Hi,

As we were cleaning up the garden shed/garage last fall, I discovered a bunch of leftover lettuce seed. My long suffering but supportive husband asked if it would grow inside. So we started a totally unscientific test of growing lettuce inside.

About 15 Nov, I started a flat of 3" pots under lights. The first flat included mesclun, Red Sails and Black Seeded Simpon. They grew but not with the enthusiasm I had hoped for so I started another flat. The second flat included Freckles and some kind of spinach.

So here is what happened: The spinach grew well and bolted in about 2 weeks. Too hot under the lights.

The mesclun was ready to eat within 4 weeks but did not produce a second crop after the first cutting.

The Black seeded Simpson, Freckles and Red Sails have been very tasty and a great success. We are on our 4rth cutting I think. I left about an inch of the stems every time I cut and then gave them a shot of fertilizer. About 2 to 3 weeks later, more lettuce.

We did learn a few things: The lettuce did not grow as tall as expected. Don't know why. Maybe I got hungry faster than it grew. The lettuce was more like a baby lettuce mixture - no lettuce wraps here.

I did have to cut down on the number of lights above the lettuce. It can definitely sunburn. Since I wasn't growing anything else, I just turned off every other bulb.

Growing in the 3" pots turned out to work well. It cut down on how often I needed to water. Twice a week worked well.

Oh, and the little pots were cute. My gardening friends got a kick out of receiving a growing head of lettuce (ok, each pot wasn't truely a head - maybe a fourth of a head) as a Christmas gift. Ha. You are thinking how cheap can you get for a gift. I prefer to think of it as frugal! :)

I think we might just continue until the lettuce comes up outside but we had a good time with it and will do it again next fall.

Nancy