Modesto, California
June 20,  2001

Displaying its commitment to the burgeoning Southeast vegetable market, Harris Moran Seed Company recently unveiled its new disease resistant varieties, including HMX 8416, a slicer cucumber that’s out-yielding the competition and is resistant to scab, powdery mildew, downy mildew, cucumber mosaic virus, angular leaf spot, and Anthracnose.

Held in Tifton, GA, Harris Moran’s Summer Field Trials attracted nearly 50 growers and dealers. They walked the two-acre site at the University of Georgia Rural Development Center, inspecting new varieties as well as HM mainstays like Shade and Hialeah, two popular fresh market beans, and Morning Star, a growing sweet corn variety, and General Lee, an industry leading slicer cucumber.

But it was the new cultivars like HMX 0800, the industry’s first fresh market tomato with tomato spotted wilt virus and fusarium 3 resistance, that garnered most of the attention and illustrated HM’s commitment to this area.

Here are just a few of the new Harris Moran varieties that show excellent performance and adaptability to the disease-plagued Southeast:

• Peninsula, a green to red bell pepper with resistance to bacterial leaf spot and tobacco mosaic virus.
• HMX 0709, the industry’s first green-stem, yellow straightneck squash with tolerance to the big four virus diseases: cucumber mosaic virus, papaya ringspot virus, zucchini yellow mosaic virus, and watermelon mosaic virus II.
• HMX 0800, the first fresh market tomato with tomato spotted wilt virus and fusarium 3 resistance.
• HMX 0640, a high yielding medium green to bright red bell with resistance to bacterial leaf spot races.
• HMX 9101, a dark colored fresh market bean with resistance to bean common mosaic virus.
• HMX 8914, an early medium sized round crimson type triploid watermelon with uniform size and shape
• HMX 8416, a slicer cucumber resistant to scab, powdery mildew, downy mildew, cucumber mosaic virus, angular leaf spot, and Anthracnose.

Dan Bailey, regional manager for Harris Moran, said the success of HM’s new varieties is a direct result of breeding programs that emphasize yield, disease resistance, shippability, and regional adaptation.

"The Southeast is a growing vegetable market with region specific needs," said Bailey. "Our breeders and our company are committed to this market and these new varieties prove it."

Harris Moran Seed Company is part of the largest independently owned seed company in the world. It is owned by Groupe Limagrain, a French cooperative owned, run, and operated by French farmers whose sole business is seed.

Harris Moran breeds innovative vegetable varieties designed to boost yield, reduce chemical inputs, and increase freshness, flavor, and fruit quality from plow to plate. The Modesto, CA-based company operates in more than 65 countries.

Company news release
N3599