Breeding company BASF | Nunhems is launching several new tomato varieties this season. The large vine segment has resistant successors to existing varieties, and in the specialty segment, more and more options with resistance are becoming available, including in snack tomatoes.
Cees Ammerlaan, product development specialist high-tech tomatoes, and Josue Monroy, sales specialist UK
ToBRFV resistance has recently been a hot topic in the tomato market. BASF | Nunhems has always deemed offering growers certainty through Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus resistance important. Their range of resistant varieties has proliferated in recent years. "Nowadays, we almost exclusively sell ToBRFV-resistant varieties," begins Sales Specialist Ties Persoon. One exception is the Provine. "That variety is still doing very well. Growers are used to cultivating it and appreciate the high yields they can achieve with this large vine tomato."
Breeders at this international company, with two Dutch tomato breeding locations, have succeeded in increasingly enriching varieties with resistant genes. "With our tomatoes' current level of resistance, growers are guaranteed a good harvest," says Pascal Wanten, tomato breeder at BASF | Nunhems. "The R&D department keeps looking for more genes to add to build even more certainty into the breeding material. That's for both conventional and specialty tomatoes."
New variety grows quickly, has good yields
BASF | Nunhems sees a careful shift toward larger varieties in the tomato market. The company has been taking steps in those segments where high yields, along with good quality and flavor, have always been significant. ShowVine - the ToBRFV-resistant successor to the SunVine variety - is a new variety in the larger TOV segment. The breeding company classifies the variety as medium-sized. "ShowVine truly shines regarding production. It grows quickly and produces plenty of trusses," says Ties.
Its fruit weighs on average 130 grams. Remarkably, the variety produced more kilos in the breeder's trials than larger varieties. This year, De Bakker Westland is cultivating it on six hectares without lighting, and it is being tested throughout Europe. "Unusually, that's possible with this slightly smaller vine tomato," adds Pascal, explaining that this is due to high cluster splitting. "That contributes to high production. They set extremely quickly, which makes for a very reliable variety."
Erwin de Kok, account manager high-tech crops, and Jan Zwinkels, trial technician tomato
Winter cultivation under LED
BASF | Nunhems focuses on things like labor in its tomato variety breeding. Here, it is vital that the plants produce shorter internodes. "You don't have to turn the plants as often and have to handle the crop less. That saves on labor," Pascal explains. Another point of attention regarding cultivation technique is growing under full LED lighting. More and more tomato growers are switching to that. "We screen all our varieties under full LED."
Growing under LED lights is different from what growers are used to. Also, with the rise of LED lighting, growers have started cultivating ToBRFV-resistant varieties, which also differ slightly. It is widely known in the market that new resistant varieties sometimes score slightly lower in production or quality. Breeding companies are working hard on new introductions to compensate for any percentage lost in quality or production. Ties: "Our resistant cherry tomatoes, and in this case, the vine tomatoes, have maintained their flavor well. Our new resistant varieties' production levels are the same as the non-resistant varieties." The new ShowVine is therefore a striking newcomer, with high cluster splitting and production.
BASF | Nunhems closely follows real-world developments and tests varieties with its own crops, both in lit and unlit cultivation. "It's vital to continue listening carefully to the market to keep developing varieties that are in demand," Pascal notes. According to Ties, what helps growers in full LED cultivation are varieties that produce steadily and color well, even in the difficult early stages of winter cultivation under lighting.
Ties Persoon at the Tomato Experience Center
The 150+ varieties the breeding company has in its Tomato Experience Center in the Netherlands are specially suited to high-tech cultivation. "We have a breeding program in Spain that focuses on midtech varieties for Mediterranean growing conditions. That doesn't mean certain high-tech varieties, such as Ronvine, don't do well in Turkey and Mexico," Ties points out. Pascal adds that growers who cultivate high-tech varieties in mid-tech greenhouses must be able to control whitefly pressure. "If they succeed, they can sometimes grow Ronvine, and some of our high-tech cherry tomato varieties in Mediterranean conditions in mid-tech greenhouses," he concludes.
New snack tomatoes
In the specialty corner, where the breeding company is less well-known, it is developing snack tomatoes, among others. In addition to the well-known Pulsion, there is now also a resistant successor, NUN 08907, which is being tested worldwide. Then there is NUN 08908, a snack tomato with resistance. BASF | Nunhems is also building certainty for growers in this segment. It is testing how these high-tech snack tomato varieties perform in other climates, like North Africa and Mexico, which Pascal and Ties currently consider some of the largest emerging tomato cultivation markets.
This article was previously published in Primeur May 2025. Click here for the link to the entire edition
For more information
BASF | Nunhems
Ties Persoon
Tel: +31 61 443 6254
[email protected]
www.nunhems.nl