Growing Lettuce - Your Own Salad Garden! No comments yet

I love growing my own vegetables, and last year planted a wide variety of veggies in my yard. I was disappointed when my fear of not enough sunshine was realized: while carrots and turnips and radish LOOKED to be growing well, when harvest time came, no roots had developed! In the case of the turnips, the greens were delish. And then I realized: greens! That’s what my space is good for!

So this spring I’m dedicating myself to an all-out lettuce garden. Along the way, I’ve accumulated a few tips that I’ll share here.

Soil for lettuce

If you’re going to sow directly into the earth, be sure your soil is of good quality. If you are using bagged top soil (that’s the primary ingredient in my tire garden), you’ll want to mix it with some peat and maybe a even a little sand. If you are working the earth in your garden or yard, you may want to consider testing your soil first, to make sure it has all the nutrients it needs.

Sowing lettuce seed

I started some seed indoors in peat pots, and quickly learned that you don’t want to place the seeds too deep. About 3/8 of an inch is plenty deep. Otherwise, your seed has to work really hard to break through and your original seedlings will be compromised.

Growing lettuce from transplants

I was lucky to find some lettuce starter plants at the farmer’s market. After two weeks, they were ready for some harvesting! Check out your local farmer’s market, or even your local nursery, for some healthy seedlings. I haven’t had luck with those from the big box stores; they tasted bitter. Someone told me that happens when the plants are forced, so I would avoid the major chain starter plants.

Types of lettuce

There are crispheads, romains, butter heads and leaf lettuces. So far I have only grown leaf varieties, so can’t really speak to the other types. I have grown lettuce before with great success in the Seattle area, but this will be my first year trying it in Michigan. I have several varieties of leaf lettuces planted, including, oak leaf, grand rapids, salad bowl, arugula, and butter crunch. So far they all seem to be doing well. I also sowed chard from seed, which I tend to eat as a lettuce (as a baby, before it gets big).

Tending your lettuce plants

Lettuces love nitrogen-rich soil. I like to feed their need by sprinkling on a little organic blood meal once a week before a big watering. My lettuce loves this!I hear that fish emulsion also does well, but I have avoided that for fear it will attract my cats!

Lettuce is also a water-loving plant (as you could have guessed). You don’t want the soil to get too dry. So far this spring I’ve been lucky with lots of rain, but I know that Michigan can get dry so I’m prepared to mulch (w/ straw) around my matured plants as the weather gets drier. This mulch will also produce nitrogen for the soil as it decomposes, so I’ll also let up on the blood meal treatments when I’m at this stage.

How to harvest lettuce

There are two methods for harvesting leaf lettuce (keep in mind this does not apply to the head lettuces).

• Cut the lettuce about an inch from the soil, leaving in tact the leaves at the middle of the plant, which will continue to grow and produce more lettuce.
• Remove the outer leaves of the plant, leaving the center to continue to mature.

I use the second method, but am only harvesting a few plants for a two-person household. I think cutting is probably the quickest way if you have a larger harvest to tend.

Keep it going!

You’ll find that after about four weeks of harvesting (plant will be about 10-12 weeks from sprouting) your plant will get bitter. This means it’s time to toss that plant onto the compost pile. This means you need to keep a rotating crop. Planting some seeds every 3 to 4 weeks should keep you in plenty of lettuce. I like a salad every night with dinner and have found that ten to twelve lettuce plants per person should keep everyone in plenty of salad (depending on how much you eat!).