New and enhanced plant varieties

Vineland invests in developing new plant varieties preferred by growers and consumers targeting significant challenges in the horticulture industry including pests and disease, environmental factors and rising costs.

New and enhanced varieties originate from multiple avenues including multi-faceted breeding programs using high-throughput molecular techniques, scouting the best material from around the world and negotiating collaborative relationships with key players including seed companies and propagators.

 

Innovation Challenge and Opportunity

Vineland’s research mandate is to diversify and enhance horticultural products in Canada for domestic and export markets and we are currently focused on five key projects.

  • Become the primary source of greenhouse tomato-on-the-vine genetics for Canadian growers by producing varieties with superior yield, flavour and pest/disease tolerances
  • Refresh the variety mix of apples for production in Canada ensuring retailers and consumers have a supply of Canadian grown, novel apple varieties
  • Develop new rose varieties with improved winter hardiness, black spot disease resistance and novel ornamental features
  • Introduce new sweet potato varieties for fresh and processing markets and establish a Canadian slip production industry to support uptake
  • Develop plant traits that improve disease resistance, stress tolerance, quality and sensory attributes

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