in the field and in the marketplace. Trials conducted at these sites allow Syngenta to showcase the newest and most exciting developments in its vegetable breeding program.

Each event on the tour highlighted several crop species from the Syngenta portfolio and featured new commercially available varieties as well as experimental material.

Woodland, California

The Americas Tour began at the Syngenta Woodland, California, research station, where domestic and international customers were able to see, taste and touch the newest Syngenta varieties of tomato, melon, squash, pepper, bean, sweet corn and watermelon. Highlights included the following:

• An announcement of the newly granted U.S. potyvirus resistant gene patent — This Syngenta technology provides a wide spectrum of resistance to four of the most common potyviruses and will continue to be incorporated into new squash varieties to help growers combat threats, such as Papaya ringspot virus.
• The introduction of several new Syngenta melon varieties — Key introductions included harper-types Novira and Sweet Shield, which feature long shelf life and resistance to cucurbit yellow stunting disorder. New ESL melons debuted with improved taste and holding ability in the field, coupled with longer shelf life.
• Watermelon showcase — Syngenta showcased its consistent, adaptable and flavorful varieties, such as Excursion and Fascination. It also featured its Super pollenizer SP-7, with attributes that include larger, more prevalent male flowers as well as a high level of branching.

Plainfield, Wisconsin

At the Plainfield, Wisconsin, station, domestic and international Syngenta customers observed fresh and processing bean and sweet corn. They also saw melon, pepper, pumpkin, squash, tomato and watermelon, providing a wide view of the diverse crop offerings from Syngenta Vegetable Seeds.

Hall, New York

The Americas Tour continued on to Hall, New York, where seed resellers had the opportunity to meet with Syngenta representatives in the Northeast to see a range of the latest Syngenta variety offerings, including:

• Grandprize squash, which has a beautiful deep-yellow color and excellent plant vigor.
• Sirius, a personal-sized, seedless watermelon, favored for its uniform fruit size and earlier maturity.
• Glacial, white sweet corn sh2, which continues to stand out for its high eating quality, vibrant white kernel color and great husk marketability.

Gilroy, California

The last stop of the Americas Tour took place in Gilroy, California. At this location, Syngenta highlighted leafy, tomato, spinach and brassica varieties, focusing on the following:

• Wildcat tomato, which stands out as a high-yielding variety that tolerates varied temperatures on the coast.
• Boronda, a new romaine variety highlighted for its strong disease package, compact heart and very dense interior fill.
• Lacerta cauliflower, which exhibits a vigorous plant with good self-protection and is a great complement to Symphony cauliflower in the California overwinter and spring markets.
• 4-lobbed blocky pepper varieties, with milestone resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus and consistent high yield potential, all adaptable to the San Joaquin Valley as well as the California coastal regions.