Page 13 - Griffin Gazette Issue 3 - 2018

Professional hybrid breeders like Sakata, PanAmerican Seed,
Seminis, Takii and Syngenta take seed health very seriously.
They have to: In addition to home-garden varieties, they breed
for fresh-market farmers and commercial produce farmers,
where losses would be costly.
To ensure a clean start for growers, these vegetable breeder/
producers (and others like them) screen their seed lots for the
presence of many potentially devastating pathogens. Starting
with clean, healthy seed is so important. Sure, the seed is more
expensive, but the added security is worth it. Ask anyone who’s Candyland tomato from PanAmerican Seed
lost a house of peppers or tomatoes how that cost compared
to the cost of hybrid seed.
Flavor, of course, is a key selection criterion for hybrid vegetables Why Hybrid?
for the home garden and fresh market segments. The reason
we toil in the garden for 8-10 weeks is for the pleasure of tasting
that crisp, thick-walled sweet pepper and that sun-warmed, Hybrid vegetable seed offers these
vine-fresh juicy tomato that we grew ourselves. It’s what keeps advantages over open-pollinated and
gardeners coming back year after year! heirloom varieties.
TOP PICKS TO TRY • Disease-screened seed
Some of our favorite hybrids for the home garden are All- • Better seed quality
America Selections (AAS) winners. AAS judges across North
America evaluate vegetable entries in their own trial gardens, • Higher germination
comparing the candidates against garden favorites with similar • Improved seedling performance
characteristics. AAS has Regional Winners that performed well • Stronger disease resistance
in one or more specific regions and National Winners, which • Higher yields
performed well everywhere.
• Earlier harvests
Top Image: Snackabelle Red pepper from PanAmerican Seed
Bottom Image: Flaming Flare Pepper from Seminis
A few of our best-selling AAS National Winners in peppers
are Flaming Flare, Super Chili, Cajun Belle, Hot Sunset, Giant
Marconi and Sweet Sunset. In tomatoes, try garden favorites
like Big Beef and Celebrity and newcomer Candyland, a currant
tomato with a tidier habit that’s easy to grow and earlier to
harvest.
Heirloom Marriage tomatoes offer a new twist on heirloom
varieties. Hybrid crosses between two heirloom varieties result
in hybrids with flavor characteristics from each heirloom parent
and the hybrid benefits of higher yields and disease resistance.
Cherokee Carbon, for instance, is the result of a cross between
Cherokee Purple and Carbon.
If small-space or container gardening is important for your
clientele, check out peppers Apache, Redskin and Snackabelle,
and tomatoes Husky Red, Better Bush, Homeslice and Cherry Falls.
The Little series of determinate tomatoes was bred especially
for container gardens. Little Sicily is a small slicing tomato. Little
Napoli is a Roma-type with impressive yields for its size. Little
Bing is an early-fruiting, high-yielding cherry.

Learn more about these and all of our hybrid vegetables in your
2019 Griffin Seed & Plant catalog, available online at http://www.
griffins.com/publications. To request a hard-copy catalog, call
us at 800.323.7253.
More to see online
See our digital Gazette for more information on Hybrid Vegetables!

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