Lettuce Heads Up
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Commercial Romaines are being bred for large size and weight (the current nationwide popularity of Caesar salads featuring romaine has put a new premium on large scale production) and supermarket varieties can often have tough, rather leathery huge leaves. In your own garden, you can plant more tasty varieties of these sturdy heading lettuces. You'll find our fine heirloom Romaine included in the Caesar Duo for an excellent variety of texture and shape and flavor.
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To purchase other Renee's Garden Seeds, click here Try these great recipes from Renee's cookbooks: Salad Dressing Fresh Orange Salad Dressing Sesame Salad Dressing |
Batavians: 
Butterheads: Depending on what part of the country you live in, the third category of heading lettuces may be called by different names. Whether you think of them as Butterhead, Bibb, Boston or Limestone lettuces, these softly folded, smooth leafed, lighter green rosettes are becoming increasingly popular all around the nation for their flavor and texture. In Europe, they are definitely the lettuce of choice, outselling all others. Butterhead types can form loose open rosettes on tighter semi-solid heads with rich textured, undulating leaves prized for delicate texture and melting flavor. Don't overwhelm their delicacy with heavy, strong flavored commercial dressing simple quickly assembled vinaigrettes are best. Butterheads also pair nicely with fruity vinegar's and soft cheeses. Our container Garden Babies have a lovely, buttery texture and sweet taste, are slow to bolt and make compact 5-6 inch heads. Our Summer Bouquet offers you three wonderful choices in one packet.
Growing Your Heading Lettuce: While it is certainly possible to grow good lettuce from seed sown directly into the garden, I get my best results starting seed in flats or containers. This way, I can keep the seeds evenly moist while they are germinating. Once they are up and growing, I can tend them carefully, protected from weather swings and pesky birds and insects while they are tiny and vulnerable. Use containers at least 2 inches deep filled with a good soilless seed starting mix. Sprinkle seeds thinly, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart, cover lettuce seed lightly and keep evenly moist. Germination is best at cool temperatures of 60˚ to 70˚F. After emergence in a week to 10 days, keep seedlings evenly moist. After several weeks, when they are several inches tall, transplant into the garden in finely prepared soil 4 to 6 inches apart. Do a final thinning to 12 inches apart when plants are 4 to 5 inches tall and enjoy the young succulent seedlings as your first rewards. This final thinning is important, as heading lettuces need proper spacing to grow to big beautiful heads. Do plan to do a late summer planting because fall grown lettuce stands beautifully without threatening to bolt or get bitter once the weather has cooled down.
Whenever you plant it, be certain to keep lettuce evenly moist to encourage even growth and sweet flavored leaves. Fertilize several times during the growing season with a dilute (1/2 strength) solution of fish emulsion and liquid kelp/seaweed to encourage leafy growth. Keep pesky birds from eating young lettuces by covering them with row cover or stringing reflective foil tape above the lettuce bed. If you see evidence of their damage, hand picking earwigs, slugs and snails rigorously after dark for 4 or 5 days when they are active is usually an effective way to deal with these pests. Otherwise, bait around the edges of the bed. If a spell of hot weather hits, or you must plant in hotter than desirable conditions, suspend shade cloth above the lettuce bed to protect the plants (available from garden centers) I've even used a big sun umbrella in an unexpected heat wave last spring. Keep the bed carefully watered. If weather continues very hot, plan on harvesting early when summer has really come on. When days begin to bake to 90˚F. range, finish eating your spring lettuce crop and wait until late summer to begin planting again.
While most kinds of seeds can be stored for several seasons lettuce seed is not a reliable keeper because it does not always hold its germination rate. If you do wish to keep extra seed, store it inside in a cool, dry place and plan to sow seed a little thicker the second season. Discard if you do not use after 2 seasons.
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Commercial Romaines are being bred for large size and weight (the current nationwide popularity of Caesar salads featuring romaine has put a new premium on large scale production) and supermarket varieties can often have tough, rather leathery huge leaves. In your own garden, you can plant more tasty varieties of these sturdy heading lettuces. You'll find our fine heirloom Romaine included in the Caesar Duo for an excellent variety of texture and shape and flavor.
|
To purchase other Renee's Garden Seeds, click here Try these great recipes from Renee's cookbooks: Salad Dressing Fresh Orange Salad Dressing Sesame Salad Dressing |
Butterheads: Depending on what part of the country you live in, the third category of heading lettuces may be called by different names. Whether you think of them as Butterhead, Bibb, Boston or Limestone lettuces, these softly folded, smooth leafed, lighter green rosettes are becoming increasingly popular all around the nation for their flavor and texture. In Europe, they are definitely the lettuce of choice, outselling all others. Butterhead types can form loose open rosettes on tighter semi-solid heads with rich textured, undulating leaves prized for delicate texture and melting flavor. Don't overwhelm their delicacy with heavy, strong flavored commercial dressing simple quickly assembled vinaigrettes are best. Butterheads also pair nicely with fruity vinegar's and soft cheeses. Our container Garden Babies have a lovely, buttery texture and sweet taste, are slow to bolt and make compact 5-6 inch heads. Our Summer Bouquet offers you three wonderful choices in one packet.
Growing Your Heading Lettuce: While it is certainly possible to grow good lettuce from seed sown directly into the garden, I get my best results starting seed in flats or containers. This way, I can keep the seeds evenly moist while they are germinating. Once they are up and growing, I can tend them carefully, protected from weather swings and pesky birds and insects while they are tiny and vulnerable. Use containers at least 2 inches deep filled with a good soilless seed starting mix. Sprinkle seeds thinly, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart, cover lettuce seed lightly and keep evenly moist. Germination is best at cool temperatures of 60˚ to 70˚F. After emergence in a week to 10 days, keep seedlings evenly moist. After several weeks, when they are several inches tall, transplant into the garden in finely prepared soil 4 to 6 inches apart. Do a final thinning to 12 inches apart when plants are 4 to 5 inches tall and enjoy the young succulent seedlings as your first rewards. This final thinning is important, as heading lettuces need proper spacing to grow to big beautiful heads. Do plan to do a late summer planting because fall grown lettuce stands beautifully without threatening to bolt or get bitter once the weather has cooled down.
Whenever you plant it, be certain to keep lettuce evenly moist to encourage even growth and sweet flavored leaves. Fertilize several times during the growing season with a dilute (1/2 strength) solution of fish emulsion and liquid kelp/seaweed to encourage leafy growth. Keep pesky birds from eating young lettuces by covering them with row cover or stringing reflective foil tape above the lettuce bed. If you see evidence of their damage, hand picking earwigs, slugs and snails rigorously after dark for 4 or 5 days when they are active is usually an effective way to deal with these pests. Otherwise, bait around the edges of the bed. If a spell of hot weather hits, or you must plant in hotter than desirable conditions, suspend shade cloth above the lettuce bed to protect the plants (available from garden centers) I've even used a big sun umbrella in an unexpected heat wave last spring. Keep the bed carefully watered. If weather continues very hot, plan on harvesting early when summer has really come on. When days begin to bake to 90˚F. range, finish eating your spring lettuce crop and wait until late summer to begin planting again.
While most kinds of seeds can be stored for several seasons lettuce seed is not a reliable keeper because it does not always hold its germination rate. If you do wish to keep extra seed, store it inside in a cool, dry place and plan to sow seed a little thicker the second season. Discard if you do not use after 2 seasons.
