Got Lettuce Growing Questions?
Have you been looking for answers to lettuce gardening questions that I haven’t answered on this site? How about any other aspects of growing lettuce?
My ears are always open! Leave a comment below and let me know, and I’ll certainly do my best to answer your question! In addition, this will allow me to improve the site for anyone else who might want to know the same thing as you!
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I a curious to know how much leaf lettuce to grow. My husband and I are a raw vegan household and eat about 12-15 cups of leaf lettuce daily total. Please, how many plants should we put in the ground to get the yeild we desire? Thank you for your help.
lars Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@-elizabeth,
Sorry, I’m not ignoring you.
I’m not really sure with this one. I was hoping someone else would chime in with an estimate.
I am in Cottonwood Az can lettuce be grown as temps soon will be 50 to80 or even 90?
lars Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@rick,
It might be too late already for lettuce in Arizona.
I found this article for you, which has a good link to a page about planting times for Arizona.
http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/outdoors/articles/2010/03/17/20100317arizona-spring-planting-guide.html
At what temperature will lettuce become damaged. The temp tonight will be 26 and we have a field of 250 plants. What is the best thing for us to do to protect. Thank you
This is an ASAP problem
Hi Lars,
I live in NJ and decided to plant Burpee’s Sweet lettuce mix 1 week ago (in little pots in portable green house). I live in an apartment with no balcony. I have 2 window boxes (one with coco liner) facing East. I wanted to know if a coco-lined window box has enough drainage for lettuce. Also, is it too late to start the process? When I started researching lettuce growing, it was too late and I had already planted my seeds. Any advice would help. I’m a very beginner (this is my first attempt at growing anything!)
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Lettuce has a shallow root system and seems to do well in window boxes. Lettuce grows quickly, so you’ve got a short time before harvest. Keep in mind that gardening outside depends on soil temperatures. When gardening indoors, you’re eliminating a lot of your outdoor variables so it’s less restrictive when it comes to growing seasons.
Part of being a beginning grower is experimenting with your growing environment: sunlight, containers, and even soil medium. Your window box should be fine for drainage, just make sure you use a light soil mixture that will allow the soil to drain. Good luck, and enjoy your greens!
Hi, My question is about lettuce diseases, I think. Lettuce in our greenhouse is rotting in the centers of the heads of romaine and now crisphead. Its a solar greenhouse, 5′ x 22′ raised planting bed. Letely the weather has been warm so the door and windows are all open, daytime temps around 70 – 80. I water with a hose on the soil surface, not overhead. Yesterday I watered, and today the crisphead is rotting. Perhaps its a watering style issue, but its not shown up in the crisphead before. The plants are 4 – 6 weeks old. There is a 2′ fan running in there all the time.
I appreciate your website here, but would like more symptoms included in the disease section, maybe pictures if you can find them ?
Thanks, Jean in Mt
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Check into bottom and drop rot. It’s pretty common for lettuce, especially in greenhouses. Bottom rot usually starts on the lower leaves. It then moves to the stem, and eventually the whole lettuce plant. Soil fungi cause these rots. The first suggestion is not to water overhead, which you are doing. Have you recently fertilized? Sometimes, too much fertilizer can be linked to the problem. Try compost as a gentle fertilizer for lettuces. Also, make sure the soil in your raised planting bed is draining well. Compost will help your soil retain the appropriate amount of water with the organic matter absorbing the excess, keeping soil moist but also away from the lettuce. Here’s more information on greenhouse lettuce diseases from the University of Connecticut: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/veg/htms/lettuce.htm.
I’m experimenting with lettuce. After they reach a certain
height they “go to seed”, I am told. Can the seeds be planted or should I just pull up the plant because it’s growth is done. I have butter leaf lettuce .
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Yes, you can harvest these seeds and replant. So, let them finish out their growing cycle, “go to seed” and replant.
I am growing leaf lettuce in a pot, and it’s doing just fine but it tastes a bit bitter.
I have used organic garden soil and organic veggie food. What else can I do to make it less bitter?
lars Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 8:20 pm
@Tea
Weather that is too hot, and too much nitrogen fertilizer can both cause bitter lettuce. You might try backing off on the plant food if hot weather isn’t your issue.
You might also try washing and storing the lettuce leaves in the refrigerator for a couple of days, which can reduce bitterness:
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/lettuce1.html
My Boston lettuce looks great one day and then the next day it starts to wilt and the lower leaves turn yellow-green, then if I tug on the pant a tiny bit to remove those dying leaves, the whole lettuce plant comes up and the root is brown and mushy where it breaks off, sometimes I see a brown centipede like worm wriggle into the dirt. It has been systematically killing my plants one by one. Help!
lars Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:40 pm
@ Colleen
Do you think it’s a cutworm?
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/m1225.html
To me, it sounds like it might be bottom rot:
http://www.slhfarm.com/lettucepest.html
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/PhotoPages/Impt_Diseases/Lettuce/Lettuce_Bottom.htm
Sometimes a fungicide can help with that.
I am growing head lattuce in my raised garden. We noticed that lately the older leaves are turning brown. The heads seem to be forming, but this is my first time growing them. Should I pull the dead leaves and continue to let them grow, or is this a sign of loosing the entire plant. It is early enough in the season to replace them with something else if necessary.
Hi there, I was just wondering about growing lettuce in pots? Are there certain varieties that do better than another in pots? Is there a specific depth the pots should be in order to grow? Thanks a lot!
Hello. I really am interested in growing lettuce in Ft. Lauderdale. After researching, I feel like I missed my window to plant and that it’s too hot in south Florida. What do you think?
lars Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 12:37 am
@Joyce
Yes, it’s too late for Florida. But fall is just around the corner!
http://niceville.com/Garden/FYF/Lettuce.htm
Hi Lars,
I live in an apartment and am going to be experimenting with growing a few vegetables this Fall. With a very limited amount of space, I’d like to maximize the variety of vegetables I’d like to grow. What is the smallest lettuce plant that you know of? For someone who doesn’t eat a lot of cold salads, would only a couple plants be enough for, say a side salad 3 times a week for 2 people?
lars Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
@Teah
1. Have you considered the Aerogrow? It’s an easy way to grow lettuce inside the house. It doesn’t take up much room, and it would easily grow enough lettuce for you throughout the year.
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/aerogrow.html
2. Here’s a good guide to how much lettuce to plant:
http://yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/FoodGardening/VegetableFiles/Lettuce
3. I’m not convinced that growing smaller lettuce plants would be the key to success, so I’m not sure if I’d focus on that as your solution and would instead try and determine how many plants you think you might need in general. Even if you get a little bit more lettuce than you need, that would be better than not getting enough to use.
Good morning!!!! I cut my lettuce this morning and noticed this milky substance in the stalks…do you know what that is?? This is my first time trying to grow lettuce. It also is very bitter to me. We live in North Carolina, don’t know if that matters or not.
Thank you for your help!!!
lars Reply:
July 19th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
@Annette
That’s normal, so you shouldn’t worry.
If your lettuce is bitter, it might be from hot weather, too much nitrogen fertilizer (or sometimes not enough), or inconsistent watering.
If you put your lettuce leaves in the refrigerator for a day or two, it will reduce the bitterness.
Here’s a good article:
http://www.hgtv.com/landscaping/how-to-prevent-bitter-lettuce/index.html
Great site… thanks!!! This is my first year growing lettuce in our garden (Barrie, Ontario) so any advice is appreciated. Earlier I harvested by using outer tough leaves as compost and eating the inner softer leaves. Unfortunately, now each plant (12 in total) are trying to go to seed, should I now cut each plants off at the stem? Thanks for the tips.
lars Reply:
July 19th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
@Chris
Here’s a pretty good short article with photos that show you how to deal with lettuce that is going to seed:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5237448_prevent-lettuce-going-seed.html
Hello, I now work on an Organic farm, this is our first year. we have a small lettuce feild that is doing very well & we had our first harvest yeaterday , it was beautiful … but only for a few hrs. the lettuce was wilted by that afternoon
do you have a link or any info on how to keep it looking beautiful for a couple days after it is cut???