Dümmen Orange Launches INTRINSA Breeding Technology Brand

Chris Beytes

It’s exciting to see ornamental breeders starting to take advantage of technologies that, until fairly recently, were only available (or affordable) for the big guys like Monsanto and the big crops like corn. Gene mapping, for instance, has enabled IDM-resistant impatiens and sped up breeding of tulips.

Dümmen Orange recently opened their Breeding Technology Center in the Netherlands and now they’re launching a brand that tells you a product has benefited from it. INTRINSA “will represent all upcoming product innovations for several innovative traits and crops designed to deliver increased value-add for our customers,” they said in the press release.

Dümmen Orange says positive traits will include increased resistance for bacteria, virus, viral and fungal diseases, along with traits related to tolerance for environmental stresses (such as cold, heat and drought) and improvements for production performance. The goal is to make plant production easier and more sustainable, with less reliance on chemical pest control.

What happens at the Breeding Technology Center? “By deciphering and analyzing the genetic code of plants, we learn about the precise biological causes for existing or missing resistances. In the next step, INTRINSA uses and develops our knowledge on existing DNA code in commercial varieties by systematically improving and extending crucial traits of a plant. In this way, deficiencies are cured from within, making use of the plant’s intrinsic and natural capabilities. The results: plants which are able to withstand a multitude of biotic and abiotic stresses.”

The first products to carry the INTRINSA brand will be the Ditto series of garden mums, which are said to have white rust resistance. Various pot and cut mum varieties will follow, along with kalanchoes and petunias that have resistance to powdery mildew and tobacco mosaic virus, respectively.

Visit dummenorange.com to watch a video about how they create INTRINSA products. GT