Thanks for all the great info. I know most people do NOT want their lettuce to bolt quickly :) Our garden is at the school district's nature center so we have drop in visitors throughout the summer. We use the demo gardens with school groups in the spring and fall and your suggestions will help me make some plant selections. I want to add lettuce to our "Life Cycle" garden. Right now we have newly planted baby turnip plants and also flowering turnips from last year's crop. I saved some of the seed pods from last year's bolters so we can pretty much show the whole cycle. Kindergardeners harvested marigold seeds last fall and are now returning and planting it. We have a few plants that were grown inside showing marigolds of different ages. I kept a few dead plants from last year to "remind" them of what they harvested back then....I even managed to keep everyone from throwing out the old, dead plants all winter long :) We have some onions that overwintered that I hope will bolt soon, along with newly sprouted onion sets. We are sowing radishes every few weeks. Last September 2nd grade students harvested and immediately planted radish seeds. They grew well and were ready to harvest before winter set in. It is fun trying to time the plant growth to programming needs. Now that we have a little experience it is working better and better. So far the funniest thing that happened in the garden would probably have to be the onion harvesting. One instructor showed students how to loosen the onion bulbs with a trowel and then pull them out of the soil. One student followed the directions and dug with the trowel. When he tried to tip it to get the onion loosened the entire trowelful of soil and onion went flying and hit the instructor full in the face. She was spitting dirt for quite awhile but laughed when telling us about it.

For what it's worth, jbailey, I choose to do the cut-and-come or continual harvest method with lettuce. You can't do it with tightly heading lettuces, but it works with loose leaf or even butterhead types. While I've read differing methods, here is what has worked for me. As soon as the plant has mature leaves, maybe 6 or 7 of them, I start cutting off the exterior leaves. They are not large. I leave at least 3 or 4 interior, just starting leaves. I plant at least 12 plants and this gives me salad for two several times a week over the season, and occasionally enough to have a salad as a main course. This allows me to start eating salads within a few weeks of planting and for at least two more months. If you want, you can wait until the leaves are a bit larger, but I like them smaller and unbelievably tender. I usually buy a seed mix that includes at least 6 to 8 varieties. My salads are beautiful, I never worry about bolting (because I'm always cutting, as soon as they bolt I only lose a few leaves, not a whole head), and I always have fresh lettuce for several months. Of course, this wouldn't work for everyone. If you are inclined, try it this fall so you still get the lettuce you lost this summer. I don't know your zone, but you can try planting seeds in August or September, depending on where you are. You want the day temp to be under 80 when the lettuce is ready to start harvesting, or it will bolt. In Texas, that is probably more like mid October, but in Illinois where I am, that is mid September. So, I'll start my plants in late August, start harvesting in mid September, and if I'm lucky (and with a row cover) I should still be eating it in early November, when I'll probably lose it to freezing temps.

Arugula (rocket in the UK) is not a type of lettuce at all. It's in the Brassica family along with cabbages and the like. You can cut back bolting lettuce and you will get a little more crop but you can't stop it bolting for more than a few days. If you are pushed for space pull it and plant fresh lettuce seed/plants or something else. The bolting habit is why it is sensible to sow lettuce little and often in suitable climates. This is 'succession' planting or sowing. Otherwise it all matures at once and the crop is over.

Yeah, I think I'm done with lettuce this year. I am so completely grossed out right now.....(shudder...). They are so tiny, that they look like the oak pollen rements - which is all over my yard -- until you look very, very closely and see that it's not actually oak pollen. Lovely. StuartWanda: I can save you about 200 red aphids so you can see them, if you want me to! Just let me know!.... ;-)