I just wanted to start by saying a big thank you to my latest subscribers … I wrote about lettuce back in February celebrating the success of overwintering in the polytunnel and now in Spring, every lettuce seed you can buy will germinate and grow.
I have an unusual relationship with salads, I spent a lot of time in the developing world where washing food or even access to clean water was a luxury so it took me quite a number of years to start looking forward to eating a salad and even now I want cheeses, tomatoes, olives and flavours to make it feel less dangerous and look less like rabbit food!
The good news is that I’m happy to sauté any greens with olive oil, garlic, and onions for a side dish and I just throw handfuls of leafy greens into almost every meal - I’m always thankful that all the greens I developed a healthier relationship with like kale, spinach, leaf beet, chicory or Swiss chard are all nutritionally superior to lettuce … however there’s much more variety to lettuce.
All the YouTube gardener’s have their favourite varieties because certain lettuces don’t bolt, some transport well and others will grow through the winter under cover.
But I don’t worry about any of that because I rotate through around 50 varieties across several 1 metre beds with 12 or 16 in each bed - Pallet collar beds are the perfect size for three rows of 5, but all my pallet beds are earmarked for other produce - occasionally if I over sow I’ll use some old bale arm crates lined with fabric and filled with compost and soil and I plant those up with lettuce in groups of 6 or 8 to have something close to the kitchen.
The point of all this is that I’m sowing a few lettuce successionally throughout the year so I can remove a couple of leaves off every plant for each salad and have plenty of textures and colour. With the upside being that I don’t have to find a suitable variety for each season because any deaths or bolting is more compost material, not a failure.
Just took a quick snap of the three stages of growth from this morning …
Succession Stage 1 - Pricked out and getting established in 12 cell trays
Succession Stage 2 - transplanted into bed and growing
Succession Stage 3 - ready to harvest the outer leaves
I’ve got a current favourite lettuce based almost solely on its looks! (Top left of the third photo) I grew it last year for the first time and it’s ended up in almost every succession, and it came through winter with ease. It’s called Mazur F1, it’s a frisee type variety that if it isn’t crowded develops into a frilly uniform mound of green coral shaped lettuce that is just as easy to harvest as it is easy on the eye … it’s like the red ball basil, so much nicer sitting under the tomatoes compared to the wayward unkempt and stemmy green Thai or Italian varieties.
The best place to buy a large variety of lettuces for very little money is Moreveg and you’ll actually have a chance to use them before the sell by date is up. If you like huge volumes of seeds, and plan to fill a field, then Premier Seeds Direct is best, and if you’d like to try smaller numbers of cheap split-pill seeds and a good range of normal lettuce seeds, then Seed Megastore is where to find them.
There are several ways to sow lettuce, but I’ve found this year that the best germination was 3-4 seeds on the surface of each 1cm horticulture tray cell, a sprinkle of fine coco coir dust or nothing covering them, 12C, under lights, a light misting every morning and pricking out one of each into a 12 tray 1 or 2 days after sprouting with tweezers has worked the best.
I have collected a stupid number of varieties because as I’ve mentioned in a previous article that I’m a recovering seedaholic …
But I think I should recommend some to try … but quite honestly, multiple varieties is key to a good lead and you can’t go wrong with any lettuce variety at this time of year and it’s all superior to anything available in stores!
Red - Apache, Dark Roden, New Red Fire, OutRedgeous
Red & Green - Marvel of Four Seasons, Roxy, Freckles, Amaze, MoonRed
Green - Mazur
Looseleaf - Black Seeded Simpson
Oakleaf - Navara
Iceberg - Crisphead, Saladin
Butterhead - Roxy
Romaine - Cimmaron
I’m well jealous of your longer growing season!