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The best-tasting salads start with fresh lettuce right from the garden! It's easy to grow and a great way to start your garden off in spring.
Growing Guide
Soil preparation: Almost all lettuces like fluffy, well-composted soil, so add in lots of organic matter such as aged manure or compost.
Planting: Lettuce loves cool weather, so you can plant the seeds directly in the garden two to four weeks before your last expected frost.
Spacing: Scatter seeds over the bed and cover them with a thin layer of soil. Space rows about 15 inches apart. After the seeds sprout, thin them out so you have about 6 to 10 inches between plants.
Watering: Lettuce needs about 1 inch of water each week to thrive and will wilt very quickly if it dries out.
Fertilizing: Water the plants with compost tea or fish emulsion once a week until they're 4 inches tall.
Special hints: Hot weather can make lettuce bolt and become bitter. To extend your growing season, plant lettuce between or under larger plants to shade it from strong sun.
Pest Watch The notorious cutworm may strike, cutting off your little seedlings at the soil line. If your plants are yellow and stunted or wilt during the day and recover at night, they're probably suffering from wireworms.
Disease Alert Powdery mildew can affect your plants and give them a white, powdery coating. If your plant has yellow or light green spots on it, you most likely have downy mildew.
Harvesting Start harvesting the outer leaves of your leaf lettuce early to encourage new growth. If the weather is getting warmer and you think the lettuce is going to bolt, harvest the whole plants. Head lettuce is a little different from leaf lettuce in that you must wait for the head to mature. Heads are ready to harvest when they're firm and tight. Simply pull up the plant and cut the roots off right in the garden!
