How to Grow Lettuce from Seed
Growing Butterhead, Crisphead, Looseleaf and Cos Salad Greens
Starting a patch of salad greens in the vegetable garden is a wonderful way to welcome spring. Mix and match a blend of different lettuce varieties to eat this season.
Perhaps one of the most satisfying crops vegetable gardeners can grow is salad greens. Many vegetable gardeners dedicate a large portion of their vegetable patch to growing lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, with the intention of tossing wonderfully tasty, beautiful and healthful summer salads. Fortunately, growing lettuce and other greens is exceptionally easy!
Lettuce is a cool weather crop, best grown in early spring or fall in Northern gardens, and winter or spring in the South. According to the renewed edition of the classic organic gardening guide, “How to Grow Fruits & Vegetables by the Organic Method” (Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 1999), lettuce was first cultivated by the Greeks as early as 500 B.C.!
Lettuce seed tends to have a short shelf-life, so it is a good practice to sow the seeds in the year they were packaged. For this reason, be wary of seeds obtained through a seed swap or exchange. Interesting varieties of lettuce green seeds are becoming more easy to find commercially, from many seed companies. Members of organizations such as Seeds of Diversity or Seed Savers Exchange quite often offer up unique heirloom varieties of lettuce seeds, also.
Generally speaking, lettuce seeds should be directly-sown half an inch deep in rich, moist soil. Seeds can be sown thickly, the young plants thinned later on. Keep the plants weeded and watered. Plant seeds in succession a few weeks apart, ensuring a continuous crop, until the weather gets very hot. In hot weather, lettuce plants will “bolt”, or flower, at which time the leaves will become too bitter to eat. A new crop can then be started when the weather cools down in early autumn.
There are all sorts of salad greens that can be grown in the back yard vegetable garden, and lettuce varieties can be narrowed down into one of four different major types.
- Looseleaf lettuce grows upright leaves in a bunch, but the leaves do not form a head. One of the most popular types of loose leaf lettuce is known familiarly as “cut-and-come-again” lettuce, for its ability to produce new leaf growth after individual leaves are harvested. Lolla Rossa is a beautiful red-leafed looseleaf lettuce with a mild flavour. Its brightly coloured leaves are beautiful for edging the vegetable garden.
- Butterhead lettuce forms soft, round heads, and the leaves may be frilly. An example of this type of lettuce is Tennis Ball, an heirloom variety that was first introduced during the 1850's, producing small, loose heads that are ideal for growing in containers.
- Crisphead lettuce heads are dense, and the leaves are crunchy. The most common variety of crisphead lettuce is iceberg, as it is sold year-round in most grocery supermarkets. A more unique variety to try is Reine des Glaces, a French heirloom.
- Cos lettuce is known more commonly as romaine lettuce. Tall, upright leaves form oblong-shaped heads. Common romaine is found most readily, but unusual and pretty red and speckled varieties such as Freckles and Red Romaine are also available.
Growing a handful of different types of lettuce will provide a colourful salad garden, perfect for harvesting the ingredients for a unique and delicious, light meal, well worth the minimal effort required.
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