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Lettuce into your life!
Lactuca sativa
Lettuce - a reliable summer favourite, salad filler and sandwich staple! And, once upon a time, a seriously sought-after narcotic! Now, before your rush out to stock up, or flush your stash of salad down the toilet, I've got to let you in on a secret - years of breeding have left our modern lettuces fairly drug-free. So, before you turn vegetarian and vow to live only on lettuce, remember that planting and tending to your very own Yummy Yard is a natural high! Plant lettuce, get high on life, and just say "No"... to hard drugs, not lettuce!
Planting Schedule
Warm Areas: All Year Round!
Temperate Areas: All Year Round!
Cool to Cold Areas: All Year Round!
Position, Position, Position!
Here's another Trivia Night tidbit - lettuce is, traditionally, a cool season vegie. That means they prefer to be planted in cooler weather, for super salad success. Having said that, due to the wonders (or horrors) of modern plant breeding, there are now lettuces available for all parts of Australia suitable for planting all year long. There are so many varieties of lettuce available for gardens now that I'm not even going to go there, but suggest that you go to your local garden centre to find out what's available for your part of this big, beautiful land.
Now, remembering that lettuce are cool season critters, I recommend planting them in partially shaded spots in your Yummy Yards, particularly in places with stinking hot summers. Consider using some other Yummy Yards residents, like beans and sweet corn, as "living shade". Failing that, erect a "shade tent" for your precious green babies... you'll be glad you did!
Talking Dirty
Like most Yummy Yardies, lettuce needs a well-drained soil with loads of tasty organic matter (like beaut, crumbly compost), a bit of a feed and some lovely mulch. I prepare my lettuce land about two weeks before planting my seedlings, by lightly working compost and a little bit of pelletised poo-based fertiliser through the soil. I then mulch, to a depth of about 5-7cm, walk away, and count the days to planting time. Oh, and don't be afraid to test your pH... 6.5 is just fine!
Feed Me!
Lettuces are hungry, hungry hippos, and need to be grown quickly for best flavour and appearance. Once upon a time, the best way to ensure this happened was to dump obscene amounts of (awful) liquid fertilisers on the seedlings. Here's the lowdown - this benefits no-one, except the hordes of snails who feast on the soft, sooky lettuce growth! Don't do it; it's financially and environmentally unsustainable, and there are tonnes of low environmental impact options.
A well prepared bed and a super duper soil means that your lettuce may not need any additional feeding at all! If you feel the need to feed, do it fortnightly, at half strength, using a manure/compost tea. I do give my little cherubs a half strength seaweed solution at planting time, as this stuff is right-on for roots!
What about the Water?
Water is vital, both for making beer and growing lettuce - my two favourite things! Lettuces have shallow roots and thus need frequent watering, especially in hot and/or windy weather. Keep the area well mulched and test soil moisture regularly. If soil is left to dry out, lettuce may run to seed (bad), taste bitter (very bad) or die (terrible). Kitchen sink mixer tap "warm-up/cool-down" water, collected in a bucket, is dedicated to thirsty lettuce at my place (but only when needed). But ensure the water collected is only pure tap water and do not contaminate with any other kitchen waste water! Better still, use the water from your rainwater tank water!
Are We There Yet?
Like me, lettuces are big fans of position, timing and variety, and this determines how long it takes them all to mature. A rough guide has been lovingly prepared for you, but don't sue if it varies a bit in your patch.
Crisphead varieties (which includes the ubiquitous Icebergs) take about ten to twelve weeks to mature, and should be harvested roots and all (yup, just pull em out).
Butterheads are similar to crispies (but smaller) and take about nine - ten weeks to be ready for munching. Included in these are tasty mignonettes, oak leaf and butter varieties, and are best harvested as required.
Cos varieties are my favourites, take about ten - eleven weeks to grow up, and outer leaves can be harvested while the lettuce is still growing. Cos lettuce are great in cooler climes, and are a winter favourite at my place.
Loose Leaf lettuces are also harvested while growing, and can be eaten from about six weeks onwards. These guys are heartless (a bit like my exs) and are a top Yummy Yards addition.
Pests and the Rest
They're creepy and they're kooky, but they're not the Addams family. They're snails, and they are the biggest pest of lettuces (as are slugs to a lesser extent). Deter these little munching machines before they eat all your salad specialties. My suggestion is coffee grounds spread around your patch - a perfect solution as I love coffee and snails hate it! Failing that, set up a beer trap... this is NOT my preferred solution, as I love beer way too much to give it to the snails. It does work though, as do all the other tips in our snails factsheet.
Hot Tip
I must say, it is a bit tough coming up with a hot tip for lettuce, but I'll give it a go. Mix it up! Experiment with different varieties, flavours, colours and growing habits. Remember, "Iceberg" is not the only lettuce around, nor is it the best. In fact, John Waters refers to the Iceberg lettuce as the "polyester of greens". I must say, I'm inclined to agree!
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