MORGAN HILL, CA - Today we continue our tour through Sakata Seed America's innovative seed programs, with a look into the company's tomato and squash seed programs.

This year, Sakata is debuting its new Raceway determinate round tomato, a seed variety which is already making waves in the industry. Raceway is a great choice for growers both for quality and because of its high yield. The Raceway variety is also resistant to both Fusarium crown and root rot infestations, an important consideration for growers.

The seed produces a smooth, very firm fruit which for the most part mature into an extra-large deep oblate to globe shape, with a deep red color for the mature green and vine-ripe markets. The flavor on the vine-ripened fruit is very good. The plants are determinate, vigorous and medium to tall in height and benefit from light pruning.

Raceway performs well in hot and cool growing seasons and can be grown from fall through early summer. All together, it offers growers an exciting combination of great yield potential, excellent quality, eye-catching color, as well as the kind of firmness and shelf life which retailers look for when stocking their produce aisles.

Sakata's Sweet Treats pink cherry tomato variety is another exciting produce offering for growers in search of the hottest tomato varieties to plant their fields with. Similar to the Raceway tomato, Sweet Treats is noted for its very high yield potential. Sweet Treats is a versatile, hardy variety with a natural resistance to leaf mold, Fusarium wilt, tomato mosaic, and intermediate resistance to Fusarium crown, root rot and gray leaf spot.

Sweet Treats is a mid-early maturity variety which is very vigorous and produces plants with a very good fruit cover. Its fruits are uniform and on the larger end of the spectrum for cherry tomatoes, with a deep rich pink color and excellent flavor when fully matured. Sakata also points out that it is easily incorporated into organic production operations.

The company is also presenting three new superstar Butternut varieties that deliver the performance that growers are looking for when growing for the specific markets, such as the fresh market or for processing.

Polaris is a medium-sized, traditional-shaped squash with a smooth tan exterior, bright orange interior and good tolerance to cracking. Polaris can be used in fresh or processing.

Typically used for processing, Atlas offers larger portion sizes for enthusiastic cooks or large families and has a small bulb-end for quick cutting into uniform pieces.

Finally, Quantum, Sakata’s smallest butternut variety, is great for smaller portion sizes. A thick neck and small bulb end present a uniform size for easy handling and cutting. The variety also has a small seed cavity for maximum edible fruit and is used primarily for fresh.

With this kind of selection, its little wonder that Sakata is on the short list of the most successful growers, when it comes time to begin sourcing new seed varieties for their fields.

Sakata Seed America