Lettuces

[karstopography]

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Took out some yellow squash that was getting downy mildew and seeded some of the lettuce and arugula in that spot.

The other bed was vacant and I put more lettuce in that spot plus spinach, carrots, escarole and beets.

[karstopography]

First sowing a week ago was a little spotty on the lettuce and arugula so I came back today to fill in some gaps. Plan is to periodically sow more salad greens all the rest of autumn into winter and beyond. Looking to harvest salad greens from December into May.

[MissS]

I love fresh lettuce from the garden. It's hard to beat.

[JayneR13]

Fresh lettuce from my hydroponics unit isn't bad either! And I'm able to harvest year around without having to share with the rabbits.

[karstopography]

I planted tennis ball and May Queen seeds yesterday. Probably about a month away from our first salad. Arugula is up and looking good, getting true leaves. The four seasons type is doing well with true leaves.

[bower]

I have a load of May King seed from a friend in Ontario. Same as May Queen IDK? If not, very similar. really looking forward to these along with my dear Sherwood, whose seeds I will save until the apocalypse LOL if I can manage. Such a tasty romaine and tolerant of all the nonsense summer or winter.
I really like sowing lettuce and arugula together because they are so well matched for speed and size. Not even to mention in a salad.

[karstopography]

@bower I looked up May King lettuce and I couldn’t see any obvious or glaring difference between that and May Queen.

The temperature lately apparently has been good for rapid germination for lettuce since most everything I have seeded is up and growing. . I’ll have to investigate “Sherwood” romaine, maybe it would be a good fit here in the winter. There are a bewildering number of lettuce cultivars out there, almost as bad as tomatoes.

[bower]

Sherwood is a small or 'mini' romaine, similar to Winter Density but its leaves are distinctly spoon shaped, as a way of telling the seedlings apart. It has the virtue of making a crunchy rib right away, unlike some romaine types that have to be quite large before you can get a crunch off them. I find them very tasty as well.
I hear you on the crazy amount of lettuce varieties. It's hard to narrow it down to favorites. We really loved Red Iceberg as well, but I can't seem to get seeds that are fresh enough to last more than one season, and like other icebergs they're so bolt resistant you need a really long season to grow out the seeds. With Sherwood, if I keep a few plants to pot up from my starts in the fall, I have managed to get seed before the end of our summer. The original seeds I got from one of Nicky's swaps some years ago, and last time I checked they are no longer commercially available, so all the more reason to maintain my own seed and send some back to the swap whenever I have fresh. I could send you seed if you want to try them. Just now we're in a postal strike though!

[karstopography]

@bower That’s a very nice offer in the Sherwood seeds , but there’s no need to go to any trouble. Plus, I just ordered “Sunland” Lettuce (56 Days) from Pinetree and “Jericho” Lettuce (60 Days) also from Pinetree. Both are said to be heat tolerant. Going to give them a shot sometime soon.

[bower]

Keep us posted on the heat tolerant lettuce. Everybody needs it, at some point in the season!

[karstopography]

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More lettuce sprouting.

[Uncle_Feist]

I just cut a fresh iceberg for dinner today.

[karstopography]

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Various lettuces, spinach, chicory, carrots getting some cool moisture.

[Uncle_Feist]

I had a nice crop of crisp heads this fall but other than a few heads I cut early all bolted due to the heat. Most years it will keep well into Dec.


My iceberg has also matured way faster than normal, but is holding fairly well with our recent cold snap.

[karstopography]

I’m going to try for reasonable amounts of harvestable lettuce and similar salad greens starting from maybe the end of the month into April. Succession plant the seeds for the next month or two, into February at least.

We had a very warm November so it was probably good I waited some instead of trying to force things going in too early.

Normal winter weather here should not be a threat to most of these lettuces, but we haven’t had normal cold weather in the last four winters. Extreme cold, killing cold, that’s been the recent pattern.

[karstopography]

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The various lettuces and salad greens are getting bigger.