Quick start ⚡ Quick start info for sowing lettuce ⚡
🌱 Sowing & planting
Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ) is a fast-growing leafy vegetable that you can grow almost year-round with the right varieties and timing. You can grow head lettuce, iceberg lettuce, cut lettuce, romaine lettuce, and oak leaf lettuce in your vegetable garden.
- Sowing depth: 0–5 mm, very superficial – lettuce is a light germinator.
- Pre-cultivation: Sow in modular seed trays of approximately 5 cm, two seeds per module in the same hole. Keep the strongest plant and remove the others.
- Germination temperature: 4–16 °C (lettuce germinates better at cool temperatures).
- Germination time: 🕒 6–12 days.
- Planting distance (head lettuce and iceberg lettuce): 30 cm between rows, 25 cm between plants.
- Planting distance (cut and pick lettuce): can be sown much closer (about 5 cm) or directly in the row.
- Plant out: when the seedlings have about 4 true leaves.
📅 Growing times throughout the year
With the right planning you can harvest fresh lettuce almost all season long:
- Widows: sow under glass from mid-October to mid-November, plant out outdoors in March, harvest from mid-April to May.
- Freester: sow indoors from mid to late January or under glass in February, plant under glass in March, harvest from late April to May.
- Spring: sow under glass from mid-February to March, plant out outdoors from mid-March to April, harvest from May to mid-July.
- Summer: sow outdoors from April to early July, plant out outdoors from May to mid-August, harvest from mid-July to late September.
- Autumn: sow outdoors from mid-July to mid-August, plant out outdoors from mid-August to mid-September, harvest in October.
Basic information about carrot ( Daucus carota )
- Crop group: leafy vegetables.
- Crop family: Asteraceae family.
- Height: approximately 15–30 cm, depending on type and cultivation method.
- Growth cycle: 🕒 approximately 55–95 days, depending on variety and season.
- Frost resistance: no – lettuce can tolerate light cold, but is not really frost hardy.
- Root system: approximately 30–45 cm deep.
- Fertilizer: Primarily organic with well-rotted compost. Avoid fast-release chicken manure, blood meal, and high-salt fertilizers (risk of leaf burn).
- Soil: airy, humus-rich soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.
Location & water requirements
- Sun: 🌤️ Partial shade to moderate sun. In midsummer, lettuce should not be left in direct sunlight all day to prevent bolting.
- Watering needs: 💧💧💧 Water regularly and generously, preferably in the morning. The soil should never dry out completely.
🤝 Good & Bad Neighbors
✅ Good neighbors
- Peppermint
- Cucumber
- Beans
- Sage
- Dill
- Chervil
- Marigold
- Anise
- Lava
- Strawberry
- Radish
- Onion
- Beetroot
❌ Bad neighbors
- Cabbage varieties
- Celery
- Parsley
Dangers & Concerns
The biggest problem with lettuce in the vegetable garden is snails , especially with young plants. Use snail traps, barriers, and possibly organic snail pellets if the pressure is really high. Also, ensure sufficient moisture and aerated soil to prevent stress and ridge formation.
🧺 Harvesting & storing
You can harvest cut and cut lettuce at any time by removing only the outer leaves. This way, the plant continues to produce new leaves and you can harvest multiple times from the same plant.
Harvest head varieties when the head feels firm and the inner leaves form a compact head. Lettuce stores poorly: at high relative humidity and a temperature of 2–5°C, it will keep for a maximum of about 5 days. The best strategy, therefore, is to stagger your harvest and plant smaller quantities regularly.
🍽️ Nutritional value of carrots (per 100 g raw carrot)
- Energy: 13 kcal
- Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 2 g
- Proteins: 1 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Sugars: 1 g
- Vitamins: A, B6, C and K
- Other nutrients: thiamine, riboflavin, calcium, phosphorus, folic acid, iron, potassium and manganese
Sowing many types of lettuce is essential for me in the vegetable garden. When all other vegetables give up the ghost when summer or winter arrives, I still eat lettuce. Carrots and radishes can also be grown year-round, but with lettuce, it goes very quickly. Lettuce comes in many shapes and colors and doesn't like heat. In high temperatures, lettuce shows its displeasure by bolting. That's like saying, "I'm out of here, you can see what happens." So, for your summer crop, find a partially shaded spot in the vegetable garden.
In summer, it is best to grow lettuce in the shade
Sowing lettuce all year round
How can I grow different types of lettuce year-round? I'll explain it for you, season by season.
- November to March in the greenhouse or conservatory: lettuce, mustard lettuce, lamb's lettuce and winter purslane that I sowed in September (lettuce can withstand temperatures down to -5° C in the greenhouse, it may be even colder under fleece).
- April and May: in the greenhouse or hothouse: Meikonigin lettuce pre-sown in a propagator indoors in mid-January .
- June to October: in open ground: sometimes I buy plants that I plant out in partial shade, you can also sow the Appia variety broadcast in open ground from mid-April to the end of August and prick out the small plants at the correct planting distance when there are two true leaves.
My favorites:
