Meeting consumer demands through disease resistant spinach varieties
September 18, 2024
Spinach is an important crop around the globe. As consumers to use different types of spinach, including the increasing consumption of baby leaf spinach, growers have begun to diversify their spinach acres.
“What is different compared to years ago is that we see a range of a varieties of all different segments,” Pim Neefjes, global head leafy and brassica crops at Syngenta Vegetable Seeds says. “Growers have more varieties growing in their fields as part of their program.”
Through acquisitions, research, and ongoing developments, Syngenta Vegetable Seeds offers growers a wide range of spinach varieties in all segments including baby leaf, bunching, and processing.
As growers look for the right range of varieties to plant in their fields, the need for solid disease resistance packages is becoming one of the most important considerations, as it is the best way to protect spinach plants from yield and quality losses. That’s why Syngenta Vegetable Seeds commercial spinach varieties offer resistance packages to these key diseases.
“An important element is that Syngenta Vegetable Seeds breeders are supported by phytopathologists,” Neefjes explains. “These are important members of the R&D team to deliver resistances important to the varieties. They are also supported also by the backcrossing factory, because spinach is all about speed, to deliver the variety with the most resistance back to the market.”
Closely Monitoring Disease Development
However, just offering a resistance package isn’t enough. New disease races are constantly developing, which is why Syngenta Vegetable Seeds breeding and R&D teams closely track new races of diseases to ensure that growers can stay ahead of new or changing diseases.
“Plant diseases are evolving, just like human diseases,” Cor Rood, assistant breeder at Syngenta Vegetable Seeds says. “We find, every time, new diseases. In spinach, we have downy mildew and we find, every time, new races.”
Discovery of new diseases and disease races happens in Syngenta Vegetable Seeds greenhouses. Researchers test wild species and other material, looking for new resistances to include in upcoming varieties. This may take a couple of years. Then, Rood says breeding is the easy part of the process. Researchers harvest the seeds with all of the best field qualities and a complete resistance package to deliver the best possible variety in all spinach segments.
Through closely monitoring disease development in leafy vegetables, Syngenta Vegetable Seeds ensures that growers have a solution to meet the needs of consumers, while protecting threats to their profitability from disease. Plus, with trialing at Syngenta Vegetable Seeds locations around the world, these spinach varieties have been tested for global field and environmental conditions.
“By crossing all those materials with our already existing breeding lines, we hope to raise the material to a better level,” Rood says. “By having this good level, we can introduce new varieties with high resistance to growers. That’s the aim of our breeding.”
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