New solutions in lettuce, spinach, and brassica crops presented at Salinas event
Syngenta Vegetable Seeds held its Future of Veg event in Salinas on 12-13 August to present its latest innovations in cauliflower, romaine and spinach crops, including new varieties and improved disease resistance and adaptability.
“Our Salinas event brought solutions in lettuce, spinach, and brassica to growers,” said Ana Grau, the company’s Americas brand and customer head. “We’re excited to share these latest solutions and details about our pipeline to help them fill slotting schedules and discover new opportunities.”
Experts showcased the company’s trialling programme to international and local visitors, who provided customer feedback to help drive solve problems and address growing challenges.
“What distinguished our team’s presentations was their laser focus on our growers’ priorities,” said Andre Cariou, regional commercial head, Latam and AGH. “We recognise that while disease resistance is critical for romaine and spinach production, cauliflower growers require advanced self-wrapping head characteristics. Regardless of the challenge, our breeding teams consistently develop solutions to anticipate market and customer needs.”
Innovations in dozens of crops were on display, including Syngenta’s newest cauliflower variety, Stella, which is adapted to grow specifically in the desert southwest and California central coast areas. Breeders also introduced Lacerta, a high-performing, temperate variety that works well for California overwinter growing and spring slotting – and features key disease resistance.
In romaine, Syngenta shared its robust portfolio that can fulfil their slotting needs. “Growers can depend on Syngenta to provide them not only the seeds, but also with the information needed to complete their slotting schedule. And disease resistance is top-of-mind, for example, Syngenta was among the first to bring INSV resistance to Salinas Valley, in addition to resistance to many other critical diseases in lettuce,” the company said.
For spinach, Syngenta offers baby spinach varieties with adaptability and four varieties with full powdery mildew resistance. Research into this crop is growing and as solutions are discovered around the world, they can be trialled in many locations to see where they might be a fit.
“At Future of Veg, we’re not just showcasing products; we’re building the roadmap for vegetable production that will feed generations to come,” said Juan Pablo Lopez, regional commercial head, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
