Category Archives: HortNews

Syngenta acquires sweet corn breeder Abbott & Cobb

Syngenta’s US business has announced that it has acquired independent Pennsylvania-based vegetable breed and seed producer Abbott & Cobb.

Established in 1917, Abbott & Cobb is particularly strong in sweet corn and cucurbits, as well as peppers and beans for processing. According to Syngenta, combining the expertise, portfolios and pipelines of both companies will enable it to increase its ability to innovate and enhance its offer to growers. In particular it will strengthen Syngenta’s vegetable seeds business in sweet corn, which is seen as one of the company’s core crops globally.

Javier Martinez-Cabrera, Syngenta Head of Vegetables Seeds North America, commented, “Abbott & Cobb is a strategic acquisition for Syngenta Vegetable Seeds and it will give us access to high eating quality germplasm, and early maturity varieties to complement the Syngenta portfolio. We welcome the Abbott & Cobb team into the business and look forward to achieving great things as one team.”

Photo Caption: Abbott & Cobb are leading breeders of sweat corn

Photo Credit: Abbott & Cobb / Twitter

The post Syngenta acquires sweet corn breeder Abbott & Cobb appeared first on Hort News on 18 April 2018.

Aylsham potato grower to build new store

Norfolk-based E F Harrold Ltd of Oulton, near Aylsham, has applied for planning permission to build a new 2,200 tonne potato box store according to the Eastern Daily Press.

The development at street farm would include an open loading canopy, an office and machinery store.

A design and access statement presented to Broadland District Council as part of the application says: ‘The business has limited potato storage of its own… Moving all of potatoes directly off the farm at harvest time is a logistical problem, a very inefficient use of labour, due to the sporadic nature of harvest; and with its intensive nature, an intensive use of the local road network.’

Photo Caption: Harvesting potatoes at E F Harrold

Photo Credit: Ben Burgess / Twitter

The post Aylsham potato grower to build new store appeared first on Hort News on 18 April 2018.

Exciting new varieties from summer fruiting raspberry trials

AHDB Horticulture is highlighting the benefits of variety trials on new raspberry varieties funded by the levy board.

“Exciting work coming out of the latest summer fruiting raspberry variety trials means that soft fruit growers have increased access to delicious and profitable selections,” says AHDB Knowledge Exchange manager Scott Raffle. “Over the years, the UK Raspberry Breeding Programme has produced many competitive new varieties. The trial allowed the performance of a wide variety of selections to be compared to industry standards, Tulameen and Octavia.”

He says that of particular note were Squamish, Glen Carron, Glen Dee and two late selections from NIAB EMR, all of which he described as “outstanding.” Canadian variety Squamish produces unusually high yields for an early variety and has a low chilling requirement compared to Tulameen.

“Glen Carron (formerly 0485K-1) produces a very high quality raspberry that is consistently larger than Tulameen,” adds Scott. “It does have a high chilling requirement, but it could perform well when used in sequential plantings of cold stored long canes. Glen Dee offers a late season replacement to Octavia with very large berry size, high yields and high fruit quality.”

The trials also suggest that two NIAB EMR selections (EM6805/142 and EM 6804/81) could replace Octavia, producing higher yields than the long established standard. Two selections from Washington State University (WSU 1605 and WSU 1607) are also interesting.

“With more selections becoming available each year, growers are encouraged to seize the opportunity to compare some of the new outstanding varieties and selections with their own production systems,” stresses Scott, who recommends that growers download the AHDB Summer Fruiting Raspberry Variety Trial factsheet.

Photo Caption: Glen Carron was one of the varieties highlighted by Scott Raffle

Photo Credit: James Hutton Limited

The post Exciting new varieties from summer fruiting raspberry trials appeared first on Hort News on 18 April 2018.

New Vice-Chairman for Leek Growers Association

The Leek Growers Association has a new Vice Chairman, Stewart Aspinall of Farringtons Ltd in Lancashire. Tim Casey was re-elected as the Chairman at the recently held AGM.

Members who attended the AGM were able to taste “gut healthy” leek and cheese seeded flapjacks prepared by Carole Pendle, who gave an update on the 2017/18 season Leeks Public Relations Campaign.

Highlights from the ‘Health & Wellbeing’ themed campaign included press articles featuring recent research that shows leeks have high levels of inulin, a prebiotic, which helps gut health. This is now recognised as central to overall health, benefitting sleep quality, stress levels and digestive issues. A range of ‘gut health’ recipes were produced for the campaign in consultation with nutritionist Christine Bailey.

A range of educational resources were also created to work with primary schools and inner-city farms, highlighting the benefits of eating ‘The Incredible Edible Leek’.

The Association will be organising a Leek Agronomy Day in February 2019 to highlight new leek varieties in the field, alongside a series of technical presentations and trade exhibition.

The post New Vice-Chairman for Leek Growers Association appeared first on Hort News on 16 April 2018.

Claims Defra preparing for 25% of UK farms to ‘disappear’

According to an advisor from Cardiff University who is advising the Welsh Government, Defra is consciously planning for around a quarter of the UK’s farms to ‘disappear’ after Brexit says a report in Farmers Guardian.

Dr Ludivine Petetin told a Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) meeting: “A lot of farms are currently profitable only because of direct payments coming from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). From reading the agriculture consultation, it seems to me, and this is going to sound harsh, Defra has made a choice that the 25 per cent of farms which are at the bottom and are not doing very well will perhaps disappear.”

She believes that Defra’s core focus is on how the ‘middle 50 per cent’ of farms can continue to be successful when funding moves from direct payments towards supporting environmental schemes. He added that being outside the EU would see farmers come under pressure as they would not benefit from existing EU tariffs on agricultural imports.

A Defra spokesman said, “Our proposals will see money redirected from direct payments based only on the amount of land farmed to a new system of rewarding farms of all sizes for their work to enhance the environment.”

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The post Claims Defra preparing for 25% of UK farms to ‘disappear’ appeared first on Hort News on 11 April 2018.

Tesco free fruit scheme hits 50 million mark

Tesco says that it has now given more than 50 million pieces of free fruit to children in its stores after the idea was first proposed by an employee in its Brigg store in Lincolnshire almost two years ago.

The scheme, which was the brainchild of Maria Simpson, was so well received that the retailer subsequently rolled it out across the country, with some 800 stores now taking part. Maria commented, “Over 50 million, wow! This means that children across the UK have had a healthy and free piece of fruit from Tesco over 50 million times! It’s incredibly humbling for me to know that children are benefiting from this. They love it and the parents love it too.”

Alessandra Bellini, Tesco’s Chief Customer Officer, added, “I’m incredibly proud that a simple idea from one of our colleagues has gone on to have such a big impact. 50 million pieces of free fruit in two years will go a long way towards creating healthy habits that will stay with children as they grow up.”

According to research Tesco and mumsnet, a third of parents said their children have eaten more fruit thanks to the scheme, and three quarters of parents said that the initiative has made their shopping trip easier.

Photo Credit: Tesco

The post Tesco free fruit scheme hits 50 million mark appeared first on Hort News

Monsanto brings gene-editing to strawberries

Multinational agribusiness Monsanto has invested $125 million in agricultural start-up Pairwise to leverage gene editing technology into fresh produce crops such as strawberries.

According to Business Insider, the two companies will use CRISPR gene editing techniques to develop fruit crops – most likely to be strawberries – within the next five to 10 years, with the benefits expected to be sweeter fruit with a longer shelf life. The website also reported that former Monsanto’s vice president of global biotechnology Tom Adams will become the new CEO of Pairwise.

“Gene editing allows you to address problems that you can’t address with genetic modification and do so faster,” Adams said, adding, “what’s exciting is that it can get into crops that have a smaller footprint than maybe corn and have more opportunities to get into the hands of consumers.”

Haven Baker, the founder and CEO of Pairwise plants, told Business Insider, “We are absolutely targeting things that you’ll be able to see in the produce aisle. And ideally it’ll be benefits you recognize as an average consumer shopping and looking for produce. We want to make specialty crops cheaper more accessible and more affordable.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The post Monsanto brings gene-editing to strawberries appeared first on Hort News on 5 April 2018.

Could micro magnets detect pesticides?

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel way of detecting pesticide residues in fruit and veg – ‘micro magnets.’

The scientists developed a rapid and highly sensitive screening technique capable of detecting minute amounts of pyrethroids, and say their new method can reduce the screening period for the chemical to less than two hours.

Assistant Professor Yang Hongshun and his PhD student Miss Yu Xi developed polystyrene coated magnetic nanoparticles which can effectively extract pyrethorid residue from vegetable crops for analysis via simple magnetic separation. The nanoparticles are first added into a liquid sample obtained from vegetables, serving as ‘micro magnets’ to attract pyrethroid molecules. Pyrethroids bound on the nanoparticles are then washed off by a small amount of organic solvent and collected for analysis.

This innovation allows analysis to be completed in less than two hours, and is able to detect pyrethroids at a concentration level of as low as 0.02 nanograms per gram of vegetables. The nanoparticles can also be reused up to 30 times.

Yang, said, “Existing screening methods require long processing time and hence it could be challenging to apply such methods to detect pesticide residue in a large batch of samples, which is vital to ensuring food safety. Our method therefore offers a faster and more effective alternative.”

He added that the next stage is to detect pyrethroids in other foodstuffs, as well as looking to detect other types of pesticide and chemicals including mycotoxins and antibiotics.

Photo Credit: National University of Singapore

The post Could micro magnets detect pesticides? appeared first on Hort News on 5 April 2018.

Calls for EA to monitor farms with drones

It has been suggested that drones could be utilised by the Environment Agency to monitor and enforce rules on soil runoff and water pollution from farms.

The claims were made in a BBC report which said that a coalition of environmental organisations, including Angling Trust, WWF and the Rivers Trust – with support from the RSPB, had made the proposal in a briefing paper seen by Environmental Secretary Michael Gove.

According to the news story trials in Herefordshire had seen drones work well as part of a surveillance scheme to prevent soil loss from maize and potato fields which, according to the BBC, ‘exhaust soil and make it more likely to be washed away.’ In the trial, drones, guided by contour maps, helped the EA to identify the areas of fields most susceptible to soil erosion.

Mark Lloyd from the Angling Trust, told BBC News: “The rules on protecting soil aren’t being enforced. We need a baseline of regulation to stop bad farmers doing the wrong thing and to stop good farmers looking over the fence and seeing someone else get away with it. The trouble is that the Environment Agency can only respond to major incidents. But soil run-off is diffuse pollution – it comes in hundreds of thousands of trickles, not normally one big incident.”

In 2015 the EA trialled the use of drones to monitor waste sites from the air.

Photo Credit: Flickr

The post Calls for EA to monitor farms with drones appeared first on Hort News on 5 April 2018.

Staffordshire root growers invest thanks to Aldi

6th generation Staffordshire farmers R & RW Bartlett have announced an expansion and eco-friendly investment in the production of carrot and parsnip crops, which the company says has been made possible due to the confidence provided by Aldi’s ‘clear forecasting.’

As well as buying new cultivation machinery, the investment will go on environmental initiatives such as low energy LED lighting and new waste and water recycling facilities. The company grows more than 8,000 tonnes of root crops a year and says the expansion will create 60 new jobs.

“Working with Aldi has enabled us to continually invest to improve efficiencies, while producing the highest quality veg,” Commercial Manager Laura Bartlett told the Fresh Produce Journal. “Their simple ways of working, close communication and clear forecasting helps us to grow year on year –in terms of our yield, employees and revenue.”

Julie Ashfield of Aldi UK added, “Our approach is to build partnerships with our suppliers that are based on trust and fairness. It’s always good to hear how this helps our farmers to invest back into their land and facilities and we look forward to working with the team in the years to come.”

Photo Caption: Roy and Rod Bartlett

Photo Credit: British Carrots

 The post Staffordshire root growers invest thanks to Aldi appeared first on Hort News on 29 March 2018.