Very nice! I especially like Rogue D'Hiver, they look so tender and jucy. I don't know of your growing zone, it would help to know. This is the time in our zone 7, all greens are doing well and looking beautiful and delicious. I would love to share some of mines, is it easy to down load into this forum from my digital camera, or my computer? Anyway, thank you for sharing yours.

I'm located in extreme se Pa, which is on the border of 6b and 7. I use photo bucket for my picturs. You want to select the html code to paste in the reply box to get pictures to work here.

Fall lettuce here - west of Chicago - is growing very slowly now as the days are so short.

These are from several weeks ago.

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The later planting
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Pitcom,
Your lettuces look wonderful! Did you start them from seed? I started mine from seed on Aug. 30 and mine are much smaller. I'm wondering if I started too late.
Michele

jrslick you're lucky. Are you a commercial grower, or a hobby grower or a bit of both?

Michelelc, I started them all from seed around Sep 1st.

Nice shots jrslick, i wish i had a setup like that. What are you using all of that lettuce for? I grow maybe 20 heads at a time and can never eat all that grows.

I sell at Farmers Markets, Feed my family and sell on our online market. I am also selling some lettuce to our school district. I would like to find a restaurant to sell too, but I have had time to seek one out.

Each 3 foot wide bed has 3,48 foot rows.

We will sell weekly until Christmas and then every two weeks from Jan 1- April, then Farmers Market season starts back up at the end of April.

This is my full time hobby as I am a full time teacher too.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Check out our Farm website

I went to our State Ag School's garden show last week-end. Some of the vendors there were selling ornamental pots for porches featuring beautiful green and red lettuces interplanted with pansies and such. If there is ever a time of year to use edibles as ornamentals, this is it. Giant Purple Mustard is another gorgeous plant, as are many Kales, Cabbages, and even, IMO, onions. I have bordered my pansy beds this year with Redbor Kale and worked lettuces, parsley, cilantro and onions into window boxes with pansies too. In our climate, all of these plants will grow happily in pots throughout the entire winter. I will harvest and thin as time goes along.

jrslick - how many hours of light is your lettuce getting?

They are in full sun from sun up to sun down. The current sunlight time is 10.7 hours.

Jay

I went out tonight and took some pictures to share.

The whole big building
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Lettuce Bed
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Black Seeded Simpson
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Red Sails

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Green Oakleaf
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Red Oakleaf
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Winter Density Romaine
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Rouge D'Hiver
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Jericho Romaine
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Winterbor Kale
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Red Russian Kale
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Bed of Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, Kale, Romaine
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Napa Cabbage
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Red Cabbage
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Spinach
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Enjoy,

Jay

Jrslick, how do you control slugs in your system. My napa's have been ravaged by them.

Knock on wood, I have never had problems with slugs. I think it is because we plant on raised beds, it helps keep the soil well drained. We also water via drip irrigation at the base of each plant. This minimizes humidity and excessive moisture. You can see the drip tape running through the lettuce beds. It has 12 inch spacing. The soil is moist at the plant but drier on the outside.

Jay

So you grow all through the winter w/o lighting?

Grow/Harvest yes. Here in a few weeks we will be adding low tunnels inside the high tunnels. If it starts getting really cold, we will double up the row cover or even add another layer of plastic.

Their growth slows way down, but they do continue to grow. I have another planting of lettuce to go out, you can see it in the flats in the Lettuce Bed and Napa Cabbage pictures. It will grow fairly slow and by the end of December/January it will be a harvestable size.

Jay

Does anyone sow their lettuce thickly, harvest it while still young, let it grow back and harvest again? I thought of trying this method during the late summer and early Spring in order to get an early salad mix.

I planted my lettuce too early this Summer and it went to seed and became bitter as it grew older. It tasted ok when it was young though. From my limited experience, successions seem like the way to go with lettuce.

I'd share my pictures except that I also 'shared' my lettuce with Bambi and friends and things aren't so pretty.

I have tried planting it really thick and cutting it when it is small, but I have two problems, weeds and regrowth.

I have found it easier to grow leaf lettuce and pick the bigger leaves off the bottom and work your way up the plant. The plant keeps growing and I am always able to pick more the following week. I have picked lettuce from the same plants for 1.5 months before they were done growing and starting to get bitter.

This works easier for me. I also like the texture of the bigger lettuce than the smaller leaf, baby stuff. The baby stuff is also a pain to wash and spin dry.

It is also a pain to weed or pick out weeds that grow in it. The last thing I want is a nice healthy piece of henbit or bindweed in my salad.

Jay

My lettuce is the opposite of what is pictured above, as far as size goes. I have a few planted in flowerpots. The arugula and the tiny plant came from seeds. The others were from a 6-pack I bought. I wouldn't ordinarily buy lettuce plants, but I got a good nursery deal from Living Social. There's also a basil stuck in there that I transplanted from my raised bed to see if I could get to it grow through the winter. I'm zone 9b.

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Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

I love fall lettuce...this is a blend from bakers creek.

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