How to Grow Lettuce

If you’re getting started with gardening because you want to grow your own food, lettuce is a great option! Gardening is all about building your confidence as you go, and lettuce will help you do that.

Now I’ll be focusing specifically on lettuce in this article, but keep in mind that most of the tips I’m sharing are also true for many other greens like spinach, arugula, and kale—so you’re going to learn a lot!

Why lettuce?

There are lots of reasons that lettuce makes a great choice for beginners.

• You can grow it directly from seed, which is often referred to as “direct sowing.” Starting seeds indoors can often be overwhelming for new growers. And while you can start lettuce seeds indoors early and transplant them outside into your garden, they generally don’t transplant as well as some other plants like tomatoes and peppers might.
• It has a shallow root system, so you can grow it in containers. You don’t need a lot of space or soil to grow lettuce.
• Lettuce can be an expensive thing to buy at the store, if you can even find good quality lettuce that isn’t all slimy already, which has been a huge problem for us lately. So it’s one of those things that you can actually save money on by growing yourself. 

Types of lettuce

There are many different types of lettuce. Some you might have heard of include leaf lettuce, romaine, butterhead, and more. Leaf lettuce is generally the best beginner choice, but all types are easy to grow. I like to grow a variety of lettuces and greens so I can chop them all up at the same time and create a large salad with lots of different flavors and textures.

When to plant

When you think about gardening, you probably think about spring and summer. But different crops grow well at different temperatures. Lettuce is generally going to be a cooler weather crop, so that means it grows best in spring and fall gardens.

I’m in Maryland zone 7A, so we have all four seasons here. The earliest I would plant lettuce uncovered in my garden is probably early to mid-March, depending on if there’s snow on the ground and what the long-range forecast shows.

I’ll then continue planting new rounds of lettuce every 2 weeks or so until the end of April to ensure I have a constant supply. I stop planting outdoors until about the end of August, when I’ll begin planting it again for a fall crop of lettuce.

But why stop planting lettuce from May through the end of August? Well, it just generally doesn’t do well in the heat. Its optimal temperature range is in the 50s, 60s, and 70s Fahrenheit during the day, and it can generally handle cooler temperatures at night. 

In temperatures above 80 degrees, lettuce will develop a bitter taste and will probably start what’s often called “bolting.” This happens when lettuce grows high and produces flowers that then produce seeds.

Where to plant

I mentioned earlier that lettuce has a shallow root system and makes a great candidate for container gardens. I love growing mine in my Greenstalk vertical garden, and I also have it growing in my greenhouse in containers right now since it’s February.

Whatever planting vessel you choose, just make sure you have about 5 or 6 inches of soil for the roots to spread out a bit in. And make sure you use a light, well-draining soil. If you’re growing in containers, use a container mix so it isn’t too dense.

Lettuce seeds need light to germinate, so look for a spot with good sun, too. You can try to stretch your early summer lettuce growing by moving containers to the shade where it’s slightly cooler, but I generally find that the extra week or two isn’t worth it.

Planting & thinning out

To plant your lettuce seeds, just sprinkle them over soil and lightly bury them just a bit. Water to keep the soil moist throughout germination and harvesting. Your seeds should sprout in 1-2 weeks.

Once all of your seeds have sprouted and have a few leaves each, you can thin the seedlings out. “Thinning out” just means that you pluck out some of the seedlings based on the recommended spacing requirements for your lettuce.

I tend to grow my greens pretty close together to maximize space, so I leave 4 to 6 inches between plants.

Harvesting

Now once your lettuce plants are big enough to start harvesting, there are two approaches you can take. If it’s a cut-and-come-again variety, which are generally going to be loose-leaf or butterhead varieties, you can clip outer leaves from your lettuce and let it continue growing. Or you can pull the whole head of lettuce to chop it up.

Succession planting

First let’s talk about succession planting. If you’re in the U.S., you can use the Old Farmer’s Almanac planting calendar to get your lettuce planting dates—just plug your zip code in. Take that first planting date and plan out when you’ll succession plant.

Succession planting just means you are planting multiple times. To ensure I have a steady supply of greens from very early spring to early summer, I plant a new round of lettuce seeds roughly every 2 weeks.

Seed saving

As far as seed saving goes, you can let your lettuce “bolt,” flower, and produce seeds once the temperatures begin rising in the summer. Unless your seed packet is labeled “hybrid,” you’ll be able to save seeds from your plant to grow more from in the fall and next year!

Growing lettuce indoors

When it’s too hot or cold outside for me to grow lettuce, I usually grow it inside in my Gardyn or Click and Grow. It is definitely possible to grow lettuce indoors without one of these setups, though. You’ll need some sort of grow lights because the light from a windowsil isn’t enough. 

Pest issues

And finally, if you notice any bugs on your lettuce, they are probably aphids, slugs, or snails. Aphids are tiny bugs that can be green, black, or white. I like to ward off aphids by planting flowers that attract beneficial insects around my veggies.

You’ll see slugs or snails in early spring especially. We had a super cool, wet spring last year, and I had a ton of slugs and snails. They mostly don’t do a ton of damage, I just pick them off or trim off the damaged leaves.

And that’s about it! Growing lettuce is super easy, and with just one packet of lettuce seeds, you’ll have more lettuce than you know what to do with. Happy planting 🙂

Pin this!