Vegetable Gardening: Growing Lettuce

Lettuce is a cool weather crop and should be grown in fall and spring when temperatures range between 45 and 75 degrees.  Whether baby leaf lettuce, bibb lettuce,  or big, crisp heads, lettuce grows best when provided with constant moisture.
Whatever type you want to grow, the shallow roots of lettuce make it an ideal crop for vertical gardening or self-watering container gardening as well as in beds.

Lettuce Varieties 

Below are some lettuce varieties to try in your yegetable garden:
  • Loose Leaf Lettuce:  These varieties seldom form crisp heads, but instead grow leaves in dense clusters.  Look for heat-tolerant varieties that are available.
  • Bibb Lettuce and Butterhead: These lettuce varieties, some which are cold tolerant, form small heads of leaves with crisp ribs rather quickly. 
  • Romaine Lettuce:  More  stress tolerant than other varieties of lettuce, the long-leafed Romaine with stiff ribs is a salad favorite.
  • Head Lettuce:  We're all  familiar with the iceberg type lettuce, but there are more flavorful varieties like Batavian or French Crisps.  These lettuces are easy to grow and have great color.

Growing and Fertilizing Lettuce With organic worm castings and VermaPlex®

 Stagger plant your lettuce to provide a steady supply.
  1. Mix in Black Castings™ into your planting medium at a rate of 1 pound per 50 square feet.
  2. Apply VermaPlex® at a rate of 20:1 (20 parts water to 1 part VermaPlex®) at leaf stage.
  3. Thereafter, apply VermaPlex® at a rate of 40:1 every 7-14 days until harvest.