Lettuce is a great vegetable to grow in your garden in this post we’ll provide you with lettuce’s best harvesting practices.
Lettuce Best Harvesting Practices
When harvesting your first lettuce you can either take the largest leaves off when they reach 4-6 inches allowing the remainder of the leaf’s to grow until they get the size you like to use in your salads.
As you remove these leaves you should cut them off leaving about 1/2 an inch to allow a new leaf to grow back.
For lettuce best harvesting practices you should harvest in the morning when temperatures are cooler and should be immediately cleaned and refrigerated for the most crisp and flavorful lettuce.
Do not let lettuce grow tall this is a sign that the lettuce is about to bolt and the leaves will become bitter.
For more hot weather varieties that do not bolt as easily you can select several varieties of romaine lettuce.
Lettuce Varieties
Outrageous- This is a great 10-inch deep red romain variety of lettuce that is crisp and flavorful.
Butter Crunch- is a bib-type lettuce with thick deep green leaves that do not bolt easily in the summer heat.
Alkindus- This is a deep burgundy lettuce that does not turn bitter when allowed to reach maximum size.
Romaine- This lettuce is typically green but can also come in red/green variations and typically does not bolt early, look for varieties that grow well in your area.
For lettuce best harvesting practices you should use succession planting every few weeks to extend your harvest from early spring through early Fall and the first frost of the season.
