Syngenta is strengthening its tomato portfolio from the very foundations of the crop. The company has four new rootstocks with intermediate resistance to Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) — Kronosor, Fervour, Armour and Honor — designed to meet the demands of increasingly challenging crop cycles and conditions characterised by heat stress, salinity or soil compaction.
According to Rafael Salinas, Tomato Product Manager for Spain and Portugal, the use of rootstocks is widespread in long-cycle crops in south-eastern Spain. Their role goes beyond extending the crop cycle: they help maintain fruit size and yield, provide protection against soil-borne diseases and develop a root system that is better able to withstand abiotic stress.
Kronosor and Fervour are both high-vigour options, without generating excessive vegetative growth. Fervour also offers resistance to Fusarium 3, which is particularly relevant at a time when the tools available for soil disinfection are becoming increasingly limited. Kronosor and Fervour provide the high vigour needed to ensure crop continuity without producing excessive foliage.
Meanwhile, Armour, with medium vigour, and Honor, with medium-low vigour, complete the range for particularly vegetative varieties or crops where the aim is to preserve quality, presentation or flavour. These two rootstocks are ideal for achieving the right balance in varieties that naturally develop more vigorous plants.
Tomato: Gobernador takes over from Caniles
In the plum tomato segment, Syngenta positions Gobernador as the successor to Caniles, a variety widely recognised by growers for its robustness, ease of cultivation, yield, firmness, flavour and post-harvest performance. Gobernador retains virtually the same product concept — very similar size, shape, colour, firmness and flavour — while adding intermediate resistance to ToBRFV.
The aim is to provide growers with greater security without altering the characteristics that have earned Caniles its commercial reputation. “Consumers will not notice the difference,” Salinas says, referring to the continuity between the two varieties.
Legislador, larger size in the plum tomato segment
Within the same segment, Legislador expands the range with a larger, higher-yielding plum tomato. It is designed for earlier plantings, from the beginning of August, although it can also be used in spring for short cycles or in long cycles, including areas where salinity stress may reduce fruit size.
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The variety retains the colour, firmness and heart-shaped plum tomato concept, while providing the additional size that can be useful in certain areas and at specific stages of the crop cycle. It also incorporates intermediate resistance to ToBRFV, among other resistances.
Lisander for Canary-type tomatoes
In the Canary-type tomato segment, also known as round or loose long-life tomatoes, the company is backing Lisander. This is a G-sized, red variety with a high fruit-setting capacity under hot conditions, particularly suited to Murcia and the Canary Islands for cultivation under netting, although it is also being grown in greenhouses.
Salinas highlights its productivity and adaptability to plantings under high-temperature conditions. Lisander is positioned as an alternative very close to Alejandría, a long-established benchmark in the Murcia segment, in terms of fruit size, yield, adaptability and ease of fruit set.
The variety also incorporates intermediate resistance to ToBRFV.
