VARIETIES / HYBRIDS
- Varieties are grouped on the basis of morphological characters.
Head type:
1. Crisp Head:
- Cultivars are heading types with wrinkled non wrapper leaves, round, large head (up to 1kg), brittle and tightly folded, with green outer and white or yellowish inner leaves.
- Examples are New York 515, Imperial 44,152,456,615 and 847. Great Lakes and Penn Lake are commercial cultivars.
2. Butter Head:
- It forms relatively small, loose heads with broad oily, crumbled, soft textured leaves.
- Both crisp and butter head belongs to head lettuce i.e var. capitata.
- Examples are Borough Wonder, Cobham Green and Avondefiance.
Non-heading type:
1. Cos or Romaine (var. longifolia):
- The cultivars have elongated leaves forming a loaf shaped head.
- Outer leaves are dark with heavy nobs, inner leaves are finer and lighter in colour coarse in appearance but eating quality is quite good.
- Examples are Eiffel Tower, Paris Island and Paris White
2. Leaf or Bunching (var. crispa):
- The cultivars are non-heading or leaf type. Colour, heat sensitivity and quality vary but all produce a rosette of leaves.
- Best example is Simpson Black-Seeded, Prizehead, Australian and Salad Bowl for outdoor and Grand Rapids for greenhouse production
3. Asparagus or stem type ( var. asparagina):
- Also known as celery lettuce
- The cultivars have thick stem which is peeled and eaten raw e.g. Celtuce
- The leaves are also edible but inferior in quality than other types e.g. Lettuce
Latin:
- It resembles butter head in forming loose head but the leaves are elongated and similar to Cos.
- Grown in Mediterranean countries.
- The cultivar Gallega, Criolla, Verde, Criolla Blenca and Madrilene are best examples.
Some of the important varieties are
Great Lakes:
- Crisp head type having large firm heads with green leaves, outer leaves are blistered, resistant to tip burn but susceptible to powdery mildew.
Alamo-1:
- It is a heading type variety released from Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan.
- Leaves are crisp, cup shaped, bending and dark green in colour.
- Heads solid, weighing from 500-800g, ready for harvesting in 80-90 days.
- Average yield 235q/ha.
Few other varieties are Slowbolt (Leaf type), Chinese Yellow (Leaf type), Imperial 859 (Crisp Head type), White Boston (Butter Head type), Dark Green (Cos type), Alamo -1(Head type) and Simpson Black Seeded (Leafy type)
Recently developed Lettuce cultivars:
- Cultivars 9547 and 9542, Salma, Svetlana (Nathasha), Impact, Magnum, Marksman, Diamond, Elisa and Florida Butter Crips,
  VARIETIES
- Cultivars of rhubarb may also be chosen according to the color of their petioles.
- For outdoor production, the cultivar Mac Donald, Sunrise and Ruby have large red stalks. They are vigorous and upright growing.
- Valentine is another red stalked cultivar that is popular for growing in home gardens.
- For forcing, Timperley, Early Victoria, Crimson Red and Sutton are used.
- Victoria a green stalked cultivar is heavy yielder and excellent for commercial purposes.
- Sutton is pink- stalked cultivar.
|
Participants
