How To Grow Lettuce

Lettuce
Lettuce - often the beginner gardener's graveyard. Watch the gardening TV programs, read the glossy gardening magazines - it all seems so easy! Sometimes it is, and sometimes it just isn't. GardenAction explodes the lettuce myth and gives you the information you need to successfully grow lettuce where you live.

Many varieties of lettuce are supremely suited to cooler climates - they are a vegetable for cool conditions, and they need lots of rain. They dislike hot conditions.

There are four basic types, cos (also called romaine), leaf (also called loose-leaf), crisphead, butterhead and stem (also called asparagus lettuce).

GROWING LETTUCE
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Latin Name
Lactuca sativa

Type
Half-hardy annual edible vegetable

Site and Soil
Partial shade. Soil well dug - not acid.

Plant to Harvest Time
11 weeks average

How Many?
3 lettuces per 1 metre (3 foot) row

How to Grow Lettuce - Position and Soil Type

Lettuce are not fussy about soil type as long as it is able to hold water. Their ideal is a soil which is well-drained and well-dug. Clay soil which has been broken down with lots of peat is excellent. Do not apply fertiliser or nutrient rich compost to the soil, this will cause rot.

The key success factor with lettuce is to site them in a position which avoids the full blast of the sun in the middle of the day. Lettuces bolt if the weather becomes too hot or if there is a shortage of water.

Some varieties of lettuce are more resistant to bolting than others. The varieties Fatima and Dolly (butterhead lettuce) are both slow to bolt.

How to Grow Lettuce - Inter-cropping

Because lettuce prefer cool conditions (great for the UK) they are ideal vegetables for inter-cropping. That is growing them near to other vegetables which crop at a different time, normally later. Plant lettuce where runner beans, broad beans, peas, brussels sprouts or sweet corn will provide them with shade in the hottest part of the day.

If you do grow lettuce near taller vegetables, take care that they are not deprived of water. Lettuce need lots of water to mature quickly and larger crops may take the lion's share of moisture. If this is the case, water the lettuce well in dry conditions.

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