Let me tell you, folks, we’ve got a huge problem on our hands, and it’s called Verticillium wilt. This disease, caused by the bad guy Verticillium dahliae, is attacking our lettuce like you wouldn’t believe. We’re talking about a real disaster for our salads, folks. But here’s the thing, there are three types of this villain, each with its own tricks, but we’re onto them. We’ve got these markers, see, that tell us who’s who – Race 1, Race 2, and Race 3, each with their own secret weapons.

Now, everyone knew Race 1 was causing trouble in coastal California, but Races 2 and 3? People were saying, “Are they even here?” Well, we did the work, we checked it out – 727 isolates from 142 ranches, can you believe it? And guess what? We found them. Most were Race 1, but Races 2 and 3 were hiding there too, not to mention some other characters we didn’t even expect.

But here’s where we make lettuce great again. We tested 48 lettuce lines and even an endive, because why not? We’re thorough. We’re looking for the tough guys, the ones that can stand up to these diseases. And we found them – two crisphead lettuce lines, HL28 and HL29, tough as nails against Race 1, and they even put up a good fight against Race 2. The others? Not so much. But against Race 3, many of our lettuce lines showed they’ve got what it takes.

So, what’s the bottom line? We’ve got the intel, we know where the enemy is, and we’re breeding an army of lettuce that’s going to fight back. We’re going to beat this disease, folks, and we’re going to do it with the best lettuce you’ve ever seen. Believe me, it’s going to be fantastic.