Sure it gives you a head start. It allows you to plant an established transplant at the proper time rather than just planting a seed and waiting for that seed to germinate etc. DTM = days to maturity or to harvest so one has to have a plant to plant first right? The given DTM of a variety assumes one recognizes that you have to add 6-8 weeks to that for germination of the seed and the seedling to develop. This is true whether you start indoors or direct seed in the garden. First there has to be a plant. DTM is approximately (DTM is just a general guide at best) when that plant will mature and be ready to harvest. If I put the plants out in march, they will have to stay there until June. Our temps are WAY too warm and they will be bolting by the end of May. And that is one problem with iceberg lettuce - its long growing season. So you can either plant it outside much earlier then March (which in zone 8 should be easy to do either with or without protection on freeze nights), or plant it in a final container that can be moved in and out as the weather permits, or grow it in a greenhouse like the commercial growers do, or plan to artificially shade it outside as the weather warms, etc. That's why most southern gardeners grow leaf lettuces instead as they have half the DTM of iceberg. Dave

Looks like you have all the best blooms in your garden:) Brodie is looking a little worried, look at that face, I don't think he likes you leaving Eva on the ground like that:) What a beautiful baby daughter you have. She looks very content there too, Mom's near by:) Leslie

Crawford lettuce is good. You can still plant it. The link below tells about it and the last sentence tells how to get seeds for $2.00 and a SASE. Some people recently reported on the Texas exchange forum that they recenved their seeds very quickly. Here is a link that might be useful: About Crawford lettuce ...

If it were a climber, I think it would be very obvious by now. I thought I bought an Iceberg, but it turned out to be a climber by the Fall having planted it bare root in January. It was VERY clear that it was a climber, and it still is.