2015 Lettuce Value Justification Trials | Yuma, Arizona

Since the late 1970, Arizona has been the second largest growing region for lettuce in the United States averaging a value of $300 million per year. Due to Arizona’s extreme growing conditions, there is a number of lettuce varieties bred specifically for the desert region. According to the University of Arizona,” The primary physiological considerations for selecting a variety are seed germination temperature, length of growing season, and day length sensitivity.” Besides choosing a favourable variety, in addition to pelleting growers also must determine whether or not they wish to apply additional seed technologies to help improve the performance of their seed.

Depending on the variety, germination may be inhibited by the deserts average temperatures that range between 77 to 95° F in the cooler seasons and 81 to 107° F in the peak summer season. In addition to germination challenges caused by photodormancy, consistent high temperatures in the desert region may reduce germination success due to thermodormancy. To help maximize their potential, desert growers are opting to plant lettuce seeds processed with Germains’ emergis® priming technology stacked with the heavy OxyKote® pellet that was developed specifically for the desert growing region. Emergis® speeds up the germination process while the tan OxyKote® pellet keeps the seed stationary during flood irrigation. To further maximize our customer’s odds for success, Germains developed goseed® to help improve the overall nutritional health and vigour of the plant from germination to harvest.

2015 Desert Lettuce Value Justification Trial | Yuma, Arizona

For three consecutive years, Germains Seed Technology has been conducting Summer Heat Stress Trials and Fall Value Justification trials in Yuma, Arizona. Our objective is to demonstrate the performance of Germains’ lettuce desert product line versus our competitors. Germains’ 2015 Value Justification Trial was planted the week of September 21st at the University of Arizona’s Agriculture Facility. This is your chance to see firsthand how Germains Seed Technologies performs from emergence to harvest in the field!

Stacked with Germains pellet and priming, goseed® combined with other seed technologies consistently speeds up emergence and produces more vigorous seedlings. In the harsh desert environment, seed lots treated with all three technologies experience a faster speed of emergence and more vigorous seedlings which may lead to an earlier harvest. As the lettuce crops grow, the plants uniformity and vigour remains consistent in which you can clearly see a visible difference between the two crops in the field. As you will see in the image below, the same seed lot planted adjacent to each other show a remarkable difference in overall vigour and uniformity throughout the field.

Although there is much success with germination, the real results of the Value Justification Trial are proven at harvest. Seed lots coated with the OxyKote® pellet stacked with Emergis® priming and goseed® experience less post harvest waste, significant increases in yield and total weight per acre.

From germination to harvest, Germains’ Lettuce Value Justification Trials is an optimum way for dealers, breeder and growers to see how our seed technologies perform in the field vs. some of our competitors. For more information or to schedule an appointment to preview the trial, please contact Germains Sales Account Manager Charlie Cain 928-246-5718.