Rijk Zwaan is expanding its cucumber portfolio with Blueleaf™ varieties that are resistant to diseases such as cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV), Fusarium, and powdery mildew, enabling more sustainable production with less reliance on chemicals.
Blueleaf is a genetic trait bred into a line of Rijk Zwaan cucumbers. With darker blue-green foliage and more photosynthetic activity, Blueleaf plants can make better use of available light. This offers benefits, including adaptation to climate fluctuations, a more powerful root system, strength to help fight pests and disease, a better balance between growth and fruit set, and a longer production window.
The Blueleaf line of cucumbers is continuously expanding to include new varieties and traits to support growers. Rijk Zwaan Queensland representative, Sam Kim, is excited about introducing Blueleaf continental cucumber varieties: Forada RZ with Fusarium resistance and Tantalos RZ with CGMMV resistance.
“CGMMV is endemic and more and more prevalent,” Sam explained. “You won’t know how severe an attack from CGMMV is until it’s too late, so you need to do all that you can upfront to give yourself the best chance of a good harvest, and that starts with choosing the strongest variety.” In an internal trial run by Rijk Zwaan in Adelaide, a grower using a continental cucumber variety with Blueleaf and CGMMV was able to harvest sellable fruit for an extra four weeks.
“This shows that Blueleaf varieties with additional disease resistance can offer huge advantages for growers,” Sam said. Blueleaf varieties dominate the market elsewhere in the world, especially long cucumbers in Spain, where growers are trying to be more sustainable and reduce their reliance on pesticides. In Australia, Rijk Zwaan already offers a year-round Blueleaf range for its Lebanese cucumber program and is currently trialing its first varieties with Blueleaf and CGMMV. “Our ultimate goal is to have Blueleaf varieties across our assortment with high resistance to powdery mildew, Fusarium, and CGMMV – and we have great material in trials,” Sam said.
Rijk Zwaan