News item Toploader week 51
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Dutch cucumbers for Christmas: Yesterday, 22 December, the new Enza Zaden Toploader cucumber variety was officially christened at the Hartman BV greenhouse vegetable company.
Hartman BV, located in Sexbierum, the Netherlands, has been growing this new variety since mid-November on almost 7 ha at a light intensity of 12000 lux, allowing it to be the first company to market freshly harvested cucumbers in the Netherlands. The first cucumbers were harvested on Tuesday 14 December, and the greenhouses are now entering the full production cycle.
On Wednesday, spokespersons for Hartman and Enza Zaden, including Piet Mazereeuw, revealed the name of the new cucumber variety, formerly known only as E 31.2085. Hartman was already doing trial runs with Toploader last year under artificial lighting, and last summer the company had already devoted a section to growing the new variety. The results were good, so it was decided to focus squarely on Toploader during the current early artificially lit growing season.
The results with Toploader so far have been satisfactory. Grower Jan van der Zee praises the variety for its vigorous growth and fruit retention ability. “Look at the fruit growth and setting pattern. The pattern is good, and the fruits are well set. This was also the case in the trials we ran last year.” Nevertheless, before the start of the new cultivation period he was not 100% sure of himself with regard to the coming season. ”We’re taking significant steps: lighting, high-wire cultivation and a new variety. Fortunately, so far growth has progressed as hoped for. And the variety is also producing satisfactory results in terms of quality, as the fruits are well filled down to the bottom and nicely straight. These are important aspects for our client.” This client is the Albert Heijn supermarket chain, which is also quite satisfied with the quality of this cucumber variety. From now on, Toploader will be available on the store shelves of this supermarket.
Enza Zaden is introducing Toploader as the first variety in a completely new generation of cucumbers. The strength of this new variety is also based on the fact that there are so few aborted fruits, which means that the potential production is very high. However, Toploader does require special cultivation guidelines which differ.