Monday, September 10, 2012

Harvesting Your Desert Lettuce

Posted By on Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 8:30 AM

This was written about summer lettuce, but the information can be applied to winter lettuce too! Remember: This was all done in pots! The article below is reprinted with permission.

By David W. Mount
Master Gardener of the The University of Arizona, Pima County Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program

Lettuce Right From the Garden
  • Lettuce Right From the Garden

1. Harvest the baby lettuce by removing either large 2-4 inch leaves or the entire plant after 2-3 weeks. Slobolt grows fastest, red lettuce in the mixes the slowest, and Jericho is also quite slow. I left one bunch of Jericho plants to grow larger for 4-5 weeks but they became bitter and were not edible (but they had also been attacked by leafhoppers). Red lettuce was harvested as small plants. None of the other plants bolted or were bitter.

2. Plant new seeds as soon as space becomes available.

3. Wash off soil in the sink and store in the refrigerator to freshen up

4. The favorite and most successful variety was Slobolt, which was also present in some of the mixes. The mixes had some other tasty varieties such as oak leaf and other Romaine types.

Have a question? Email Marylee.

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