How to Grow Lettuce all Season Long

Lettuce is a gardener’s favorite – quick to grow and versatile in the kitchen. Whether you’re an experienced gardener or a beginner, growing lettuce can be a rewarding experience. In this guide, we’ll explore the history of this leafy vegetable and provide essential information on how to successfully grow your own crisp, flavorful lettuce. From selecting varieties to harvesting, we’ll cover everything you need to know to grow this effortless crop in your garden or containers.

How to Grow Lettuce

You will learn the essentials of growing lettuce, one of the easiest and most abundant vegetables to cultivate. This guide will cover the basic steps required to grow crispy lettuce successfully.

You will gain knowledge on selecting the right lettuce varieties, preparing the soil, planting and spacing the seeds or seedlings, providing proper water and sunlight, and caring for the plants throughout the growing process.

wild lettuce — Wild Lettuce (Lactuca Virosa)

History of Lettuce Cultivation

Here’s a more reader-friendly version of the section:

The Surprising History of Lettuce: From Wild Plant to Dinner Plate

Did you know that lettuce has a fascinating past? Let’s take a quick trip through time:

Ancient origins: Wild lettuce first popped up in the Mediterranean region, where hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters are the norm.
Egyptian discovery: About 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians were the first to cultivate lettuce. But here’s a twist – they weren’t growing it for salads! They extracted oil from its seeds and even believed it to be an aphrodisiac.
Roman favorite: The Romans fell in love with lettuce as a vegetable. They bred out the bitterness of wild varieties, creating the milder lettuce we know today.
Nature’s nightcap: People thought the milky sap from broken lettuce leaves had a calming effect, similar to warm milk. This led to a unique custom – eating lettuce at the end of a big meal as a natural sleep aid!

So, the next time you crunch into a lettuce leaf, remember – you’re enjoying a plant with a rich history spanning thousands of years and multiple civilizations!

Sowing Lettuce Seeds

You can sow seeds directly in your garden or start them indoors. If you’re going the indoor route, plant your seeds 3-4 weeks before you plan to move them outside. Here’s a pro tip: plant a few seeds every week. This way, you’ll always have fresh lettuce ready, even if some plants bolt.

Before moving your indoor seedlings to the garden, remember to “harden them off” – gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions. This helps them adjust and thrive in their new home.

For direct sowing, space matters:

For full-grown lettuce: Plant seeds about 6 inches apart
For baby lettuce: A 3-4 inch gap between plants is perfect

Want to try something fun? Create a mesclun mix! Scatter a variety of lettuce and herb seeds on the soil surface and lightly cover them. In about a month, you’ll have a colorful, tasty mix ready for harvesting. The best part? It’ll keep growing back for multiple harvests!

Light Requirements

Lettuce thrives in the cooler days of spring and fall, soaking up the sunshine. But when summer rolls around, it’s a different story. To keep your lettuce sweet and happy, aim for about 4 hours of direct sunlight each day. Just like us, lettuce appreciates a little shade during a scorching summer day.

If your lettuce accidentally gets too much sun, don’t worry — it might taste a bit bitter, but it’s still good to eat. So enjoy your homegrown greens any time, and remember to seek out those shady spots in the summer heat!

Fertilizer

If you are harvesting lettuce for the whole head, you don’t need much fertilizer, other than well-rotted compost or manure worked into the soil before planting.

If you are harvesting as cut-and-come-again lettuce (different harvesting styles are discussed further down), you should fertilize your plants with a high nitrogen organic fertilizer every month.

This will help the plants recover from the harvesting and help them produce more leaves for you.

Watering

Keep your lettuce plants moist! Letting them dry out will increase the chance of them going bitter and bolting. Mulching will also help to retain moisture and reflect heat from the soil during the summer months.

six arugula plants in a two by three seedling cell tray

Companion Planting

Lettuce does great with many other vegetables like beans, onions, garlic, and other leafy greens. Other leafy greens have relatively the same care requirements as lettuce, beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and onions and garlic help to repel some common lettuce pests like aphids.

If you decide to interplant with beans, you will have to wait until the beans are fully dead and decomposed for the nitrogen to be bioavailable to the lettuce.

With that being said, lettuce will do well planted with basically anything, as it can tolerate different temperatures and different light levels.

Varieties

Lettuce varieties are split into 4 main groups: Romaine, crisphead, butterhead, and looseleaf. The first 3 are typically harvested as head lettuce and the last one is harvested in a cut-and-come-again style.

Two popular romaine varieties are Paris island cos and little gem. Little gem lettuce is harvested as a 6 inch tall, palm-sized, personal head.

A popular crisphead variety is iceberg, which is one of the most popular lettuces but has little to no nutritional value. But, it is a crisp variety.

A popular butterhead is Boston, which is harvested for its loose, tender heads.

And a fantastic looseleaf variety is called slo-bolt. As the name suggests, the variety is very “slow” to bolt in the heat of the summer.

Harvesting

Head Lettuce – As the name suggests, you want to harvest the whole mature head of these varieties, about 2 – 3 months after planting. You can cut the plant right at the base. In rare cases, you will get another head, but you will most probably kill your plant.

Cut-and-Come-Again – This style of harvesting is usually used for looseleaf varieties, of which you harvest only the mature outer leaves of the plant, leaving the rest to continue growing.

The first harvest will be around a month after planting, but you can continue to harvest 5, 6, 7, or 8 times per plant! The harvest only stops when the plant runs to seed.

Check out this video to learn more!

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take for lettuce to grow?

Most varieties will be ready to harvest within 30-60 days of sowing. But it depends on the variety that you are growing. Generally, romaine varieties take more time to mature than looseleaf varieties.

Does lettuce need full sun?

While lettuce grows optimally in full sun, it can tolerate some shade, especially when it is very hot outside. Generally, give your lettuce full sun in the spring, fall, and winter, and give them part shade in the summer.

Can you grow lettuce in containers?

Lettuce is ideal for container gardening, as they mature to only a very small size. They will grow in almost any container, even grow bags.

Can I grow lettuce in the summer?

You can definitely grow lettuce in the summer. However, I would choose varieties that are more heat-resistant.

Even More Gardening Ideas

Here are a few more posts to get the ball rolling in your garden!

Products:

For organic, non-GMO garden seeds, check out SeedsNow.

For gardening equipment, check out Bootstrap Farmer.

For organic all-purpose fertilizers, check out Arber.

Conclusion

Growing lettuce is a simple and rewarding activity for any gardener. As mentioned in this guide, it requires minimal effort, and the results are plentiful. Whether you prefer to grow your lettuce hydroponically, in a container, or in a garden bed, the key is to offer your plants the right amount of water, sunlight, and nutrients.

The variety of lettuce you select will also play an important role in the taste and texture of your greens. Overall, growing your own lettuce is a great way to experience the joy and satisfaction of being self-sufficient while having access to fresh and nutritious food. Give it a try and see the difference for yourself!

If you want to learn more about gardening, foraging, nature, and sustainability, check out The Real Gardener on Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

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How to Grow Lettuce all Season Long