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Questions tagged [lettuce]

Temperate annual or biennial crop grown for salad leaves.

Lettuce, Lactuca sativa is a member of the Asteraceae 'daisy' family. It is a temperate annual or biennial that is usually grown as a leaf vegetable, e.g. for salads. It is typically eaten raw, although Chinese cuisine often cooks the stem.

Lettuces prefer light, sandy, fertile soils that can hold water in summer. They typically do better in more temperate environments with day time highs below 75F and night time temperatures above 40F.

There are hundreds of cultivars but these are typically grouped into six groups according to leaf shape and color:

  • Butterhead. Buttery texture.
  • Chinese Lettuce. Long sword-shaped leaves. Bitter. Used in stir-fries and stews
  • Crisphead / Iceberg. Tight dense head similar to cabbage. Mild flavor
  • Looseleaf. Tender, delicate, mild.
  • Romaine / Cos. Long head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib.
  • Summer Crisp / Batavia. Moderately dense heads with crunch texture.

Use this tag for all questions about growing lettuces.

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My lettuce is flowering - does that mean it has bolted?

I planted a batch of "zesty blend" lettuce seeds. They seem to be doing fine, but suddenly they started flowering: Have they bolted? They look healthy otherwise. Still edible?
Caffeine Coma
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What happens if you plant lettuce in hot weather?

For whatever reason my lettuce (except for the mustard) in my mesclun mix didn't take this year. I'm about ready to rotate in something else, but I'd really like a decent crop of lettuce. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to plant…
Peter Turner
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What's the best way to cut leaf lettuces?

The last few years I've had success growing romaine and other leaf lettuces. I usually try to harvest only as much as we need for a day (or couple days). That often means just a few leaves at a time Is it best to cut the leaves as close to the…
Voodoo
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My hydroponic lettuce is mega bitter. Can I fix it?

Preface: I don't really know what I'm doing. So I decided to grow some kweik lettuce in my ebb & flow hydroponic setup. In addition to that, I'm growing a variety of chili peppers, mostly superhots. It's been about 40 days, and I've had good growth…
Ryan Anderson
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What is this bluish-grey bug on my lettuce, and how do I treat it?

I have a planter with several lettuce plants and other plants growing on my balcony. Recently, all of "normal" leafy lettuces were rapidly overcome by a bug. A sawtooth, more mizuna-like lettuce was spared, as were sage, parsley, onions, and…
Jonathan
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What about covering lettuces during hot periods?

This question reminds us that lettuces don't like too much hot weather. To look after my lettuce crop and guard against bolting, might it be worth covering the lettuce with, say, layers of damp newspaper for short spells during very hot weather?
Tea Drinker
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Can I plant peas, green beans and lettuce this early?

The weather this year has been exceptionally mild here in northern Illinois, and I am thinking of planting my peas, green beans and lettuce in the next couple weeks. This is probably a full four weeks earlier than normal, but honestly, I don't think…
Dave Nay
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Should I cut the top off of this bolting lettuce?

My garden is on a roof top in the South Bronx. I get a lot out of a little space, but I tend to only have one or two of each type of plant. Most advice I find is for terrestrial gardens with rows and rows of the same plant. I also find that my…
futurebird
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Will cutting a bolted lettuce plant allow it to regrow?

I'm a novice gardener and my lettuce has bolted. Do I have to remove the entire plant from the ground or can I just cut it down to the ground so it can regrow?
user2347
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Can I treat supermarket "living lettuce" as lettuce seedlings?

I have a tray of tired looking supermarket "living lettuce". You're supposed to keep it on your windowsill and use it up over a week or two. Can I treat the living lettuce as a tray of seedlings and plant it out? It would be under glass at this…
Tea Drinker
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What happen to my hydroponic lettuce leaves

What may cause my lettuce leaves to look like in these pictures? I don't find any literature in my language (Bahasa Indonesia) that explain this phenomenon or find any similar images on the internet. The room temperature is about 25 degrees Celcius…
Angela Radityatama
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How can I have lettuce growing year-round?

I've got this lettuce, similar to the red leaf, ruffly variety. It seems to grow only during summer and autumn. I can't coax it into sprouting from the seeds I harvest at any other time of year, which is pretty disappointing as I really want to have…
Emi
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When to harvest lettuce seeds

I am growing lettuce for the first time in. I have harvested a few lettuce leaves and the plant is now flowering. The flowers have been for around 20 days now. I wanted to save he seeds from this plant. Could some one suggest the right time to…
saleem
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How can I tell which lettuce seeds are viable?

How do we differentiate which lettuce seeds are good and capable of germination, from the rest?. I planted lettuce seeds, and only 'Radical' came up, after the rest could not germinate.
Sidra Rahman
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What's the best germination temperature for Grand Rapids lettuce?

I tried to germinate lettuce indoors at 27 degrees Celcius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day and 17 degrees Celsius (62 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, but they did not germinate. What is the most favourable day and night temperature for Grand Rapids…
Sidra Rahman
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