Charter Seeds

Charter Seeds

6/11/2025, 8:22:30 AM

🌱 Grow Golden Perfection with Festive Onion Seeds! 🌰 Upgrade your onion harvest with Festive—an early-intermediate day onion that delivers: ✔ Exceptional skin retention & firm, globe-shaped bulbs. ✔ Stunning golden-brown colour ideal for fresh markets ✔ High yield potential with strong bolting tolerance ✔ Above-average resistance to downy mildew ✔ Best for short-term storage 🌿 Sowing:July-August | 🔄 Harvesting: December Perfect for farmers and gardeners aiming for quality and productivity! Get yours today and reap the rewards. 🌾 Festive onion is available in 100k packs only. For all your seeds visit us at 73 Ridge road Avondale Harare or any of our sales reps nationwide. Contact us on 0719599253/0714123115/0775708920 for any assistance. #farming #Horticulture #Charterseeds #SeedsOfSuccess #FestiveOnion #HighYield

Charter Seeds

2/25/2025, 8:54:37 AM

Another success story featuring Tomato Trinity, also known as The Beast, in Karoi. Tomato Trinity, fondly referred to as The Beast, has emerged as a symbol of success for local farmers, showcasing the impact of innovation in agriculture. The launch of Tomato Trinity has instilled new hope among growers. This variety is renowned for its durability, high yields, disease resistance, extended shelf life, and exceptional flavor. The outlook is promising for farmers eager to adopt Tomato Trinity. The outstanding quality of The Beast has unlocked new market opportunities, allowing local farmers to supply larger markets and restaurants, thereby enhancing their reach and profitability. If this success story resonates with you and you're looking to cultivate the finest tomato variety this season, Trinity is the ideal choice. It is well-suited for both open field and greenhouse cultivation. Drop by our location at 73 Ridge Road, Avondale, Harare, or connect with any of our sales representatives nationwide. For assistance, contact us at 0719599253, 0714123115, or 0775708920. 🌱🍅 #farming #tomatoes #Charterseeds #SeedsOfSuccess

Charter Seeds

2/3/2025, 8:07:42 AM

ZIMAGRIC RISING THE BEST IN THE WORLD Root Channelling Study – Progress Report DR B.A. CAMPBELL SOIL SCIENTIST CHARTER SEEDS Of the 12 available beds at Charter Seeds head office, four were put into production using existing root channels after onions. Starke Ayres varieties of four widely grown crops in Zimbabwe were used to examine the suitability of different varieties to this technique. The following varieties were used. Transplant Date Lettuce Green Machine 10/12/ 2024 Commander 10/12/ 2024 Red Dew 10/12/ 2024 Atlantis 10/12/ 2024 Tomatoes Star 9037 01/11/2024 Tabitha 01/11/2024 Standard Trinity 01/11/2024 Standard Star 9009 04/11/2024 Cauliflower Kamino 29/ 10/2024 C 1014 29/ 10/2024 C 1007 29/ 10/2024 Cabbages Star 3311 29/10/2024 Star 3301 29/10/2024 Lunaria 29/10/2024 Star 1461 (trial variety) 29/10/2024 No additional pre planting fertilizer or soil preparation was used after onions. Residual water was used. The seedlings were transplanted directly into the beds after harvesting. The only capital costs were the preparation of the fixed beds before onions. Bio-chemicals and bio stimulants were placed in the beds prior to onions at carefully calculated depths. In adjacent beds to Star 9037 and Star 9008 two exceptionally high yielding indeterminate Starke Ayres tomato varieties were grown as standards. In these beds a very good and costly soil preparation was used with a high application of fertilizer to ensure the soil sorption complex was saturated and both nutrient capacity and intensity were at a high level. There is a while to go yet to maturity, but between 60 and 70 days (lettuce 25 – 30 days) the results are spectacular. Vegetative growth using the root channel beds is as good or better than anything achieved with very high yielding Starke Ayres varieties in the past using conventional Charter Seeds soil preparation techniques. December 2024 was exceptionally hot and dry at head office. It was difficult to keep up with irrigation and crop water requirements, but the climate smart varieties used kept growing. When rains arrived in January 2025, cabbages, cauliflower, tomatoes and lettuce took off at an amazing rate. With tomatoes the rate of growth was so rapid and leaf development so prolific that it was feared that the complex relationship between leaf growth and flowering would be affected and maturity delayed. This doesn’t seem to have been the case. With tomatoes the photographs show trusses at the bottom and middle of the plants. At that time, it looks like the top crop will be as good as the bottom and middle crops with no decrease in weight of fruit at the top of the plant. The performance of Star 9037 is especially remarkable. The Star 9037seedlings used were small and soft required special treatment from the agronomy team. By far the most significant saving with this technology is time. As one crop comes out the next one is transplanted. The lettuce crops shown in the attached photographs are at 29 days. The variety called Green Machine on the right is now ready for market. There is a cos lettuce called Thunderhead which is just as quick as Green Machine. This will be incorporated in the next trial planting. There were two summer cauliflower varieties being investigated, CF1014 and CF 1017 and one winter variety, Kamino. Both summer varieties grew right through the hot, dry December, but winter variety Kamino was affected by Soreshin in the very hot weather. In December 2024 soil temperatures at the surface were over 60°C and stem lesions caused by this at the soil surface allowed access by the pathogen. Vegetative growth in trial cauliflowers was enormous. Cauliflower CF 1014 was ready for market before 70 days. Variety CF 1007 was not yet ready for market at 70 days but has exceptional wrapper leaves. All climate smart cabbage varieties are now growing strongly, having survived the very hot, dry conditions in December. Notes have been made on the overall performance of each variety. These will be reported after harvest. Both cauliflower and cabbage were badly affected in the early stages by grass and tree roots growing from lawn and trees nearby. Growth accelerated enormously when the lawn and msasa tree roots were prevented from accessing the beds. The objectives using this technique are as follows: · Six (6) lettuce crops in sequence. · Tomatoes - Lowveld and Zambezi Valley. Two (2) ultra-quicks in winter and one (1) high temperature tolerant variety in summer. Or one (1) very high yielding indeterminate variety in winter. · Highveld tomatoes. Two (2) ultra-quick varieties in summer or one very high-yielding indeterminate variety in summer. · Cabbage Five (5) crops over the year using summer and winter varieties. · Cauliflower Five (5) crops over the year using summer and winter varieties. The above technique is highly suited to small scale producers. It has the capacity to eliminate hunger in all Africa. Large scale producers can use Charter Seeds mechanized soil preparation techniques which are used for the Charter Seeds – Starke Ayres exhibition at ART Farm. All above crops have been grown following onions. Soil samples from different soil depths have been taken and analysed and nutrient levels recorded. These will be used as standards in future. Charter Seeds will shortly examine the use of carrots to create satisfactory root channels before moving on to other crops. Charter Seeds acknowledges they have a great deal to learn about this process. If any Charter Seeds clients would like to use this technique, starting in a small way to learn the pitfalls, Charter Seeds would be happy to work with them. Most of the attached photographs show the different Starke Ayres varieties grown with root channels. For comparative purposes photographs of high-performance tomato variety Trinity and high-performance heat tolerant tomato variety Tabitha, grown conventionally, are included. Photograph no.1: Agronomist Special Nhari is showing off the bottom crop of tomato Star 9037 grown using root channels. Photograph no.2: Agronomist Special Nhari shows off the bottom crop of tomato Star 9009 grown using root channels Photograph no.3: Agronomist Special Nhari shows off the bottom crop of tomato variety Trinity grown with conventional Charter Seeds techniques. Photograph no. 4: Agronomist Special Nhari shows off the bottom crop of tomato variety Tabitha grown with conventional Charter Seeds techniques. Photograph no. 5: Agronomist Special Nhari and and Farmer Solomon Mukungunugwa of Mazowe appreciating the lettuce crops at 29 days, grown using root channels. Photograph no. 6: A close up of the same lettuce crops. On the right, the new variety Green Machine, which was ready for market on 29 days from transplant. Photograph no. 7: The bed of cabbages grown in using root channels. There are four varieties in the bed. Each one will be assessed at harvest and a full report given. Photograph no. 8: A close up of Cauliflower CF 1014 ready for sale at 70 days from transplant. Photograph no. 9: Cauliflower 1014 ready to harvest. All varieties are climate smart and performed exceptionally well in the very hot dry conditions in December 2024. The climate smart properties of these varieties manifest themselves in their outstanding pollination when used in conjunction with Charter Seeds techniques. Note that the high temperatures in December 2024 are those of the highveld. In the Zimbabwe lowveld or the Zambezi Valley heat tolerant variety Tabitha would be useful in summer. What will happen to pollination in the top crops under continuously wet overcast conditions remains to be seen. This will be assessed in each variety and a full report given after harvesting. #farming #Charterseeds #seedsofsuccess