July 2022 - 1

Cybersecurity threats
focus of Viva Fresh
session
Tips for managing
tomato spotted wilt
virus
7
8
High-Tech Tools
2022
10
CropManage tool
lowers fertilizer,
water use
July 2022 | Volume 56 |
Issue 7
Supporting
the future
Lipman Family Farms sees sustainability
through breeding, growing
Ebilio Perez, a co-owner of Perez Brothers Farms in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in a field of bell peppers. Perez Brothers is a partner with a Lipman local effort that works with small
growers to provide fair returns and consistent supplies. Photos: Lipman Family Farms
By Doug Ohlemeier
Assistant Editor
Lipman Family Farms includes
sustainability throughout its North
American production. While the
Immokalee, Florida, family operation
has expanded from growing tomatoes
into other crops and related operations,
it remains a grower at heart.
Lipman has grown from a small
family business to a large-scale grower
that thinks about the future
by adapting with new growing
methods and technology. It also
creates partnerships with small and
medium growers to provide locally
sourced produce.
From its humble beginnings as a
tomato buyer in New York to today's
vertically integrated network of services
throughout North America, the
company operated by fourth generation
owners possesses a long history of
employing inventive ways of growing
tomatoes and other vegetables.
" At Lipman, we're always looking
for new ways to improve our practices
and bring innovative solutions to our
customers, " said Elyse Lipman, chief
strategy officer.
The Lipmans began growing
tomatoes in Florida in the 1950s. It
gradually added a full line of tomato
varieties and dry vegetables, including
peppers, cucumbers, squash, green
beans and mini sweet peppers.
Lipman also incorporated growing
methods outside of field growing.
Tomato varieties include mature
greens, round reds, romas, grapes
and cherries. In recent years, Lipman
introduced Crimson tomato varieties,
which maintain their shape and bold
red colors, offering the taste of summer
throughout the year.
Farming legacy
The seeds for Lipman's family
business vision were planted in the
See LIPMAN, page 5
Tomato grafting research shows
potential, drawbacks
By Vicky Boyd
Contributing Writer
University of California researchers
borrowed a page from the tree fruit
industry handbook and looked at grafting
tomato scion that produces desirable fruit
onto hardy rootstocks.
Part of the impetus behind their field
trials, which involved fresh-market and
processing tomatoes, were soilborne pests
that had overcome resistance in current
cultivars, new soil borne pests and
shrinking access to soil fumigants.
Although they found that some
scion-rootstock combinations yielded
significantly more than the non-grafted
varieties in select years, the main
challenge remains the high cost of
grafting, said UC Extension farm advisor
Brenna Aegerter, who is based in San
Joaquin County.
" I think probably in the future a
portion of the acreage will be grafted, "
she said. " That's my guess - that's if the
grafting and rootstock seed prices get to
be reasonable. "
Gene Miyao, a UC Extension farm
advisor emeritus for Yolo, Solano and
Sacramento counties, agreed. He cited
the widespread adoption of transplants
rather than direct seeding and buried
drip irrigation in the 1990s and 2010s,
respectively, as reasons why he wouldn't
rule out eventual industry adoption of
grafted processing tomato plants. When
transplants and drip irrigation were
initially introduced, Miyao said he never
thought they'd go mainstream.
" The industry overall has always
See GRAFTING, page 6

July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2022