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Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Select the Proper Lettuce Kind for Your Backyard


Lettuce is superb for newbie gardens, seed savers, and succession planting. Even should you didn’t have an excellent spring lettuce crop, you’ll be able to sow one other for fall. When you’ve been looking lettuce on the catalog or web site, you could have observed that there are an virtually overwhelming variety of varieties divided into just a few totally different classes. Under we’ll cowl the several types of lettuce and learn how to choose the most effective one in your backyard.

Lettuce Sorts

Jericho Romaine Lettuce
Jericho Romaine Lettuce

Romaine (Cos) Lettuce

Even should you’re new to gardening, you’re in all probability conversant in romaine lettuce out of your native grocery retailer. It produces upright, elongated tall heads with thick succulent ribs and distinctively flavored lengthy, thick crinkled leaves. In most shops, you’ll see inexperienced Romaine, however you’ll discover seeds in different colours, just like the purple heirloom Rouge d’Hiver (Purple Winter) Romaine Lettuce or the deeply blotched Mayan Jaguar Romaine.

Romaine is essentially the most nutritious kind of lettuce you’ll be able to develop. It does finest in free, fertile soil and is reasonably tolerant of warmth and shade. Some varieties, like Jericho, an Israeli selection bred for the desert warmth, are a favourite amongst market growers for his or her warmth and to-burn resistance.

Red Sails Loose-Leaf Lettuce
Purple Sails Unfastened-Leaf Lettuce

Unfastened-Leaf Lettuce

You could have additionally noticed loose-leaf in shops, in all probability in child lettuce mixes. Because the title suggests, it’s a non-heading kind of lettuce. Like Romaine, there’s a lot greater than you’ll discover in retailer. Unfastened-leaf lettuce incorporates the most important range of enticing heirlooms.

Unfastened-leaf is second to Romaine in dietary worth. It’s nice for residence gardeners as a result of it does nicely as a cut-and-come-again kind and permits you to harvest solely as a lot as you want directly. Nonetheless, it doesn’t hold within the fridge in addition to Romaine. Unfastened-leaf can be essentially the most forgiving of poor soil and is usually extra heat-tolerant than different sorts. 

Schweitzer’s Mescher Bibb Bibb (Butterhead) Lettuce
Schweitzer’s Mescher Bibb (Butterhead) Lettuce

Bibb (Butterhead) Lettuce

Bibb or butterhead lettuce has small, free inexperienced heads, blanched yellow interiors, and skinny, soft-textured leaves. It has a splendidly almost-buttery, candy style. The small heads are an excellent measurement for single individuals and smaller households.

Bibb has intermediate dietary worth. It’s typically extra tolerant of sizzling climate than crisphead lettuce. As a bunch, it’s best for cooler areas, with some notable exceptions.

*There’s additionally Buttercos lettuce which has the traits of each butterhead and cos.

Anuenue Batavian/ Crisphead Lettuce
Anuenue Batavian/ Crisphead Lettuce

Crisphead & Batavian Lettuce

You’re undoubtedly conversant in one widespread kind of crisphead lettuce you’ll discover at practically any grocery retailer, Iceberg. Like Iceberg, different crisphead lettuce varieties are fashionable for his or her tightly folded, blanched crisp leaves.

Crisphead is much less nutritious than different varieties. As a result of it’s tougher to develop to perfection, we provide varieties which can be extra tailored for decent areas. Crisphead lettuce must be set out early within the season because it requires an extended cool season. Shading with cheesecloth or screening is advisable if heads haven’t shaped by late spring.

Frequent Questions About Rising Lettuce

How Do You Hold Lettuce Entering into Summer time?

Whereas some varieties are extra warmth tolerant than others, lettuce is a cool-season crop. You possibly can prolong your season into hotter climate in a few methods. The primary is to cowl your plantings with a reemay blanket. 

The opposite is to plant tall greens in north-south rows and plant heat-resistant lettuce beneath the leaf cover in order that it’s shaded throughout the hottest portion of the day. Corn planted in rows 4 toes aside or pole beans on a fence or trellis is good. Interplanting lettuce with bush squash additionally offers good outcomes. Mulch the lettuce nicely, hold it nicely watered, and revel in!

Tips on how to Begin Lettuce in Sizzling Climate?

If the temperature exceeds 80 levels F, lettuce will typically fail to germinate. You possibly can plant lettuce throughout late summer time or early fall whereas the times are nonetheless sizzling, supplied the seeds are germinated within the fridge for 4-6 days. One other methodology is to soak the seed in 10% bleach for two hours at 40-60 levels F, adopted by 4 water rinses. This methodology enhances each the velocity and quantity of germination. 

Yet another methodology is to maintain the soil cool with burlap or boards; take away cowl promptly after germination to maintain grasshoppers and different pests from having fun with the shaded tender sprouts!

What’s the Finest Kind for Newcomers?

Usually, we advocate loose-leaf sorts for newcomers as they are usually essentially the most forgiving of assorted circumstances, together with warmth and poor soil. Additionally they develop rapidly, serving to you get harvests sooner and extra continuously. You might additionally attempt Romaine lettuce in case you have good, free, fertile soil. 

What’s the Finest Kind for Greenhouses?

We advocate utilizing heat-tolerant types of heat-tolerant, loose-leaf, or Bibb sorts for greenhouses.

Lettuce Flowering and Going to SeedHow Do I Save Seed From My Lettuce?

To avoid wasting seed, you need to isolate varieties by a minimal of 12’ for residence use. For pure seed isolate varieties a minimal of 25-50’.

Lettuce will ultimately bolt, particularly in sizzling climate, sending up a tall flower stem. The flowers look a bit like mini, yellow dandelions. The flowers will ultimately turn out to be fluffy and dry, and it will likely be time to reap seed. 

Gently bend the flower stem right into a paper bag or container and provides it shake. Any mature seeds ought to drop into the bag. You might want to do that for a number of days because the seeds slowly mature.

After gathering your seeds, you’ll be able to winnow out the chaff or undesirable plant materials. You should use a fan, and a few dishes, pouring the seed from one dish to the opposite because the wind blows the lighter, undesirable materials away. Keep away from getting too near the fan, as lettuce seed is sort of gentle. 

 

There’s much more to lettuce than you’ll discover on the grocery retailer cabinets. Romaine, loose-leaf, Bibb, and crisphead lettuce sorts all have their professionals and cons. Discover a tasty, stunning heirloom selection that matches nicely in your backyard!



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