PanAmerican perfection

When PanAmerican Seed introduced its new line of Kitchen Minis — a collection of naturally compact potted vegetable plants ideal for tabletop use — the company anticipated the veggies would be solely for home gardeners.

But the line of herbs, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers has become increasingly popular with vertical farmers, says Josh Kirschenbaum, PanAmerican Seed’s vegetable business and portfolio manager.

“More and more vertical farms are playing around with different products besides greens and herbs. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are all things that are of interest to see if they would work in their systems,” he says. “We’ve been doing a decent amount of trialing with those types of CEA growers to see if they can successfully grow an ultra-compact fruiting plant, such as a tomato, in one of their systems and get the yield, quality and shelf life they are looking for. Going forward, we plan to take these factors into account when developing new varieties of ultra-compact veggies.”

PanAmerican Seed’s basil varieties have been available for several years for hydroponic growers, with the plant habit working well for their system while still maintaining a good flavor.

PanAmerican Seed also actively breeds basil that can be used in CEA, with the company currently breeding for downy mildew resistance. No varieties are commercially available yet, but the company anticipates introducing them within the next couple of years.

Some of PanAmerican Seed’s tomatoes have been specifically developed for high tunnel production, with a unique heirloom look and added disease resistance, including leaf mold resistance, along with good fruit quality.

“There’s a lot of interest in the old heirloom-looking beefsteak tomatoes, and oftentimes, if a grower were to use an actual heirloom variety, they might run into challenges because they don’t have disease resistance, are late to mature or the fruits are misshapen, ugly and soft,” Kirschenbaum says. “One of the things that Pan-American Seed has done is develop more professional varieties that still have the good flavor and the interesting shapes and colors with added disease resistance and vigor.”

Although PanAmerican Seed is not specifically breeding vegetables for CEA, there are still many options from PanAmerican Seed that CEA growers can trial for success and increase their bottom line.

“I think that we offer differentiated products that are appealing to consumers and easier for growers to produce,” Kirschenbaum says.

For more: panamseed.com