Attention Heads of Lettuce

15 years ago

When my daughter was a teenager she worked in a fast food restaurant. They put her in charge of the salad bar so we called her the Head of Lettuce and since she was a teenage girl, she didn't it was funny.

Anyway are you folks planting lettuce seeds. Are you putting them in the soil or in pots. I think it's probably too soon,isn't it?

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Comments (11)

junkyardgirl
15 years ago
I think it may be too soon for lettuce down here. It's still pretty darned hot. I never plant lettuce until the end of September. I was thinking this year that I would plant it underneath and around shrubs in pots. I don't know yet, though. I need to get out there and start digging up the garden spot.
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joyful_garden
15 years ago
Believe it or not, I planted ICEBERG lettuce in March. It was doing wonderfully in the ground. Got pretty tall and even started to curl in the middle like it was making little heads. I had 21 plants and they were wonderful....until the rabbit got them. Each day I would go out and count them and each day I would have 2 or 3 less until they were all gone. Man that was frustrating. If you have any kind of critter problem whatsoever, I would put them in pots but they do fine in the ground as well if that's how you want to garden.
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countrynest
15 years ago
Hi joyful, You could put up a fence of chicken wire
surrounding your vegetable garden to protect them.
I personally prefer other lettuce instead of Iceberg. I may
need to protect my vegggy garden also from the cute
bouncing bunnies that are multiplying so fast in our area here. We see many of them in the evening.
Rabbit stew anyone?
Felix
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atreelady
15 years ago
I sow lettuce seeds in the ground. I have a little leaf lettuce that reseeded in my veg garden and is about ready to pick. Also I planted some leaf lettuce in part shade about a month ago and it is getting ready to pick. It will grow much much better when it is cooler, but I wanted some before then and it is doing ok. I like to try to remember to plant a few seeds every month or 2 and then I always have some that is ready.
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joyful_garden
15 years ago
THanks Felix- My HOA would never allow that because someone might see it from the road. We are working on gettign an area ready that perhaps I could hide from my HOA so that I could have a fence. Then again, I thought about putting up a fence and trying to grow a vine to cover it and make it look like a plant. I would just have to grow it fast!! That would be a great way to fool that uppity HOA
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goldenpond
15 years ago
I have to tell you some of the MGs here in Indian River County work at the Gifford Youth Garden.They recently put in a Hydroponics set up(last year I think). They have had the most gorgeous lettuce you can imgine all summer. They all get some and take extra to the Homeless Shelter. They brought some to our MG auction and it was just lovely.
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barbcoleus
Original Author
15 years ago
I can't grow tomatoes in the soil here because of nematodes so I was wondering if lettuce was in the same category of being sensitive to nematodes. If so, maybe a hydroponics set up would be a good idea. GP could you expand on how they did that.
Thanks Junk - I thought it would be too early in the year but I wasn't sure.
Tree lady that's a good idea to plant every couple weeks so I have a long season for lettuce.
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carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
15 years ago
Lettuce lends itself well to container growing. Mine always does way better in pots than in-ground.

UF's Veggie guide sez Sept. for my area, I've got seeds for Romaine & Pinetree's Lettuce Mix waiting to go...
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scents_from_heaven
15 years ago
I have a grow unit on my dining table as a lovely centepiece and grow my lettuce there for year round greens. Linda
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sandbar_norm
15 years ago
Hello,
I wanted to grow some romaine lettuce. I just thought it was to hot here in Fl. to grow. From reading this post, it looks doable.
What kinds of lettuce grows good here?
I will be using containers (earth-tainer) for my crop.
Thank you for any suggestion. I'm new to growing anything.
Norm
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cindeea
15 years ago
Since we're on a lettuce topic, I have always had probs with mine bolting and going to seed even though I grow it under the pergola in a planter box. I can't believe how beautiful some of you guys can get your seeds to be. Barb, come harvest time, you'll have to save me some! My dad always grew lettuce, I never knew what Ice Berg was! To this day I have to buy romaine, escarole, baby greens, red leaf and endive for my salads. The guys are happy with Chopped Iceberg in a bag YUK!
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