salad are a favorite meal in our home , which made growing lettuce a priority when space was carve out for a vegetable garden . It quickly became a favorite vegetable to develop , too . Homegrown lettuce , glean and eat straight away , is much more flavoursome than greens from the grocery depot . It is also a ready craw , with some mixed bag quick for harvest home only calendar week after sowing . It ’s the dissipated solid food of the edible garden .
With a bit of planning , you may grow lettuce to be harvested throughout the season , even during those hot summer months when dough tends to bolt . To keep the lettuce coming , you postulate to adjust your planting schedule , cautiously blue-ribbon varieties and keep seedling on hand for graft . With these techniques , you ’ll be capable to harvest fresh lettuce for most of the develop season — even in cold weather condition with extra protection .
To grow healthy plants , give your lettuce well - drained stain that is copious in N . scratch like temperatures cool , too , which is why they run off during hot , dry weather . Head gelt also need space to senesce because overcrowding increases the risk of run off .
For a long season of moolah , you ’ll want a mixing of cold - broad and warm - weather multifariousness , as well as a few all - around winners that do well across all season . Select some lettuce mixes that produce a quick harvest of small leaf as well as varieties that create heads , which take much longer to attain maturity .
I uprise mostly butterhead varieties with some foliage and romaine character mixed in for quick harvests . I also have a pocket-size patch of mesclun growing all time of year to augment the primary gelt crop .
Sow other But Not Too Often
Gardeners are often propose to seed lettuce every 10 Clarence Day to two hebdomad for a continual crop . I have found that this is much too often and issue in plants mature at the same time alternatively of insuccession . In my inhuman - mood garden , I sow every three to four weeks , which raise a unfeigned succession and reduces my workload . I also plant doubly as much simoleons as I think I will involve . This allows for the inevitable plant life failure and blighter terms . Since lettuce can be reap at most stages of growth , even with planting less oft , you ’ll have plenty of small folio and pocket-size immature school principal to use up before heading varieties to the full ripe .
Seeding indoorsand transplanting seedling ply more consistent results and increases render from a minuscule garden . Lettuce directly seeded into the garden is also much more likely to be ravaged by pests or be washed away by heavy rains . Having seedling ready to replace harvested crops will make it easier to maintain a regular crop for harvesting by reducing window of waiting for plants to mature by two or three week , which is important for those of us who have short grow season . Indoor seeding also protect seedling from temperature extremum in both natural spring and summer , which seduce plants last longer in the garden . I sometimes slenderize the flats of seedlings to provide a salad or two to augment the garden harvest .
Once plants have hit a sure size , outer leaves may be glean sparingly . My rule is : when plant have 10 leaves , the outer three or four leaves may be harvested without too much effect on plants . countenance a few prize manoeuver plants to full senesce without reap any out leaves .
Avoiding Bolting
Even with the best varieties and a measured seeding agenda , moolah is most susceptible to bolt when the weather is raging and dry . Lettuce that has see the cold weather of spring is more potential to bolt when the weather turns warm than young plants that were start up indoors and are accustomed to fond weather . To slenderize the risk of bolting , be certain to water plants well and regularly . Protect plants from the sun on the hottest summertime twenty-four hours ( high-pitched 80s and 90 F ) . Something as childlike as a cardboard tent over the lettuce patch during the hottest part of the day can keep works from absquatulate ; wraith fabric over hoops also work well . debate planting lolly in the shade of taller plants , like peppercorn and tomatoes , for shelter . If you do plant life dough closely to other plant , remember the plants will need more water and fertiliser .
Lettuce that has start to bolt can be bitter — how bitter calculate on the kind . Keep a close eye on plants as conditions warms . When you notice the telltale signaling of bolt , harvest immediately . Taste a leaf or two to see if it is bitter . If it is , pull the industrial plant and replant with seedlings . If the leave are n’t acerb , harvest time and eat , then replant with seedlings . This is where having a flat of seedlings in waiting will maximize harvest time as two- to three - calendar week - old seedling may be ready to glean in two or three weeks , depending on the variety .
Extending the Season
Plants in the shoulder seasons mature at a slower rate than they do during the acme of summer , so having more plants during these fourth dimension is a good idea . Be sure to grow lettuce variety that are cold-blooded - tolerant and mature when they hit fall as they wo n’t grow much after the end of September .
Some simoleons varieties can take light frosts , but even those appreciate some cover when the temperature dip . Lettuce can be protect with cloche , floating run-in covers(like agribon / remay),cold framesand greenhouse plastic , if you want to keep them in the dry land in the fall .
To keep your plate overflowing with leafy greens throughout the growing season , take a mix of varieties , keep the industrial plant coming and be quick to glean by the headspring or the leafage . Under the right conditions , you’re able to grow boodle for most of the time of year , keeping you in nutritious salads for calendar month .
This article was written bySusy Morrisand appear in the March / April 2020 issue of theNorthern Gardener . She a garden photographer and writer free-base in Maine . Her blog ischiotsrun.com .
