Broccoli a Hot Topic for Breeders
The patch of land in front of the old barn is primed, its soil plowed. Soon, an unusual breed of broccoli will sprout here, and is expected to flourish in temperatures above 100 degrees.
Being planted in the early summer and maturing in high heat is a new thing for broccoli, a cool-season vegetable grown almost exclusively along California’s foggy coast. Exposure to heat can devastate a crop, causing irregular heads, brown spots and other damage.
But for the last 14 years, two seed researchers have used traditional breeding techniques to tinker with the plant’s biology. Their mission is to transform the economics of where and how broccoli can be grown by coming up with a type of broccoli that can thrive in sweltering temperatures.
“Our broccoli isn’t responding to heat by blowing its brains out,” said Robert Barham, who, along with partner David Joynt, heads R&D; Agriculture. “This is begging for it, saying, ‘Give me a try. Watch and I’ll do very well in the heat.’ ”
California is the nation’s top broccoli producer, churning out 92% of the domestically grown crop in 2003. That’s 937,500 tons of broccoli, with a value of $596.6 million, according to the USDA’s California Agricultural Statistics Service.
Broccoli grows best in temperatures of 40 degrees to 70 degrees. Joynt and Barham said their variety held up into the high 90s, tolerating heat spikes of up to 112 degrees.
The two hope their discovery will give growers the opportunity to move to cheaper land and rotate the crop throughout the year, a plus because broccoli has the ability to fumigate the soil and kill certain diseases.
Barham and Joynt stumbled on their heat-resistant broccoli after starting a plant breeding operation in 1990. The only research facility they could get was the old barn and the 17-acre stretch of land in front of it.
Forced to plant broccoli during the summer, they made a discovery. “We started seeing that some of them would kind of thrive in that heat,” said Joynt, 55.
So they started crossing and recrossing the plant to eliminate characteristics they didn’t want, such as one called “brown bead.”
“It’s ugly,” said Barham, 50. “That was the first thing we wanted to get rid of. We mixed it up so much, we got lucky and found some that didn’t.”
Then, they tested it.
“We took it and we plunked it right down in the middle of the sun,” said Barham. “The first year, we had to throw out 90% of it.”
The two secured a patent that protects one particular broccoli seed line from being sold, imported, exported or bred, even for research purposes, and are working on a broader one.
It could take about 18 months to figure out how to produce seed for mass distribution, said Joynt, who handles the marketing and production end, while Barham focuses on research.
“That’s really the big hurdle right now, so that when someone orders seed, we can guarantee seed delivery,” he said.
The real test for R&D;’s broccoli would come when the product ended up on grocery store shelves, where consumers would judge how it looked and tasted.
Joynt and Barham said their broccoli, with its round dome and dense florets, would pass the appearance test. As for taste, Barham said, “It’s good. It’s mild.”
