BABYLON

The Babylon variety came about in a rather unique way. The variety was not obtained by the normal crossing procedure, but was instead “found” as a mutant in a field with Agria. Babylon is therefore also one of the multipurpose varieties.

In most cases, mutations do not lead to a new variety and are naturally eliminated. However, when Mr. R.K. Bakker from Oudeschip found the unusual plants among his field of Agria plants, he decided to propagate them separately. After two years of propagation, he decided to inform Agrico of his discovery and ask whether we also thought it might have added value.

The Agria clone was included in the regular tests at Agrico Research, and after a number of years, the mutation was found to be stable and sufficiently deviant from the Agria variety. In order for a mutant to be described and protected, it should have at least three characteristics that differ from the original variety. The Babylon variety turned out to have five such characteristics.

It took a long time to come up with the name of Babylon. An association with the original variety was initially desired, but this led to Babylonian confusion between the grower and Agrico. Eventually, in cooperation with the commercial staff, the name Babylon was chosen.