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by Laura Piacenti, PD Specialist in Georgia

As we approach the end of 2023, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the incredible support, kindness, and welcoming attitude I have received from our esteemed partners and dealers. Starting as the new representative of Hazera in the Southeast has been a rewarding experience, and your collaboration has made a significant impact.

The fall season marked an exciting beginning for us, showcasing promising Romas and rounds tomato varieties that not only exhibited excellent size, quality, and yield but also boasted high resistance to TYLCV—an essential feature for this time of year in our market, showing very clean and healthy plants under high pressure of whiteflies conditions.  Your feedback has been invaluable in driving us in the right direction and shaping our success.

Looking forward to the upcoming Spring season, I am eager to explore new opportunities with our new standard-size watermelon varieties, maintaining the exceptional quality that has become synonymous with Hazera, and anticipate the continued success of our mini watermelons, Excite and Exceed.

As we turn the page to a new chapter, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to each of you, for your partnership, and feedback and for contributing to making 2023 a remarkable year for me and our common goals.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season filled with warmth, laughter, and cherished moments. May the new year bring continued success, growth, and prosperity to us all.

Best regards,

Laura

Click here for our Watermelon Portfolio

Link to Watermelon Excite’s Data Sheet

APRIL 2023 Newsletter

Spring has sprung, and we wanted to take this moment to share with you a few of our newest varieties that we are sure you will love.
First on the list is our Cali cabbage. This early, adaptable variety is perfect for late spring through early autumn seasons in California’s
cabbage-growing regions and autumn through spring for the Yuma area. Cali boasts attractive, well-uniformed heads, good wrapper leaves, and a short core. Its resistance to Foc makes it an excellent choice for growers, and its early and uniform maturity makes it ideal for fresh markets.
Next is our new Robello radish, a fast-growing, uniform, and high-quality hybrid with medium to tall tops and intense red color.
Robello’s multi-purpose usage and resistance to Downy Mildew make it an excellent choice for growers, and its round shape and outdoor
growing system makes it perfect for spring, autumn, and winter seasons.
Moonstone- is our new white long-day onion. Moonstone has a nice globe shape with good paper, as well, as good size and shape
uniformity. This Spanish-type onion has erect tops and a nice white sheen, also, it has good pink root resistance with great storage
capabilities. Moonstone is adaptable for the PNW, Mason Valley, and the San Joaquin Valley.
Last but not least, our seedless mini watermelon, Onza. This is a high-yielding variety with powdery mildew resistance and a strong vine. Onza’s excellent rind-to-flesh ratio makes it an ideal shipper, and its deep red internal color and long shelf life make it a consumer favorite.
We attached pictures of all Four varieties so that you can see them for yourself. If you are interested in any of these varieties or have
any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help.

                                                    Onza,  Robello, Cali, Moonstone,

Thank you for your continued business, and we wish you a wonderful and bountiful growing season.

Barry

An update by Joe Borchard, PD Specialist Desert Southwest

Down in the Desert Southwest region, the weather is starting to cool down and crops are moving slower, all while harvest is speeding up at a rapid pace. The pepper and tomato harvest seasons are at their tail end and the harvest season for the winter crops has commenced.

This season I am looking forward to seeing many new materials within our various portfolio of crops.  Crops such as cauliflower, red and green cabbage, radish, peppers, and onion have all been sown and transplanted and will be ready to evaluate as the harvest season progresses from winter to spring crops. This month watermelon sowings begin for the spring and summer harvest season. I am looking forward to seeing what new material we will be advancing and continuing to promote in the desert southwest region.

Some older numbered materials in our pepper portfolio have started to gain more traction from growers and dealers we haven’t worked with in the past. New cauliflower numbers have been transplanted and sown and should start coming off soon and throughout the winter produce season, specifically the main and late seasons.

Evaluations for red and green cabbage have started and I am happy to say that we have some very promising varieties within our portfolio and pipeline that look better than the competition. Cali, our commercial green cabbage variety is better than the competition and is an ideal variety for the fresh market and dual-purpose grower. Our new red cabbage in our pipeline is an ideal variety for fresh market growers and has great holding capacity when the season starts to warm up.  Radish trials of new material have been planted in various regions within Arizona and California along with our commercial varieties. Our breeding team is working extensively to find multiple varieties that will work for the whole season and also be corresponding varieties to both Robello and Diego.

Come springtime I will be looking forward to seeing what new onion material we will be able to advance to continue trialing down here in the Desert Southwest for our short-day onion program. Peppers dropped and planted in the winter will also be ready for evaluations in the spring. Our mini watermelon program continues to thrive as our large watermelon is slowly starting to develop. Sowings for watermelons will start this month and transplantings will start later in February all through June.

As the winter season ends in these next few months, I look forward to continuing to see, evaluating, and developing varieties for the spring and summer seasons.

APRIL 2023 Newsletter

I am pleased and thrilled to extend another invitation to our three field days this year. At the beginning of June, we will be holding two Watermelon Field Days – one in Georgia and another in Yuma, AZ. This year marks the first time we are holding a watermelon field day in Georgia, as we want to accommodate our GA growers and showcase our new upcoming varieties such as conventional, Mini, and Pollinator. This is an opportunity that should not be missed.

Our third Yuma Watermelon Field Day is tentatively scheduled for June 6^th, 2023, and after two highly successful events in the past, we are eager to return. Last year, over 150 people were impressed, learned, and amazed by our expert watermelon team, and we highly recommend attending this year’s event to be the first to see our new and improved varieties.

We’re also excited to announce that we will be returning to Woodland this year for two and a half days of field day, where you will have the opportunity to see our Tomato, Watermelon, Sunflower, and Peppers in the field. Additionally, we will have all our new varieties such as Leek, Sunflower, Cauliflower, Onion, and more on display. During lunchtime, we will have a taco truck available for visitors to sit and have a great conversation with us. SIGN UP HERE

We are active on Instagram and Facebook and would be delighted to have more followers and hear your feedback. If you don’t already follow us, please do so today on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on our daily activity in the field.

For more information, contact us here.

See you in the field,

Limor.

Year Review by Adalia Cajias

Another year has come and gone; the ground has been turned over for the last time of the season.  As the fields are fallowed for the winter, the greenhouses are heating up. It is a never-ending cycle here in California and that is the beauty of this diverse state.  The warmth is leaving the air and brisk air is here, the fall season is coming to an end. Therefore, head to your local grocery store and get the final harvests of all the local cabbage & leeks from Northern California. They’re great to add to any warm stews, stir-fries, and soups as the winter season arrives.

As I finish up my evaluations in the field, I am heading back to my office to get my seed organized and prepared for the greenhouse. Seeds are being sown to prepare for our overwintering and early spring varieties.

This upcoming season I will be showcasing our leek variety Autora & Vigora in my trailing. Autora has a great tight fan, and the leaves are very erect. It has great uniformity and a good percentage of white on its shank. It would be an excellent variety to rotate in your crop production. Vigora Is also an excellent variety within our portfolio. It shows good size and excellent uniformity. Slightly more green color within the leaves so we have all traits you would ever need for your leek growing needs. Both varieties take around 115-140 days depending on the time of year they are planted. Also keep an eye out for new varieties in our development pipeline. We’re consistently getting new varieties to trial in addition to these great commercial varieties.

I am looking forward to another exciting year working with our amazing team in bringing forward the best Hazera pipeline we can offer in all our crops. Remember to think Hazera in the planning of your upcoming season. We have all your needs from the sweetest personal watermelons on the market to the most bountiful and delicious specialty tomatoes.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions about our high-quality portfolio. Discover what Hazera has in store for you today!

Click here for the full Leek Portfolio

APRIL 2023 Newsletter

I’m excited to write to you after being appointed General Manager USA & Canada at Hazera. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself, share how excited I am to be joining Hazera and the seed industry, and share my commitment to healthy and prosperous business relationships.

I come from the cut flower industry with nearly a decade of experience in agriculture, most recently as the COO at a distributor in the Tri-state area. Before that, I held several commercial roles in Ecuador and the US at a large flower grower.

The decision to work for Hazera was an easy one once I met with its upper management to gain a better insight into the growing market opportunities we have here, the solutions and returns our genetics offer to farmers, and the high-quality vegetable varieties we supply to the world. On a side note, after working my whole professional career with flowers, transitioning to the seed business meant no more Valentine’s Day madness this year. I did not miss that!

All jokes aside, when I visited our headquarters, high-tech labs, and seed production facilities in both The Netherlands and Israel, I was truly impressed with the sophistication of the business and state-of-the-art equipment. But what amazed me most about the vegetable seeds business during my first couple of months: The people. From my colleagues globally and our local team here in the USA to our friendly competitors, business partners, and beloved customers, everybody has been exceptionally friendly and helpful.

Speaking about our customers, I’ve had the chance to meet many of you already in person during events such as the ASTA, NWA, and CSA. Whether I spoke with a dealer, packer/shipper, or grower, everyone was equally passionate and open to sharing their opinion with me. This has helped tremendously in getting up to speed with the industry’s needs and best practices. Thank you for that and keep it coming!

Even though we are officially living in a post-pandemic world, as an industry, we are still dealing with the aftermath. Though fellow seed companies raised their prices mid-year, we decided not to because most of our customers, you the dealers, had their grower prices already locked in until the end of the year. To stabilize our double-digit business cost increases this year, a relatively steep price hike will be inevitable starting on July 1st. (Remember: Limagrain, our parent company, is French and our fiscal year starts then).

As much as you understand how economic factors influence our decision-making, we understand how environmental factors like droughts and flooding in California, early Spring frost in Georgia, or hurricanes in Florida, affect you and your customers’ decision-making. It’s all about a mutual understanding between us as a seed supplier and you as the dealer and the grower.

Thank you for taking the time to read my short introduction. I look forward to more in-person meetings with many of you in the coming months.

Luuk.

APRIL 2023 Newsletter

As part of our product development process in Hazera, we are conducting large screening trials throughout the east and west coasts looking at large numbers of new hybrids to find varieties that can bring value to the whole food chain.

For radish that are grown for pre-pack, we conduct screening trials in the most relevant radish markets.  For Florida, we are looking for varieties with round globe shapes medium-tall tops (weed control), early maturity, and skins that can retain their color through the vigorous wash process that is used for cello production. In the Midwest, our focus is on round globe-shaped radishes with a short top and early maturity, as well as strong tolerance to Rhizoctonia and downy mildew, which is a problem for radish producers in that area. For both areas, the tops must be erect and have a strong connection so that the harvester can pull the bulbs from the ground and must not crack during growth or after harvest.  They also need high-quality internals, with nice, white interiors that do not have any bleeding or pithiness.

For radishes grown for fresh market bunching, we look for varieties that have good uniformity in bulb shape and size, early maturity, and tops that are tough enough to endure blowing dust or heavy rains, which can scar and perforate the leaves, making the bunches unsuitable for the market.

Browse our Radish portfolio here

In our watermelon program, we are now focusing on finding a conventional-size seedless variety that can bring value with high-quality internal values, an attractive rind, high yield with a good percentage of 45-count fruit.  We are looking also for plants that are strong and provide good cover for the fruit and are tolerant to fusarium wilt and powdery mildew. In addition to these attributes, we also select for attractive, red flesh color, the absence of hard seeds and a hollow heart, and of course, high sugar with excellent taste. We conduct screening trials in the southeast, as well as the southwest, looking for varieties that fit each markets growing conditions.

For our tomato program for the east coast, we are trialing new determinate hybrids that have improved tolerance against foliar diseases along with resistance to TSWV, TYLCV, and Fusarium 3, along with many other common diseases.  We are looking for high yields of high-quality fruit with weights of at least 140 grams, and no puffiness.

For the west coast, this spring we are conducting our first field trials in the United States of our newly developed determinate saladette which has resistance to both TSWV, and ToBRFV.  This variety has performed well in our research trials in other markets and are excited to see how it will perform for us here in our markets.

John.

Written by: Dr. David Levy,
Plant Pathologist, Hazera

Globalization of our world over the past several decades has driven a huge increase in the global movement of biological material, providing numerous opportunities for the spread of diseases in a relatively short time. (more…)