IT took a fair amount of planning to ensure that a demonstration planting of close to 200 blocks of different varieties, transplantings and seedings were all at optimum maturity for the same two days.
The weather also didn’t quite play along, with an unseasonably warm autumn in the Lockyer Valley, followed by unseasonal rain, then very cold conditions.
The Lefroy Valley team managed to execute this last month despite the odds, at the National Horticultural and Innovation Expo at Gatton.
The return of the Expo, after more than 16 years, was an outstanding success, with growers and marketers able to see the most up to date salad mix and brassica crops in one viewing.
Lefroy Valley’s strength in salad mix was evident with innovations like red Mibuna and a range of new baby and multi-leaf lettuce types with improved colours, volume and shelf life with high levels of Bremia resistance.
Fluence F1, a hybrid green leaf Swiss chard, maintained a clean green leaf even under cold conditions and showed a distinct red petiole and veining.
The baby leaf spinach range presented improvements, once more, in yield, colour and texture, and increasing levels of downy mildew (Pfs) resistance.
It was reassuring for growers to know that the Lefroy Valley team was continuously working on improving quality and disease resistance.
Representatives will have cutting edge varieties to screen.
Cassius F1 was an outstanding broccoli, fast maturing with impressive quality but offering a wide harvest window for growers in the Lockyer Valley.
Colverde F1 cabbage showed good uniformity and adaptability with large heads.
Tanto F1 cauliflower, with its good cover resulting in snow white curds, presented itself as an outstanding option for Lockyer Valley growers with its extended harvesting window.
The Lefroy Valley team thanked all those who attended the National Horticultural and Innovation Expo, and said they were looking forward to catching up in the paddock.
Lefroy Valley is a wholly Australian-owned seed company.
- Copy supplied by Lefroy Valley.
