Breeding company BASF | Nunhems will launch two new tomato varieties next season. Both are ToBRFV-resistant successors of still popular varieties without resistance in the large truss segment.
In the tomato team, Ties Persoon succeeds Erwin de Kok, who assumes the role of Global High-tech Customer Lead. Ties, together with the already familiar face Slaven Ivanovic, will be farming the varieties in the Netherlands and Belgium. We meet the men at the new Tomato Experience Center that the breeding company has opened in Kwintsheul. BASF | Nunhems has a half-hectare greenhouse at grower Roel de Bakker's premises for demo and selection work, in addition to the demo area.
Erwin and Ties in the greenhouse in Kwintsheul among the Ronvine variety
That combination of looking at tomatoes in a shelf presentation and looking at tomatoes in the greenhouse allows the breeding company to optimally take visitors from all over the world through the range of tomatoes available. Since the first introduction of ToBRFV resistances, the range has been changing rapidly. More and more varieties are getting resistant successors.
Resistant successors
At BASF | Nunhems, they see that growers are increasingly choosing ToBRFV-resistant varieties. Sometimes this takes some getting used to. "Some growers are already switching from one resistant variety to yet another as a result. And then there are also growers who, in traditional cultivation, choose a non-resistant variety."
An example of such a non-resistant variety that continues to do well is Provine. "The area here is almost the same as in the years before the ToBRFV outbreak," Erwin knows. After Provine came the resistant variety Starvine, and to show how fast variety development is going, another resistant successor to Provine is now available: NUN 09421. The variety is in pre-commercial trials, with and without lights. "The 09421 is just a bit larger than Starvine again, and also resistant," he says.
From the UK, the breeding company sees extra attention being paid to flavour from retail. "The supermarkets here are asking for our resistant variety Ronvine," knows Erwin, who notes that BASF | Nunhems' range has always been "in good taste" and that with the advance of ToBRFV resistances, it has remained so. "We have not compromised on flavour at all with our resistant varieties. However, we do want to get the productions up even further."
Ties with NUN 09421 in the demo room in Kwintsheul
Another 'number' making serious strides in the large truss segment is NUN 0904200. It is the ToBRFV-resistant successor to the Sunvine variety. Tomato grower De Bakker Westland will grow the variety next season traditionally on six hectares, after successfully growing Ronvine this season. "In fruit weight, NUN 09 420 is equal to Sunvine, the variety splits as many trusses and therefore has a high production. We are also making real strides in bunch sizes. The latest trial varieties that we will test more extensively next season are even larger again. You can already see that," says Ties.
Cherry, snack and slicing tomato
Besides large-scale cultivation with NUN 09420, the variety will also be on trial with the necessary growers next season. A variety in another segment where the breeding company deliberately chose to find partners to grow the variety is Vitalion. "Our biggest success number," Erwin says of the cherry tomato.
Another size smaller, BASF | Nunhems is also making strides with snack tomatoes. Not the segment the Limburg breeding company is best known for, but in addition to the well-known Pulsion, there is now a resistant successor NUN 08907 that is being tested worldwide, and in 2024 also for the first time in the Netherlands, and the NUN 08908 is also a snack tomato with resistance.
Once you start talking about varieties with specialists from a breeding company, you know that a lot of varieties, sizes and numbers will come along afterwards. This time is no different.
We also discuss the Intense tomato, with which ZON and supermarket Boon's Market started the project Snijmaat together with growers of Nunhems-Intense varieties. And Ties touches on the successor to the resistant cocktail tomato Marvellion. "The NUN 08806 is pre-commercial with us. In terms of flavour and colour, this is perhaps one of our finest varieties at the moment."
Joost van der Vleuten of Kwekerij van der Vleuten with The Slicing Tomato
Rootstocks
Where BASF | Nunhems is also making strides is in the area of resistant rootstocks. In Spain, Dreampower is popular. "This rootstock, together with two other numbers, we will now also test in high-tech crops," Erwin concludes. For trials for unlit cultivation, growers can contact BASF | Nunhems' tomato team.
For more information:
Slaven Ivanovic
Ties Persoon
Erwin de Kok
BASF | Nunhems
Slaven: +31 6 4320 7425
[email protected]
Ties: +31 61 443 6254
[email protected]
Erwin: +31 6 1442 7646
[email protected]
www.nunhems.nl