McDonalds Seeds, Sakata’s distributor in KwaZulu Natal hosted a Brassica Information Day in Boston, KwaZulu Natal during the month of February 2019. Within the past 4 years McDonalds Seeds in collaboration with Sakata has put a lot of work and effort into identifying broccoli and cauliflower varieties best suited to warm weather production. Parthenon broccoli and Incline cauliflower has always been very reliable and quite adaptable, but the rapid changes in the seasons have brought about some extremely high temperatures, making it difficult for winter crops to be produced optimally.
Luckily, Sakata’s breeding programmes from across the world have been working on challenges like these for many years, enabling us to select varieties best suited to varying climatic conditions. For summer production, Ares* and Naxos* should be considered for broccoli and Alston* and Merton for cauliflower. For winter broccoli production Parthenon and Triton* should be used, whereas Incline and Eskimo can be considered for winter cauliflower production. Some other exciting trials were also showcased, giving clients a peep into the brassica development pipeline for 2019. A special word of thanks to Ginger McKenzie for treating the trials with the utmost care and to McDonalds Seeds for hosting the information days.