All in on ToBRFV resistance. Top Seeds continues to expand its tomato catalogue with new materials offering resistance to ToBRFV. The latest additions—specifically developed for the Almería region—are Feroz (pear type) and Calaris (San Marzano).
Eva María Jerez, Technical Sales Representative for the Levante area, outlines the traits of both varieties. Feroz, intended for short autumn and spring cycles, stands out for its large size and similarity to Arondir. “It produces very uniform fruits, maintaining its size and pear shape throughout the cycle. Its bright red colour stands out in the most demanding auctions. It’s very attractive and elegant.” In terms of yield, it’s “very rewarding—everything that sets is marketable, with hardly any waste.” Other advantages include excellent firmness, which contributes to a strong postharvest performance. Its resistance package includes ToBRFV, tomato yellow leaf curl virus, spotted wilt, stemphylium, verticillium, and shows good tolerance to ‘peseta’. Growers already working with it confirm that “it maintains yield and fruit size right up to the top wire, offering quality throughout the cycle.”
The second launch, Calaris, is a San Marzano variety that maintains the original shape and offers high yields. “It’s ideal for long cycles, reaching up to 16 kg per plant.” It also incorporates resistance to ToBRFV, tomato yellow leaf curl virus, spotted wilt, and stemphylium, and is less prone to botrytis than other plants. “While this is a niche segment, its acreage remains stable, with some growers even increasing their plantings due to its high productivity.”
At the same time, Top Seeds is working on developing other types, including pink, ribbed, oxheart and more.
Coming soon…
Top Seeds has already begun distributing seeds for August plantings of upcoming innovations. “In Almería, we’ll be testing on a larger scale a truss tomato, a loose type with large fruit size suited for setting in high temperatures, and a medium-sized pear tomato.”
In Murcia, the company is finalising the launch of a large pear type for summer crops under mesh. “If everything goes as planned, it will be ready for market next spring. It has great size, is very productive and offers resistance to ToBRFV.”
Rootstocks
Top Seeds offers the well-established Carbonite, “widely consolidated for planting with any tomato type in Almería and Granada,” and Interceptor. The latter includes resistance to ToBRFV and, despite being new to the market, has already proven itself. “Growers are happy with its strong performance against ToBRFV, good fruit size up to the top wire, adaptability to cold-setting, and clean plant endings.”
The company is currently running trials to expand the rootstock range with different levels of vigour.
