Lettuce

Scientific name: Lactuca sativa
Lactuca sativa

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Type:
Annual
USDA hardiness zones:
-

Lettuce is suitable for many growing conditions, but does prefer the cool weather, doing best in spring and fall. Shading in summer may help hold off bolting (when lettuce flowers, the leaf taste is bitter). Although lettuce is sometimes cooked when tough, it is usually eaten raw and so provides an important set of living enzymes for us. This cool-season salad green comes in a multitude of leaf shapes, colors and flavors to keep salads interesting.

  • Easy

Seeds or transplants can be sown as soon as soil is workable. Bed should be prepped the previous fall by working in compost or organic matter and raking to leave soil smooth and fine. Seeds need light to germinate and so are sown just barely below soil surface an inch (2.5 cm) apart and 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) apart. Loose-leaf Lettuces also do well when broadcast seeded into a small patch for cut-and-come-again harvesting. For an earlier start, sow seeds in 1 inch (2.5 cm) cells 3 to 4 weeks before you want to transplant out. Harden off plants by reducing water and temperature for 3 days prior to planting and they will survive 20F (-8C). Mature plants do not tolerate the low temperatures that seedlings do so time your last fall crop to mature around the time of your first frost. Thin crisphead types to 12 inch (30 cm) and leafy types to 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) when plantlets have 2 to 3 true leaves or after planting out transplants. Make use of multiple plantings and varieties with different maturity dates to ensure a continuous supply. To prevent bolting pick bolt resistant varieties particularly later in the season when nights are warmer and keep shaded in warm weather. Drought will also trigger bolting. Mulching will help shallow rooted plants retain moisture and prevent weeds.

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Groundskeeper replied almost 3 years ago
"Leafy or Beefy!" This time of year - the height of summer - lettuce struggles, especially varieties with thin, tender leaves. Direct sun almost cooks them, and they ask the roots for more water than possible, unless you keep the soil constantly moist. Constantly. A bit of shade helps too. Two layers of row-cover fabric is enough. Just drape it on the plants. Really, lettuce prefers cool soil and temperatures. Start more plants now for Fall.
Groundskeeper replied almost 3 years ago
Lettuce sown in Spring is ready by mid-summer to shift from growing to flowering. It has its own schedule, controlled by age and heat. Up comes a flower stalk with wispy flowers (this event is called “bolting,” as if the plant were a runaway horse), the leaves turn bitter and soon wilt, and the harvest is over. Varieties with thicker leaves, Romaine types like ‘Barcarole,’ hold better in summer but also bolt eventually.

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