Lettuce and Salad Leaves: Fresh Leaves from March to November
1 min read By Екипът на Seeds
How to sow salads in batches, which varieties suit spring and which suit summer.
A cool-season crop
Lettuce germinates best at 15–20 °C. Above 25 °C the seeds of many varieties go dormant and do not come up. That is why the main sowings are in early spring and late summer.
Sowing in batches
Sow a small amount every 2–3 weeks — that way you always have young, tender leaves instead of everything ripening at once. Lettuce seeds germinate in light: cover them only very thinly.
- Cos (romaine) lettuce: 30 cm between plants.
- Cut-and-come-again leaf lettuce: sown thickly, in a row.
- Iceberg: 35 cm, needs more water.
Summer
In the hot months plant in partial shade and water in the evening. Choose bolt-resistant varieties — otherwise the plants quickly flower and the leaves turn bitter.
Harvest
Leaf lettuces are picked leaf by leaf, from the outside in. Hearting types — when the head feels firm to the touch. Morning picking gives the crispest leaves.
Photo: en:User:Geographer, CC BY 1.0, Wikimedia Commons
