Lettuce is a rewarding and low-maintenance crop for your home veggie garden. It’s one of the most widely grown leafy green vegetables in the US, and it’s easy to see why. Read on to learn all about growing lettuce. This article covers all the essential gardening know-how, from planting lettuce seeds to enjoying your first harvest.
Since lettuce is so versatile and fast-growing, it fits into many garden environments. From traditional garden plots and raised beds to patio pots and hydroponic systems, growing lettuce is remarkably straightforward. All that’s required is a sunny location, plenty of water, and rich, well-draining soil. Additionally, lettuce plants grow best in cool weather. As such, the best time to plant lettuce is in early spring and late summer.
One of the most significant advantages of growing your own veggies is having a wide selection of unusual varieties, which aren’t usually available on grocery store shelves. Furthermore, homegrown produce tastes better and contains more essential nutrients than store-bought alternatives.
Best Tips and Tricks for Growing Lettuce
Lettuces are best grown as spring and fall crops in most temperate regions. These cool-weather salad greens perform best at temperatures between 60 and 70℉. They’re incredibly fast-growing, with baby greens ready to harvest within three or four weeks from planting seeds. Full lettuce heads will be ready to pick after six to eight weeks, depending on the variety.
Although lettuce plants will grow in partial shade, they do best in full sun, receiving six or more hours of direct sunlight daily. Whether you’re growing lettuce in containers, raised beds, or a traditional garden plot, it requires loose, well-draining soil rich in organic nutrients. Additionally, lettuce plants are heavy feeders. As such, it’s best to amend the soil with organic compost or well-rotted manure and feed the plants with a balanced, all-purpose fertilizer at least once during the growing season.
How Long Does Lettuce Take to Grow?
Many home gardeners wonder, “How long does lettuce take to grow?” The answer depends on which lettuce varieties you plant. In general, there are four primary classifications of lettuce: crisphead, butterhead, romaine, and looseleaf varieties.
Crisphead lettuce has a compact, rounded growth habit. The long, dense heads have crisp leaves and a bright, fresh flavor. They’re perfect for making delicious lettuce wraps, salads, and more. Crisphead lettuce varieties generally have a longer growing season, maturing in 70-80 days from planting seeds.
On average, butterhead lettuce plants take 50-60 days from planting to harvest. They’re also known as Boston or Bibb lettuce. Butterhead lettuce varieties tend to be more heat-tolerant than other cultivars. Use the richly flavorful leaves to make tacos, sandwiches, burgers, or your favorite salad.
Romaine lettuce varieties produce long, upright leaves with a prominent vertical rib. Their compact heads reach 10-16 inches tall and have a compact, upright growth habit. They’ll be ready to harvest after approximately 60-80 days. Romaine lettuce is an essential ingredient in Caesar salad and Nicoise salad. Additionally, the long, stiff leaves are perfect for making lettuce wraps, chopped salads, grilling, and stir-frying.
Loose-leaf lettuce varieties tend to be the fastest growers. These lettuce plants form loose, airy heads that are ready to harvest 25 to 45 days after planting seeds. The young, tender leaves make excellent microgreens. Use the mature leaves to make delicious salads, sandwiches, tacos, wraps, and more. What’s more, these cool-season veggies will last longer if you regularly harvest the outer leaves instead of cutting the whole plant at once.
Tips and Tricks for Growing Lettuce at Home
In general, lettuce plants grow best in cool spring and fall temperatures. Although they can survive temperatures as low as 40℉, lettuce grows much faster between 60-70℉. As such, it’s beneficial to give your lettuce plants a head start in early spring by starting seedlings indoors or in a cold frame.
Cold frames are compact, portable solar greenhouses that enable gardeners to conveniently start cool-season crops earlier in the season. They’re also helpful for hardening off warm-season plants and extending the growing season later in the autumn. Additionally, they’re incredibly straightforward to make at home using thrifted or repurposed materials.
How to Grow Lettuce from Seeds
For the best results, direct-sow lettuce seeds in your garden rather than starting them indoors in pots. Plant lettuce seeds in early spring once the soil temperature consistently stays above 40℉. However, the optimal temperature for germinating lettuce seeds is 55-65℉. Germination normally takes around seven to ten days.
Since they’re so small, plant lettuce seeds approximately a quarter-inch deep. Then, cover the seeds with a thin layer of compost and topsoil. It’s helpful to pre-moisten the soil to avoid disturbing the seeds after planting.
If you’d like to get a head start on the lettuce growing season, you can start lettuce seeds indoors or purchase nursery-grown lettuce plants. Transplant lettuce seedlings just after your region’s last frost date. Keep indoor-grown lettuce plants on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights to prevent them from becoming leggy. Additionally, keep your seed-starting potting soil consistently moist while the seeds germinate and the seedlings grow.
To prevent transplant shock, harden off your lettuce seedlings for five to seven days before transplanting. To do so, leave them outside in the elements for progressively longer periods each day so they can gradually adjust. The plants should be two or three inches tall and develop a minimum of four or five leaves before transplanting.
Plant lettuce seeds every two or three weeks until the weather consistently exceeds 80℉ to enjoy a continuous supply of fresh lettuce. However, lettuce plants tend to bolt in hot weather. That means leaf production slows down, and they produce flowers and seeds. For a fall lettuce crop, plant lettuce seeds once the weather cools down in late summer.
Spacing Between Lettuce Plants
Lettuce plants have shallow roots and can grow relatively close together with other plants. That way, they act as a living mulch. They minimize weed growth and shade the surrounding soil, allowing it to hold moisture for longer.
Lettuce fits nicely between taller crops thanks to its compact size. Plus, this arrangement is mutually beneficial. The lettuce protects the soil and reduces weeds, while the larger plants provide some shade for the leafy greens.
Leave approximately four inches of space between plants for leaf lettuce varieties. Plant spacing between crisphead, butterhead, and romaine lettuce should be six to eight inches.
Best Soil for Growing Lettuce
Plant lettuce in loose soil that drains well and is rich in organic matter. One or two weeks before planting lettuce seeds, add a generous layer of compost or well-rotted manure to the soil and ensure that the area is free from rocks, weeds, and other obstructions.
Lettuce grows best in consistently moist soil, but the shallow roots will rot if the ground stays too soggy. Depending on your climate, give your lettuce one to two inches of water per square foot each week, or more often during especially hot or dry periods. Drought stress will make lettuce plants bolt and turn bitter. Mulch between plants using bark chips, grass clippings, leaf litter, straw, or compost to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and keep the soil temperature cooler.
Choosing the Proper Fertilizer for Lettuce Plants
In general, plant fertilizer contains three primary macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Nitrogen stimulates leaf growth, phosphorus encourages robust root systems, and potassium promotes flowering and fruiting processes.
Leafy greens like lettuce greatly benefit from receiving high-nitrogen fertilizer. Composted manure, fish emulsion, blood meal, grass clippings, and used coffee grounds are excellent natural ways to add nitrogen to garden soil.
Using only well-rotted manure in your garden is crucial. Most types of raw manure contain such a high concentration of nitrogen that it will “burn” the plants. Fertilizer burn from excess nitrogen results in crispy, brown leaves. In addition, it damages the root system due to excessive salt buildup that doesn’t get flushed out of the soil fast enough. The only manures safe for using cold or raw are alpaca, llama, and rabbit.
Other kinds of manure, such as horse, cow, chicken, goat, and sheep, must be composted first. When left alone, manure can take anywhere from several months to a year to decompose naturally, depending on the type and environmental conditions. Luckily, there are ways to speed up the process. Check out this article from the Oregon State University Extension Service to learn more about composting animal manure.
How to Grow Lettuce in Raised Beds
Thanks to its compact growth habit and overall versatility, lettuce makes it a perfect candidate for raised bed gardening. Additionally, the soil in raised beds usually warms up faster and holds heat later in the growing season. These factors make it possible to plant lettuce earlier in the spring and also help it grow longer into the fall.
Furthermore, there are several other advantages of growing lettuce in raised beds. For example, providing the perfect soil conditions is much easier. Also, weeds are often less of an issue in raised bed gardens. Finally, raised beds prevent soil erosion during strong winds or heavy rains.
Harvesting and Storing Lettuce
The best way to harvest lettuce will depend on the variety you’re growing. For baby lettuce greens, begin picking the outer leaves when they’re at least two to three inches long. For optimal flavor and texture, harvest lettuce before the plant reaches maturity. Once the plant starts flowering, the leaves quickly become bitter and unpleasant. In addition, many gardeners believe that picking lettuce in the early morning provides the crispest and sweetest.
If desired, pick the outer leaves of butterhead, romaine, and loose-leaf lettuce as needed for a more extended harvest. Alternatively, dig up the entire plant or cut it about an inch above its base to regrow a second, smaller lettuce head. Crisphead and iceberg lettuce heads should get harvested whole once their center is firm.
For the most part, lettuce stays fresh in the refrigerator for 7-10 days. After rinsing and drying, wrap your lettuce in paper towels or a clean dish cloth to absorb excess moisture and store it in a lidded container to prevent bruising. Also, lettuce should be stored separately from fruits and veggies that produce ethylene gas, a naturally occurring chemical that speeds up plants’ aging and ripening process. Therefore, it causes lettuce to wilt faster. These include tomatoes, peppers, avocados, pears, apples, peaches, and oranges.
Common Pest and Disease Issues for Lettuce
Although lettuce is usually easy to grow, there are several signs of pest and disease problems to keep an eye out for in your veggie garden. Plants are considerably more vulnerable to attacks from pathogens and insects when stressed. As such, the best defense is to make sure your plants stay as healthy as possible by giving them the appropriate amounts of nutrients, water, and light.
Aphids, leaf miners, thrips, cutworms, slugs, and snails are some of the most prevalent insects that affect lettuce plants. As well as damaging the leaves, they can also transport plant diseases like mosaic virus.
Organic insecticides like insecticidal soap, neem oil, and horticultural oil are effective against soft-bodied insects like thrips, leaf miners, and aphids. To combat severe insect infestations, spray all parts of the plant once or twice weekly. Diatomaceous earth works well to control slugs, snails, and cutworms. Sprinkle the powder on the plants and around their bases, and reapply after watering or rain. Protecting plants with row covers in early spring helps deter insects from laying eggs on your newly sprouted or transplanted lettuce.
Some of the most common lettuce plant diseases include downy mildew, powdery mildew, bacterial leaf spot, and mosaic virus. To treat the affected plants, use an organic copper or sulfur fungicide according to the instructions on the product label.
Soil-borne fungi cause certain fungal diseases like damping off and white mold. They primarily affect young, tender lettuce seedlings. The best way to manage these pathogens is by practicing crop rotation and planting disease-resistant varieties. Fungicidal soil treatments aren’t usually necessary unless you have a severe, persistent problem. If you’d like to learn more about preventing and treating lettuce plant diseases, this article from the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has some helpful information.
Companion Plants for Lettuce
Companion planting is a practical design strategy that utilizes mutually beneficial plant interactions to create a healthy, sustainable garden ecosystem. While some plants attract helpful predatory insects and pollinators, others work to repel garden pests. Furthermore, specific plant pairings reportedly improve one another’s growth and flavor when grown close by. However, certain plants must grow apart due to the detrimental effects they have on one another’s growth.
For example, legumes like peas and beans have a unique ability to add nitrogen to the soil through their beneficial relationship with certain soil bacteria. Therefore, they make fantastic companion plants for leafy green veggies like lettuce.
Root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, radishes, turnips, and beets won’t compete for soil space with shallow-rooted lettuce plants. As such, lettuce fits nicely between root veggies to maximize your available planting space. Plus, turnips have an extra benefit for lettuce plants, since they repel aphids.
Basil, mint, cilantro, and chervil have strong aromas that repel pests like thrips, aphids, and slugs. Furthermore, there are plenty of other aromatic herbs and flowers that attract beneficial insects to the garden. These include borage, calendula, chamomile, cosmos, dill, feverfew, parsley, marigold, sweet alyssum, and tansy, among others.
Plants in the Allium family, such as chives, garlic, leeks, and onions, ward off numerous pests thanks to their strong scent. Alliums deter insects like aphids, cabbage worms, carrot flies, potato beetles, slugs, and spider mites as well as deer and rodents.
Plant your lettuce away from plants in the Brassica family, which include arugula, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and kohlrabi. These plants reportedly stunt one another’s growth. Additionally, it’s best to grow lettuce and celery in separate areas, as they tend to attract the same pests. Also, even though fennel has powerful pest-repellent qualities, it emits growth-inhibiting chemicals from its root system, making it a poor companion plant for most other herbs and vegetables in the garden. As such, it’s best to grow fennel in a container or a secluded corner of your garden.
Different Types of Lettuce
Lettuce varieties come in a fantastic array of textures, flavors, and colors. Most gardeners prefer growing several types of lettuce that are ideal for various uses. Understanding the differences between lettuce varieties is essential when choosing which to plant. Here are some of the most popular lettuce varieties for your home veggie garden.
Butterhead Lettuce
As indicated by its name, butterhead lettuce has a buttery, sweet flavor and a creamy, tender texture. It is an excellent addition to fresh salads and sandwiches, particularly for those who don’t enjoy the sharp, pungent taste of some other leafy greens. Butterhead lettuce commonly grows in dark green or burgundy shades. In addition, it’s often more heat-tolerant than other lettuce cultivars.
Best Varieties of Butterhead Lettuce
- Bibb (heirloom, 6-8” heads, light green leaves, resistant to bolting, 50-75 days to harvest)
- Buttercrunch (heirloom, 8-10” heads, bright green leaves, resistant to bolting, 65 days to harvest)
- Marvel of Four Seasons (heirloom, 8-12” heads, deep red leaves with green bases, doesn’t turn bitter with heat, 55 days to harvest)
- Mirlo (hybrid, 8-12” heads, light green leaves, delicate flavor, disease-resistant, 50-55 days to harvest)
- Tom Thumb (heirloom, 3-5” heads, bright green leaves, resistant to bolting, 60-65 days to harvest)
Crisphead Lettuce
Also called head or heading lettuce, crisphead varieties form a firm, dense central ball. They typically have a mildly sweet flavor and a crunchy, crisp texture. Furthermore, the leaves contain more moisture than other lettuce types, making them an extra refreshing summertime delicacy. There are green, bronze, red, and speckled crisphead lettuce cultivars.
Top Varieties of Crisphead Lettuce
- Crisphead Great Lakes (heirloom, 8-12” heads, bright green leaves with serrated edges, heat tolerant, bolt-resistant, 80-90 days to harvest)
- Grenoble Red (heirloom, 12-16” heads, deep red leaves with green base, frost tolerant, resistant to mildew and slugs, 60-75 days to harvest)
- Iceberg (heirloom, 6-8” heads, blue-green leaves, heat-resistant, 80-90 days to harvest)
- Igloo (hybrid, 6-8” heads, light green leaves with serrated edges, heat-resistant, 70 days to harvest)
- Red Iceberg (hybrid, 12-16” heads, red-tipped leaves with green base, heat-resistant, 70-80 days to harvest)
Loose-Leaf Lettuce
Loose-leaf lettuce is usually fast-growing and has a mildly sweet flavor with a tender texture. It grows in a wide range of colors, including green, yellow, green, burgundy, and bronze. Most leaf lettuces have broad leaves with frilled edges. Oakleaf lettuce is a specific loose-leaf lettuce variety with small to medium-sized lobed leaves.
Popular Loose-Leaf Lettuce Types
- Black-Seeded Simpson (heirloom, 6-8” heads, green ruffled leaves, heat tolerant, frost-resistant, 40-50 days to harvest)
- Bronze Guard (heirloom, 8-10” heads, bronze oak-shaped leaves with green base, heat-tolerant, 70-80 days to harvest)
- Deer Tongue (heirloom, 4-6” heads, green arrow-shaped leaves, heat-tolerant, bolt-resistant, 45-55 days to harvest)
- Ruby (heirloom, 8-10” heads, deep burgundy ruffled leaves, frost tolerant, heat-resistant, 40-50 days to harvest)
- Sandy Oakleaf (hybrid, 10-12” heads, bright green lobed leaves, disease-resistant, 30-40 days to harvest)
Romaine Lettuce
Romaine lettuce is well-known for its long, crisp leaves that have an earthy and mildly bitter taste. Also known as “cos lettuce,” they’re typically the most heat-tolerant lettuce varieties and are slower to bolt once the weather warms up. Although green romaine lettuce is most commonly seen at the supermarket, there are also red, bronze, and speckled kinds.
Leading Strains of Romaine Lettuce
- Cimarron (heirloom, 10-12” heads, burgundy outer leaves with pale green hearts, heat-tolerant, bolt-resistant, 60 days to harvest)
- Freckles (heirloom, 7-9” heads, green leaves speckled with red, heat-tolerant, bolt-resistant, 50-60 days to harvest)
- Little Caesar (heirloom, 6-8” heads, bright green outer leaves with golden hearts, resistant to tip burn, 70 days to harvest)
- Parris Island (hybrid, 8-10” heads, dark green outer leaves with pale green hearts, bolt and disease-resistant, 65-70 days to harvest)
- Vivian (heirloom, 12-16” heads, dark green outer leaves with pale green hearts, frost tolerant, 70 days to harvest)
Lettuce is a straightforward and satisfying crop to grow in your veggie garden. You’ll enjoy baby greens within just a few weeks of planting lettuce seeds in the spring. Full heads of lettuce usually mature in four to eight weeks, depending on the variety and growing conditions. Lettuce is a wonderfully versatile crop that thrives in a wide range of climates. It can thrive just about anywhere as long as it gets at least five hours of sunlight per day and consistent moisture levels.
Do you have any questions or recommendations for growing lettuce at home? Please feel free to share them in the comments below! If you enjoyed learning about how to grow lettuce, please remember to share this article with your fellow green thumbs.