If you waited too long to harvest your lettuce, the plant bolted (meaning sending up a bitter stalk rather than producing sweet leaves). Even though you watered it faithfully, chances are that timing wasn’t right. Lettuce like cool seasons. Knowing when the plant will grow will save you from disappointment, and help you get a crop of crisp greens.
The trick is to have your soil between sixty and sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit for germination. Too hot and the seeds will refuse to sprout; too cool, and they will be sitting there dormant in the soil. After the seed has sprouted it goes fast, from seed leaves to fully formed rosette, so pay attention.
How to Grow Lettuce
The truth is that you has to discard some of your plants when they get their first pair of “true” leaves: You’ll want to thin them. Stressing them by crowding means competition for moisture and light… Not good, as it will promote early bolting.
During this phase (when the rosette phase really expands) you must be sure to water regularily. Let the soil dry out totally and the plant will think you are having a drought and throw up a stalk to make its seeds. Regularly wetting down ground will help prevent this response, and keep the lettuces sweet.
Lettuce types vary in how fast they grow and how much heat they can handles, which is another reason to choose carefully based off both growing method and variety. Iceberg heads will require more than 10 weeks for maturity, while baby leaf varieties will be ready within one or two months. If your springtime has been warm where you garden, opt for heat resistant romaines or other summer crisp varieties like Jericho or Muir that fare best at higher temps different than others.
In summer, the shade cloth also stops bolting. Preventing bolting is one of the benefits of cooling things down, lettuce likes coolish weather. With a basic thirty percent shade cloth you create a cooler microclimate that’s more like its preferred environment. It doesn’t take any fancy technology: Just some relief from the afternoon heat will do.
By the time the core starts to stretch out, the flavor becomes bitter and there’s no going back. You should of picked it earlier. The last part of that equation is cutting on time. You must do it while the lettuce is still firm but before it gets too hot.
For a continual supply of fresh greens, successions are planted every couple of weeks, so there’s always something for eating. That regular process rewards your hard work. The plant tells you when to pick; you’ll be sure you’re doing it right when the produce in your hand is fresh and taste good.