Beautiful, nutritious, tasty Red Leaf Lettuce
Companion planting is not hard and fast science, but try it for yourself! The luxury of home, or personal gardening, is you can plant as you wish! Rather than row planting, pop lettuces between your Brassicas – that’s broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbages! Lettuce is said to repel White Cabbage butterflies. While you are at it, throw in some Cilantro seeds! Cilantro repels aphids from Brassicas. Great threesome! Lucky for us, lettuce has few pest problems, ‘cept birds and snails/slugs, so plant, plant, plant!
In winter, especially remember to plant tallest solid leaved plants, ie big brocs, to the back, feathery leaved Cilantro next, short Cabbages and then lettuces, so they all get plenty of short days sun. Plant the lettuce on the sunny side of the biggies. As your big plant grows, remove some of the lower leaves so the lettuce continue to get sun.
Lettuces thrive in cool winter temps. This is the time to plant heading lettuces and delicate thin leaved varieties that you wouldn’t dare plant in summer! Plant flavorful Radicchio now to get the best heads.
Try colorful and different shapes! If you like colors, try Ruby Red or Yugoslavian Red Butterhead that has touches of purple! Bronze Mignonette is lovely! Red Velvet is curly and Red Romaine is gorgeous! Flashy Trout Back is a freckled tease! The names alone make you want to plant them!
Transplanting gets quick results and is easiest, but growing by seed gets you the varieties nurseries don’t carry! Sometimes the nurseries will have something special in you might like a lot. Keep those nursery tags with the name, or make notes in your garden journal, so you can order seeds in case they don’t carry it again.
Growing from seeds! Lettuce seeds have a short shelf life, a year or less. Be sure your seed is fresh! They have two planting depths depending on the variety you choose. Some need a bare covering, strictly no more than 1/8 inch deep. Deep is not quite the word here! Some people don’t bother covering them, but religiously keep them moist until sprouted and rooted! An old gardeners trick is to lay on the seed then press a smooth surfaced board on the soil. The seeds are pressed down only to seed depth but still have a tad of soil to nest in and keep moist. This also flattens the soil, avoiding puddle depressions. If you have the patience, presprout and head to the garden with tweezers to plant them. And do be careful not to break those tiny roots! Jeepers. Takes a saint and steady hands and eyes! The other varieties require a whole 1/4 inch deep! That’s a little easier on some of our souls. But, they still need to be kept moist, not swimming. Watering tiny lettuce seeds is truly an art. A spray bottle on mist setting works nicely. Very light misting with your watering wand. No seeds floating away collecting in low spots. Over seeding lettuce is never a problem. Let them grow a bit, then thin carefully with scissors, don’t pull and disturb the remaining plant’s tiny roots. Eat the thinnings!
NOTE 1! Dying parts of the Brassica family of plants produce a poison that prevents the seeds of some plants from growing. Plants with small seeds, like lettuce, are especially affected by the brassica poison. So keep your Brassica leaves cleaned up, maybe don’t put them in your compost. Plant from transplants directly under Brassicas!
NOTE 2! Put down Sluggo or the cheaper house brand equivalent two times before you plant! You kill the generation that’s present, then their children. Nothing like thinking your seeds never came up when the slugs had gourmet eating the night the sprouts arrived! Also, if you have birds, install a raised cover of something like aviary wire to keep the birds from snatching them or nibbling the young leaves. Or install a narrow clear plastic sleeve birds won’t go down. Cut the tops and bottoms off plastic bottles. If you have cutworms, push the sleeve down deeply. Twist it before you remove the sleeve, so you don’t pull the soil away when you pull the sleeve out.
Feed? Like many winter crops, lettuce is a hardworking leaf crop. If you harvest the lower outer leaves cut-and-come-again style, it will produce for quite a time! Likely you gave it well manured, composted soil. If it starts to slow down, leaves yellow, it may need a small feed. If you don’t have digging type predator visitors to your garden, give it some fish & kelp liquid. If you do have ground predators, cover your plants securely to keep them out, or lay off the stinky fish and use something else. Liquid feeds are best because they go right into the soil where the roots need it now! Don’t put manure or dead fish stuff on leaves of plants grown for their leaves! With manure, scratch it in the top 1/4″ of soil around your plant. But don’t do an entire circle and break all the tiny lateral feeder roots. Do only a part of the arc. If you plant more in the same spot, add more manure and compost. Keep your soil light with a good water holding capacity.
Lettuces thrive on water. Again, not swimming, but kept moist. It keeps them growing fast and the leaves sweet!
Growing Mesclun! Grow it in the ground or up on a table if you have a bad back or predator problems! Build your own? For example, lay out some boards with space between for drainage, or plywood with drainage holes, over saw horses. That’s a height you can live with for harvesting! Grow in flats lined with fiberglass with drainage holes, landscape cloth to keep the soil in, a layer of gravel, then your grow mix. Or order up a readymade raised bed! End of summer you can get great buys! The one above is planted in three successive sections, one after the other. As one is done you plant some more. Steady supply intended! If you put it out in the garden somewhere, you can grow other tasty salad fixings like radish, bunch onions, your favorites, even beets, right under it!
When your lettuces grow to the height you want, 3″ to 6″, cut them off. Let them regrow!
Summer Lettuce Varieties: In summer you want a stronger lettuce, heat tolerant & slow bolting, tip burn tolerant or resistant! Lettuce Leaf Red Sails is a beauty. Jericho Romaine from Israel has become the classic summer romaine for warm regions. Sierra, Nevada. Parris Island is slow bolting. Green Towers Romaine tolerates moderate summer heat and has some resistance to tip burn and bolting. Black Seeded Simpson. And there are more – try several! Green Star, at left, claims ‘superior tolerance’ to heat, bolting and tipburn, plus resistance to downy mildew races 1-18. And, it wins the beauty award!
Winter varieties need to be cold hardy, like Density, Cimmaron, and Rouge d’Hiver. More delicate varieties, like the ones that can’t take the summer heat do well in winter gardens. Heading types, Bibb, Radicchio, do best in winter.
Lettuce is a superfood! It helps with weight loss since it is low calorie and the fiber content gives a feeling of fullness as well as being heart-healthy! Lettuce protects your eyesight! It is high in Beta-carotene and regular consumption of beta-carotenes is known to lower risks of macular and degenerative eye diseases. It is highest in Vitamin K for your bones and blood. Lettuce is alkaline forming in your body promoting good energy levels, clear thinking, good sleep and youthful skin!
Yes, red varieties have advantages! Per HeathWithFood.org: Red oak leaf lettuce has been shown to possess exceptionally strong antioxidant properties. A group of scientists from Spain found that the red-leafed lettuce varieties (red oak leaf and lollo rosso) had the highest antioxidant activity among the tested cultivars. The red-leafed varieties also had the highest total phenolic content, which may explain the extraordinary antioxidant properties of these varieties. This study covered five varieties of lettuce (iceberg – the LEAST nutritional value overall, romaine, continental, red oak leaf, and lollo rosso) and one variety of escarole (frissé).
Organic, home grown is best, of course! Commercial lettuces typically have high levels of pesticides. Leaves start to lose nutrients as soon as they are harvested. Wash, refrigerate, eat ASAP! Don’t store lettuce near fruits that produce ethylene gases (like apples). This will increase brown spots and speed up spoilage. Cut-and-come-again gardeners are doing the right thing! Outer leaves have the highest phytonutrient content and antioxidant properties. Oh, and use oil-based salad dressings to make the fat-soluble carotenoids in lettuce more available to your body.
11.8.22 The latest on Lettuce in today’s market! Excerpts from Axios
Outdoor growers in California produce about 70% of U.S. lettuce supplies, while Arizona growers furnish the rest. That’s not likely to change anytime soon.
Hydroponic lettuce grown indoors, long regarded as niche, is edging into the mainstream as climate change hits outdoor growers and the salad-lovers who depend on them.
- Greenhouses enable “proximity growing” — a hot industry term — where lettuces are shipped shorter distances to markets, saving on freight costs and emissions.
- The rise of indoor growing comes with a new category: “Teen” lettuce, which is larger and crispier than baby greens, yet more tender than a mature head.
With lettuce production migrating to Quebec, Vegpro International — Canada’s largest fresh vegetable producer — has built a 10-acre greenhouse complex for growing hydroponic lettuce year-round.
- It’s currently the “shoulder” season for lettuce, when U.S. production shifts from California to Arizona, and Vegpro’s outdoor production moves from British Columbia to Florida.
Drought and crazy heat left California lettuces wilting and turning brown in the fields this past summer. Per Fresh Fruit Portal 10.12.22: For three years, Central Valley lettuce and leafy greens growers have battled Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus (INSV), which is a plant pathogenic virus. Hot weather really activates INSV damage. In mid-October, yields were down as much as 50% below full production.
- Competition for water among Western growers could prompt them to ditch lettuce for more lucrative crops, such as avocados, nuts or citrus.
Options are proliferating for the hydroponic-curious. …the average piece of produce travels 1,500 miles, and 40% to 50% goes bad on the way. “If everyone could grow 10% to 20% of their produce at home, it would have a tremendous impact.”
Bigger greenhouses and new lettuce-growing frontiers could bring fresh flavors and textures [and new jobs and businesses] to North American consumers.
In your kitchen…. Truly, when it comes to salads, the only limitation is your imagination. Use a variety of lettuces, add your favorite foods – vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, grains, croutons, meats or cheeses! Put nutritious red romaine lettuce in your green smoothies. Lettuce is the most beautiful garnish, laid under and around just about any cool dish! And, it is a superb sandwich layer peeking out, just inviting a bite!
In the interest of world peace, a Thich Nhat Hanh quote: When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.
Updated 11.25.22
Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!
The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for our SoCal Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both of Santa Barbara City’s remaining community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is.
Thank you for all the wonderful lettuce-growing information! I have been starting lettuce seed and my first batch of Black Seeded Simpson didn’t come up at all so I am starting again. The seed is fresh, so maybe I planted too deep? I really enjoy your newsletter and I live in Santa Barbara so it is particularly relevant to me!
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Oh, I’m so delighted, Vickie, that you live in SB too and are growing lettuce from seed as well! Funny about that. I just tried planting Black Seeded Simpson and had the same result. My seed was old however. Yet I had some other old Kagraner Sommer seed and it came up gangbusters! So I’m going to give the old Simpsons back to the land, broadcast it, let it go, the birds have it for winter food. Plant again right away before any heavy rains (hoping), so they are well up and strong. Post us a px when you succeed! Are you on Facebook? Friend me if you like! Hugs and Happy Holidays!
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