Boost your pumpkin yields by 40%

New vegetable cultivars offer improved yields, better flavour, disease-resistance and longer shelf life.

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A pumpkin with a yield potential 40% above standard, a tomato tolerant of spotted wilt virus (a scourge in the Western Cape) and a super-hot, easy-to-harvest cayenne pepper are some of the new cultivars available from Cape-based seed company Starke Ayres.

As well as many of the company's vegetable favourites, new varieties of thick-walled sweet peppers with long shelf lives were on view at the farmers' day held recently at Delmas in Mpumalanga. Farmers were taken on tractor and trailer rides to the various trial fields.

Nico van Rensburg of Starke Ayres introduced Star 7022, a new grey hybrid pumpkin. He pointed out that about 40 000ha of pumpkin are grown yearly in South Africa. Although the Flat White Boer remains the firm favourite, other pumpkin varieties are enjoying a good market share.

Starke Ayres claims that Star 7022 is a pumpkin with very high-quality fruit and an excellent yield potential. The new cultivar is a vigorous and productive plant with a semi-bush habit. The fruit has a deep, flat shape (200mm x 250mm), with a shallower stem attachment than Queensland Blue.

The skin is very thin, the seed cavity is small, and the average weight of the pumpkin is 5kg. Star 7022 matures in 90 days in summer and 110 days in winter.