Traveling for Trials

Each year the Osborne Sales team takes to the sky to view variety trials across the United States. Meeting with seed breeders to see their new selections and future introductions is key to making the best choices to improve our product offering and to assist you, our customer. New breakthroughs in disease resistances, increased yields, outstanding flavor, and unique colors are exciting attributes that will be available in the future!

 The extreme weather this season offered an opportunity to see how varieties performed in challenging conditions. Across the country, crops experienced drought and heavy rainfall, high temperatures and humidity. Conditions where bacterial diseases thrive, and resistant varieties shine. Key crops in the Midwest field days were beans and corn, for both fresh market and processing. In the East, trials were focused on pumpkins, squash, and corn.

Western field days were focused on specialty crops and flowers, in both open fields and tunnels. Here, there were opportunities to visit both cool and hot season crop trials in this region that boasts a range of climates. In all regions we were excited to see many new tomatoes and peppers with comprehensive disease resistance in addition to unique visual appeal and fantastic flavor.

We leave these trials excited about new developments in vegetable and flower breeding, and a list of the top performers and standouts that we believe will become growers’ favorites. We are hard at work deciding which of these amazing varieties will be added to our 2022 catalog, available in Early November!