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- Lettuce | Key Growing Information
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- Individual Salanova® Varieties | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Salanova Lettuce | Tech Sheet (PDF)
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- Pelleted Lettuce | Key Growing Information
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- Video: Baby Leaf Harvester for Greens, Mesclun, Spinach, Lettuces & Tender Aromatics
- Video: How to Grow Lettuce • From Seed to Harvest
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- Webinar Slide Deck | Lettuce & Greens for Southern Growers | PDF
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- Lettuce & Greens for Southern Growers | Johnny's Educational Webinar Resources
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- Prismatic Mini-Head Lettuce Mix from Johnny's
- Webinar Slide Deck | One-Cut Lettuces: Insights & Techniques for Small Farms | 60-pp PDF
- Lettuce | Full Head Varieties | Succession Planting Program
- Video: One-Cut Lettuces: Insights & Techniques for Small Farms | Johnny's Webinar Series
- Growing Salad Gardens: An Ultimate Guide by Niki Jabbour | Johnny's Webinar Series
- One-Cut Lettuces | Johnny's Educational Webinar Resources
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- Winter Growing Guide | Part 6: Recommended Crops & Varieties
- ‘Pint Size’ Mini-Head Iceberg Lettuce Variety
- Kolibri: Mini-Head Bibb Lettuce Variety
Video: How to Grow Lettuce • From Seed to Harvest
Today I'm growing butterhead lettuce. I'm going to plant some seeds for 'Adriana', a wonderful variety with deep green leaves. It's heat tolerant and disease resistant.
Sowing Lettuce
There are two main ways to start lettuce. You can sow the seeds indoors to get a head start on the planting season, or you can direct-seed in garden beds.
Lettuce can be either direct-seeded or transplanted outdoors once the soil temperatures are 45–50 degrees Fahrenheit (or 8–10 degrees Celsius).
I generally direct-sow when I want baby greens, and I transplant when I want full-sized heads.
Direct Sowing Lettuce
To direct-sow, I plant the seed in about a 4-inch wide band, scattering the seed evenly and trying to space it about 1 inch apart. And then I'll cover it with about 1/8 inch of soil.
Spacing
If I want my direct-sown lettuce to form full-sized heads, I'll eventually thin them to 8–10 inches apart, and if I'm going to transplant my lettuce into my beds, I'll transplant them 8–10 inches apart as well.
Growing Lettuce
It's been about a month, and my 'Adriana' lettuce plants are doing extremely well.
The key to high-quality lettuce that's sweet, tender, and delicious is consistent moisture. If the plants are under drought stress and the soil is very dry, they can bolt and the leaves will turn bitter. So make sure you stay on top of watering. And when you do water, be sure to water deeply so the plants set deep roots in the soil.
I'm also on the lookout for lettuce pests like slugs. Look at this guy — you can see the damage from slugs. It's quite obvious. When I see slugs I hand-pick them, and when the plants are young, I use diatomaceous earth, to dissuade the slugs and prevent them from reaching the plants.
Aphids are another common garden pest, often hiding more inside the plants. If you do see them, a quick jet of water will knock most of the aphids off your plants.
Succession Plant
Don't forget to succession-plant. Planting more lettuce in late summer allows you to enjoy the bounty of homegrown lettuce well into autumn.
Harvesting Lettuce
My 'Adriana' lettuce is now ready to harvest. I like to pick my lettuce in the morning, when the leaves are full of moisture and crisp and sweet.
Lettuce is best harvested when it's immature to slightly immature, as that is when it tastes the best. If you wait until it bolts — that's when the plants elongate, get bigger and start to produce flowers — you're going to find your lettuce has become quite bitter. So, do harvest your lettuce when it reaches peak quality.
There are several ways to harvest lettuce from your garden. First, you can just harvest a few leaves from each plant. I usually try to choose the outer leaves, so the center of the plant can still develop.
You just simply remove the leaves by clipping off at the base with your fingers or a pair of garden snips.
'Adriana' is a butterhead lettuce, and to harvest butterhead or romaine types, you can pick the outer leaves, you can pull up the whole plant, or slice the head about an inch above the soil surface. Then fertilize with a liquid organic food and the plant will regrow a smaller but still delicious head!
Happy Gardening!
Learn more about 'Adriana', a Johnny's Exclusive available in both regular and pelleted seed…
Browse all our Easy-Choice Lettuce Varieties…
Browse all our Butterhead Lettuce Varieties…