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q5 - too late to plant lettuce?

pamperedpeterson

16 years ago

I have been told by several "experts" at my church that I should wait until early fall to plant my lettuce, as the summer months seem to kill them. When is early fall? they were all kind of vague on that, couldn't pinpoint it for me. I want to plant a leafy lettuce, not the iceberg kind.

And help is appreciated. Thanks!

Comment (1)

tosser
16 years ago
The weather here is just beginning to turn - 2 more days of 90-degree highs and then a drop into the 70s/80s with lows in the high 50s or low 60s. I'll be planting lots of leaf lettuce Thursday morning if this forecast holds true and sow more next week. I sink a few supports (garden stakes or even sturdy sticks) at the corners and in the center of the lettuce beds and drape old sheets & blankets over them at night when it frosts. This has been surprisingly successful in past years and I'm often able to pick quite a bit of beautiful fresh lettuce for Christmas dinner. Snow won't kill it off but I've found that no amount of "covers" will save it with sustained temperatures under 20Â°F, although it can definitely survive a quick early-morning zap.

Green Ice is my favorite to string along like this, but good old Black Seeded Simpson takes to it, as well. Salad Bowl is iffy.

In mid-October I'll be sowing seed into containers that I can haul inside. (I love green leaf lettuce!)

Um, to actually answer your question, in my opinion no, it isn't too late for you to plant leaf lettuce, but it may (or may not!) take some babying. As for when early fall commences (weather-wise), I "feel" that our upcoming cool-down is the real deal and does signal the beginning of Fall, but that's here. We've had leaves falling for nearly 3 weeks now, the corn is drying at warp speed, everything in the garden seems to be rushing to ripen, and the dew is becoming heavier each morning. This may not be the case in your region. Sorry to be so vague!
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I am in northern VA and my lettuce started bolting two weeks ago when we had that crazy hot weather. Some did better. For example the summer crisp lettuces are just starting to bolt. The other leaf lettuces, even the young ones, started to form flower stalks. If you are going to grow them now, I would suggest growing them in part shade. Otherwise wait til late summer to start a fall crop. I am actually sorta glad that lettuce season is over for now since I have been eating so much of it in every single way possible for almost 2 months now.
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It is very doubtful that any lettuce planted now would do anything in terms of producing an edible harvest. Lettuce is a cool-season crop that does best when it is grown when temperatures are above 20 degrees and below 80 degrees. Heat-tolerant varieties are heat-tolerant in areas where summertime highs only hit the mid- to upper-80s and where 90 degrees is considered an intensely awful heat wave, but are not tolerant of the kind of heat we have here. Shade helps them when we are in the 80s but once we're in the 90s, shade doesn't help enough because it is hot air and soil temps that hurts them and shade only slightly lowers the temps. I have used shade cloth to shade my lettuce this spring on any day that our high temps exceed 85 degrees and some of the varieties are going to seed anyway. I planted lettuce in earliest February and have been harvesting for about 6 weeks or so. Some of my so-called heat-tolerant varieties are now going to seed, likely becuase we've already had several days here in the 90s Usually they make it until at least mid- to late-May. The OSU-recommended planting dates for lettuce are February 15th thru March 10th for spring gardens and August 1st thru 15th for leaf lettuce for fall gardens. In my part of the state (southcentral OK) it is too hot Aug. 1-15, so I plant around September 1st, which often still is too hot, but I can't wait any later because I want it to be a good size before the really intense cold arrives.
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