This year at our Research and Education Seed Farm, we are taking part in the rutabaga, radicchio, and African eggplant variety trials, as well as a red carrot breeding project.

The red carrot breeding project is complementary to pre-existing orange and red carrot trials happening as part of CANOVI, and builds on the work of the Organic Seed Alliance and Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture. There is a big interest in new carrot varieties by BC organic and conventional vegetable growers. Our main goal is to produce stunning red carrots with excellent flavour and bolting resistance. We sowed our red carrots in mid-June and have been using a flame weeder to control weeds during the long germination window.

Our team has been lucky to collaborate with many generous and skilled people and organizations throughout this project. The seeds from two maternal lines we currently have on our Farm are from the heated greenhouse at UBC. They will also be evaluated at various farms across BC.

Our radicchio and rutabaga variety trials are built off the results of last year’s CANOVI trials, the goals of which are to identify the best performing varieties, identify varieties that would make suitable parents for future breeding populations, and build capacity to conduct on-farm variety trials.