Harris Moran: Innovation
emerging daily
Harris Moran unveiled
its newest varieties recently during a five-day trial at its
flagship research facility in Davis, California.
About
250 growers, dealers, and customers from around the globe
converged on the 128-acre facility to see, touch, feel, squeeze,
cut, and taste our latest offerings of melons, squash, fresh
market tomatoes, processing tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot
peppers.
“This
year’s introduction of new products ranks as our best,” said
Meir Peretz, product manager of cucurbits – melons, watermelons,
and squash. “More varieties for more slots. More disease
resistance. Better shelf-life and shippability. And most of all,
more flavor.”
Squash breeder Ted Superak attracted attention with his wide
variety of plantings, including 12 different types of squash,
from zucchini to yellow crookneck to Middle Eastern type.
Emerging
stars include Leopard, a medium green cylindrical squash with
resistance to ZYMV and intermediate resistance to PRSV, and WMV.
Wildcat too drew stares with its green, uniform color and solid
disease package, including intermediate resistance to PRSV, Sf,
WMV, and ZYMV. Felix, a medium dark green squash for the NAFTA
and European markets, features intermediate resistance to PRSV,
Sf, WMV, and ZYMV.
Also in
attendance was Hurakan, a grey zucchini type and an industry
leader in Mexico
Melons also enticed customers with their yield, flesh-color,
texture and taste. Under the guidance of breeder Bill Copes and
Peretz, customers cut and tasted the sweet flesh of Western
shippers, Eastern types, honeydews, specialty types, and
mainstays like Oro Rico.
One of
the upper and comers is Navigator, a cantaloupe with brilliant
flesh color. This widely adaptable 5-6.5-pound melon boasts
excellent flesh color. It’s well-netted and yields mostly 9s and
12s. The fruit also features excellent retention of flesh
firmness for fresh cut. The taste is good and sweet.
The
West’s dominant cantaloupe, Oro Rico, was on display, as it is
every season in fields throughout California and Arizona. We’re
pleased to announce the growers’ choice has spawned an
offspring, Mas Rico. This new melon offers the complete package:
round fruit, nice netting, small cavity, dark flesh color, high
brix, and a good resistance package. Size: mostly 9s and 12s.
In
honeydews, Star Dew reigns supreme with its 12-15 brix, its
extremely high concentrated yield, and its ideal size,
5-6.5-pounds for more marketable fruit. Cut it open and behold
its intense green-colored flesh and firm flesh.
Watermelons -- of all types and all sizes – remain a Harris
Moran specialty.
Names
like Millionaire and Millenium are synonymous with successful
triploids.
Gypsy’s
on its way to enjoying such a reputation. Developed by breeder
Brenda Lanini, it’s a 13-17-pound looker. It’s an early maturing
variety with good seedlessness, broad adaptability, and a
brilliantly colorful interior. It works well in the Eastern
region.
Then
there’s Vagabond, a 14-16.6- pound beauty with good
seedlessness, tasty flesh, and dark red color.
Crunchy
Red, another new triploid, combines flesh texture with fruit
flavor. This blocky mid-season taste treat averages 14-16.5
pounds.
We’ve
recently started a buzz with Side Kick, a new super pollenizer
for triploid watermelons. Side Kick attracts bees with its high
number of male flowers and extending flowering period. Plus the
fruits smash easily so sprained ankles are kept to a minimum.
Visiters
also surveyed our pepper trials. In all manner of peppers
– from bells to Serranos to Jalapenos – breeders like Joseph
Jacobs are creating vigorous plants with: food foliage, good
yield, high fruit quality, thick walls, more earliness, wide
adaptability, longer shelf-life, and some serious heat.
Take
Villano, a new Jalapeno, with all the desired characteristics:
shape, size, taste, color, and heat. It produces high yields of
large, thick-walled, uniform peppers. The vigorous plant yields
large fruit with dark green color and low corkiness.
Then
there’s Camino Real, the dominant Serrano. This large Serrano is
the highest yielding variety with the best adaptability and the
best fruit. Fruit is hot, aromatic, and beautiful. Long
shelf-life. Excellent sized fruit.
In bell
peppers, Alliance is breaking new ground. This multiple disease
resistant pepper develops square, three to four-lobed fruit,
uniform and attractive. Very upright plant.
Patriot
too is enjoying success. This medium pepper is very blocky,
shaped by thick walls. It’s high yielding due to its excellent
fruit set and plant cover. Strong disease package.
In
tomatoes, breeders Mike Kuehn and James Brusca continue to
roll out favored varieties.
Market
leaders like Toro and El Cid still hold court in many NAFTA
fields. And rookies like Apace and Shogun stand willing to prove
themselves in fields. Apache yields large, uniform fruit with
excellent shape and color maturation. Plant boasts good vigor
and cover. Solid disease package. Shogun is a top-deck quality
fruit with rectangular, elongated fruit with uniform color.
Bears mostly x-large fruit with uniform size in all harvests
from the bottom of plant to the top. Iron disease package. In
processing tomatoes, HMX 0830 is emerging as a chosen variety.
Harris
Moran breeds innovative vegetable varieties designed to boost
yield, reduce chemical inputs, and increase freshness, flavor
and fruit quality from plow to plate. The company breeds
vegetables for markets in more than 65 countries.