New salad varieties are here!

by Zac Sarian

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The beauty about agriculture is that there are always new developments coming up. Just like when we attended last February 13 a field day on new salad varieties conducted by the Allied Botanical Corporation in its experimental field inside the campus of Benguet State University in La Trinidad.

The new purple lettuce of the so-called “one-cut-ready” type, which means that all the leaves are cut in one stroke by cutting at the bottom of the plant. This adds color to the leafy salad.

This is the green Salanova lettuce that is also the so-called “one-cut-ready” type.

Michael Caballes of Allied Botanical shows leaves of one-cut-ready Salanova lettuce.

There we saw (and also tasted) for ourselves the new salad varieties recently introduced in the country for commercial production. They are the so-called Salanova lettuce varieties, the prospective new salad darlings. These come in various shades of color and each one has its own peculiar good traits.

Plant breeders have virtually changed the physical characteristics of the new varieties. One big change is the introduction of the so-called ‘one-cut-ready’ varieties. What are these? They are varieties that are short in stature, yet they yield more leaves than their older counterparts.

Rochelle Cañiza shows a big serving of green salad at the Allied Botanical Harvest Festival in La Trinidad.

The leaves are just a few inches long and the plants don’t develop a long main stem. And because of this trait, you can just slice the bottom of the plant, and Voila! All the leaves from the oldest and outermost to the newest are cut in one stroke. There’s no more need to further cut the leaves into shorter pieces.

Michael Caballes, Allied Botanical’s president, explained that the Salanova varieties are either the oakleaf type or butterleaf type. The butterleaf has wider leaves. The chefs in many Korean restaurants usually use the butterleaf for wrapping their barbecue.

Here’s a sampling of the new varieties. We are very familiar with the green Romain. Now, there is the red Romaine (Galatea), the Tyrol Romaine, and the Green Romaine Lettuce Poco. There is also a new version of the Frillice lettuce which has leaves with a very curly (‘spiny’) appearance. This new Frillice has crisp leaves that are thicker than the old one, hence with longer shelf life. This new variety does not easily wilt, according to Mike Caballes.

Among the red lettuce varieties are Cheerokee (a favorite of Koean restaurants), a variety called NRBL2 with blistered leaves (a very red Lollo rosa), and Red Valentine. Some people say that the colored varieties contain more antioxidants which are good for the health.

These new varieties promise to be additional money-makers for the growers, especially in the highlands where these are particularly suited for commercial production.

What is great about lettuce varieties is that they have a short gestation period. They can be harvested in just a little over a month from the time the seeds are sown. And they can be grown in the open field. Of course, they can also be planted inside the greenhouse.

One need not have a big plantation to earn a big income. After all, salad greens command a high price, especially if they are organically grown. Our friend Pat Acosta in La Trinidad just produces his organic lettuce on a 3,000-square meter hillside lot and he is leading a very comfortable lifestyle with the income from that small growing space.

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