How to grow lettuce?

Lettuce can be sow from spring to all the way winter. It can be planted in beds, containers, and growing bags. if you have nine feet rows, you can plant nine to  twenty plants to a row and four plants will go into each growing bag. If your garden space is limited, you can grow your lettuce in a pot or a window box. Lettuces comes in a dense-headed "hearting" types and frilly loose-leaf varieties and they can be harvested you can cut whenever you need some lettuce, or you can leave it so it will develop to full size and cut it whole. You can always have lettuce, if you sow under cover, this will allow you to have fresh leaves of lettuce all your round.

Different varieties of lettuce

Little Gem - it is a semi-romaine variety. This lettuce produces small and dense hearts and it is a real good one for you to plant in containers if you have some to do that. It is cold resistant and also it is slow to bolt in the summer.

Tom thumb is a lettuce that produces tender green leaves and they are sweet along with a little bitterness. The lettuce is a type of the butter variety. They can be grown in containers or window boxes.

Nymans- this one has burgundy leaves and a yellow heart. It is a semi-Romaine lettuce. You can harvest this one as a baby leaf. It has a good mildew resistance and it is slow to bolt.

Pinocchio- it is a semi-romaine lettuce and because of its compact style you can plat this one in containers. It has upright leaves and sweet, yellow hearts. You can plant t in cold weather, because it has a cold tolerance  to it.

Freckles- this lettuce is a Romaine type and the leaves are green with some burgundy. the plants are upright and have sturdy growth to them and are slow to bolt too.

Moltstone- the leaves are mid-green and has some burgundy on these leaves. You can crop the loose heads whole on your can harvest them individually.

Sioux- this lettuce has green leaves with some red as the lettuce matures if the lettuce is growing in sunny sites. You can sow it several times during the summer, because it has good mildew resistance.

Winter Density- this type of lettuce is grown a lot because of its hardiness and it has dense hearts. It can be for early or late crops because it has good heart tolerance.

Lollo Rosso- It is a loose-leaf type of lettuce, and it has red-flushed, crinkled leaves that you can use when ever you need it.

Sowing under cover

This lettuce can have early sowing as long as it is done under cover between late winter and early spring, then you can plant them outside when the weather conditions are good.

How to plant

You will need to fill the modules or trays with some compost, water well and then allow each one to drain. The two seeds that you will put into each pot or module has to be planted 1/2 inch deep hole. Seeds can be sow in bigger trays at the same depth. the next step is cover the seeds with compost, and water everything lightly. Put them in a warm, light place.

Sowing outside

You can sow summer varieties of lettuce from early spring until midsummer and the winter-hardy ones should  in the late summer months. First, you will need to dig over all of the soil, remove all of the weeds if the soil has any, and then take your rake and make it level. Make holes or drills 1/2 inches deep and make them twelve inches apart from each other them sow four or five seeds in each clusters every four inches. Cover your seeds over with soil, and water them lightly. Always protect the seedlings against slugs.

Planting out

When your indoor-raised seedlings are ready to be harden, you will need to be place them outside during the daytime, and then put them back inside at night for even to ten days. Get your soil ready and then plant the seedlings out about 12 inches apart, and cover them with a cold frame in cool weather.

Routine care.

During the warm weather, you will need to keep your plants will watered so they do not dry out during the last weeks before harvesting, because this may make them bolt. You will need to always keep weeding between rows regularly so it is not reduce competition for light, nutrients, and moisture.

Protecting plants

During the warm, wet weather the most common pests are slugs and snails. You can lay bait traps or organic pellets for them or your can use grit to create a barrier around your crops. Aphids are another pest that you will need to check for signs or damage.

Harvesting

Harvesting lettuce can be done two ways, one way is to cut individual leaves from loose-leaf lettuce when they are mature, or you can harvest them all at one time. If you want lettuce all the time you will need to sow seeds little and regularly. You can sow a new batch of lettuce seeds when the previous one is ready to be planted out or when you need to thin for a second time.