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New Canadian lettuce varieties now available for growers

January 12, 2010  By Fruit & Vegetable


Seeds for Estival and Hochelaga head lettuce are now available for Canadian growers.

Seeds for Estival and Hochelaga head lettuce are now available for Canadian growers.

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Hochelaga head lettuce
 
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Estival lettuce

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Coop Uniforce of Quebec has supply of both lettuce varieties, created by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Dr. Sylvie Jenni and her team, available for order.

Estival and Hochelaga are new varieties of head lettuce that are both resistant to rib discolouration and bolting but created for different markets. While Estival is suited for processing and better meets American export standards, Hochelaga is a more traditional type that is suited for the local fresh market. It’s hoped that with these alternative varieties available, horticulture producers will be better able to eliminate financial losses incurred during times when their lettuces go brown too quickly and don’t sell as well.

It took 10 years of research to create these new varieties, the fruit of the labours of Dr. Jenni, a scientific researcher in physiology and genetic improvement in vegetable production at the Horticulture Research and Development Centre in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

For the second year in a row, Estival was nominated for the eastern Canada Seed of the Year award, which was presented at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair late last year. The lettuce variety was beaten out by the Chapais barley in 2009 and the soybean variety OAC Kent in 2008.


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