Careful harvesting

When the crop comes to an end, the seed can be harvested. Harvesting, too, has to be done with great care. Loss and/or contamination of the seed has to be prevented as much as possible. Various harvesting techniques may be used.

One operation
From crops with the seeds contained in umbels, ovules or pods, as in lettuce, carrots and beans, respectively, the seeds are harvested. This is usually done in one operation for the entire crop, although sometimes the umbels, ovules and pods have to be harvested regularly over a period of time.

Many weeks
From crops with the seeds contained in the fruits, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, for instance, the ripe fruits are harvested. This is usually done over a period of many weeks. The fruits are then puréed and the seeds retrieved.

All seeds to De Lier
All seed harvested for Rijk Zwaan is subsequently taken to the Seed Technological Centre (or ZTC) in De Lier, the Netherlands. Here, an intensive programme of cleaning, grading and quality control awaits the seed.