Hard cider taste tests at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre show clear consumer preference for sweet fruity flavours over drier tannic ones, said Dr. Amy Bowen, research director of consumer insights at the centre.

Vineland’s research team has investigated how application methods of microbial biopesticides affect viability and coverage as part of an integrated pest management system.

February tends to be a slow time at Roelands Plant Farms Inc. But not this year. Roelands was tasked with propagating sweet potato slips to trial Vineland’s made-in-Canada variety of the popular storage vegetable on about 25 Canadian farms this year.

In partnership with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Vineland is developing new Tomato on the Vine hybrids for market launch in 2021. In this video shot at Vineland’s Collaborative Greenhouse Technology Centre, you can check out an entire greenhouse tomato harvest in under two minutes.

Driven by demand primarily from farmers, the Ontario Fresh Grape Growers’ Marketing Board and Vineland teamed up four years ago to find new table grape varieties for the Ontario market.

More greenhouse growers are buying into biocontrol thanks largely to the work of a team of Vineland researchers.

Ready for commercial release in 2019 is Radiance, Vineland’s new sweet potato variety developed in Canada to suit the country’s growing season and conditions. The variety is currently being trialed from coast-to-coast, and should be appearing in Canadian grocery stores next year.

Travis Banks who oversees Vineland’s program to enhance flavour and production traits in greenhouse tomatoes is feeling the pressure of a deadline as the target date nears to bring a new, tastier hybrid tomato-on-the-vine (TOV) to market by 2022.

The produce industry relies on exceptional people to advance the processes of growing food, improving it and getting it to consumers’ plates. In this month’s cover story, meet Vineland’s Dr. Amy Bowen one of seven leading People in Produce.

Specially bred hardy roses for the Canadian climate, Vineland’s 49th Parallel collection features Chinook (above), which will be released next year, and Canadian Shield (right), which is already available.

According to Whole Foods Market, edible flowers are the No. 1 consumer food trend for 2018. Researcher Alexandra Grygorczyk, at Vineland is studying the consumer preferences behind this trend.

Four years ago, Vineland’s researchers started to look at bioinoculants. “We’re only just beginning to understand how to reduce the susceptibility of plants to pests and disease,” says Vineland’s Dr. Michael Brownbridge. “That requires a total change of thinking in terms of how to integrate these biological materials into IPM systems.”