Your Favorite Lettuce

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Thanks, Worth .
I have grown bib lettuce in the past. It looked like Boston Lettuce.
I will grow some this spring.

Gardeneer.

I have always said if you are going to spend time and money on a garden then grow what costs an arm and a leg at the store or things you cant buy.
I think I have something like 60 baby Bib Limestone plants going that are just now putting out true leaves.
Worth

[shelleybean]

How true! It seems the butter/bibb lettuce is always some of the most expensive at the store but the smallest heads and the most beat up looking of all the types there. Grow it yourself when you can.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by smithmal

How long do lettuce seeds last? I read somewhere that new lettuce seeds must be harvested/purchased each year.

I planted some Redina lettuce that a friend had stored in the garage for at least a couple years. I didn't think it would sprout at all, but it did, and we've been picking outer leaves as they get large for at least a month. This is a garage that gets HOT in the summer and cold in the winter.

It was in one of those foil(?) packets from Seeds of Change.

[True Timbers]

Seed source, I too highly recommend Fank Morton Wild Garden Seeds

Folks in the Midwest, generally are not starting their lettuce early enough, most lettuces are perfectly frost hardy down to the mix 20s. Start transplants indoors get out in the ground as soon as soil can be worked. Early!!

Grow butters, romaines and leaf early. Grow batvians in late spring for summer harvest. Back to leaf types for a great fall crop.

Starting seeds verses growing lettuce to maturity underer lights indoors is two different things!

I used to produce about 20 lb a week of mature lettuce Indoors every week. Intense blue say 6500K. (Remember blue is for veg, red for flower.). I would go from seed to harvest I. 6 weeks with two transplants. I would get specialty dutch greenhouse seed, called "multi", from.a.commercial supplier in Florida.

Lighting would be two T55 6500K bulbs per 2 square foot. That's 5000 lumen a square foot, just inches above the lettuce.

[Ricky Shaw]

Interesting stuff True Timbers. I'm looking at indoor lettuce under fluorescent lights, possibly a program that would give me 5-7 lbs per week.

You bring up the good point of lumen requirements and how small the light footprint is with the fixture inches from the plant. Namely, with the thinking that the sweet spot on fluorescents is 3000 to 5000 lumen per sq foot, it would be difficult to do that with T12's or T-8's.

[Worth1]

You want to look at wattage per square foot also.
If you can get 50 or more watts per square foot you are fine.
The more watts the farther away you can keep the lights.
Right now I am putting out about 150 watts per square foot with CFL.
Before I was putting out 40 per square foot with T 12 lights and had to keep them close so the plants wouldn't stretch.
With the 150 watts per square foot I haven't had that problem.
If you look at the T 5 grow lights at 54 watt usage the output is 200 watts 4000 lumens.
That is very good.

[Worth1]

You would almost think there was a conspiracy to stop people dead in their tracks growing things where I live.
Now is the exact time of year people should be growing lettuce and other cold weather crops but yet they dont do it.
For the most part they rely on the big box stores to tell them when to grow things.
Most of the time this is too late.
I cannot believe how many times I have heard people say it gets too hot to grow lettuce here.
Another one is how on earth did you get lettuce to grow here, I had no idea you could start it that early.
Where did you get the plants?
These are people that are 20 years older them me.
For the most part Lettuce goes to seed due to daylight hours or hours of darkness.
This just happens to coincide with heat in the summer.

I just took a step out the back door and I have Queen Ann's Lace coming up everywhere.
Queen Ann's Lace is wild carrot.
Soon behind it will be the wild lettuce.
If you had this coming up in your yard wouldn't you think it was time to plant these crops?
Worth

[Gardeneer]

I would think you folks are having your spring down south Texas right now. Perfect weather for lettuce, onions, cabbage, broccoli. But you have to start inside to get them going. Direct sowing can take long time. .
Our spring arrives late Feb/early Mar. I tell it when I see daffodils are popping and blooming.

Gardenee

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I would think you folks are having your spring down south Texas right now. Perfect weather for lettuce, onions, cabbage, broccoli. But you have to start inside to get them going. Direct sowing can take long time. .
Our spring arrives late Feb/early Mar. I tell it when I see daffodils are popping and blooming.

Gardenee

You know Gardener I am just too stupid to follow what other people do and follow instructions.
My oldest brother and his wife were the same way and we were great friends.
My sister in law could look at a field of greens get bit back by a frost or freeze and laugh about it.
My oldest brother and I ran a trot line almost 365 days a year and our freezer was always full of fish.
We had to drive 20 miles each way to check it on my cousins place along the river.
But yet the same people that made fun of us and our antics always enjoyed the bounty.

I have been told by everyone in the neighborhood that I have the biggest green thumb around.
I dont, I simply try and fail and keep trying.

Worth

[jwr6404]

I'm also told that I have a green thumb, which I don't. It only takes a lot of work, a lot of luck and a huge water bill

[MarlynnMarcks]

I couldn't agree with you more. I plant Limestone Bibb all the time with other Batavian and Romaine
types, but Limestone Bibb is the best. It costs and arm and a leg at the store IF you can find it. And fresh from the garden, the leaves are so crisp while from stores they tend to be more limp.

[True Timbers]

Truth be told.."real lettuce" was what sucked me back into farming...lol

Just can not buy edible lettuce from the grocery very often.

Can not name a favorite, because it all depends on so many variables. IMO get proper lettuce culture down and they are all good!

On lights the T55s are are small twin tube bulbs only 2 foot long, packing 4800 lumen for 55 watts. One covers a 1020 tray nicely.

Oh.. Those without greenhouses should use simple cold frames for lettuce. Get it started early!! Even the far north can have lettuce much of the year.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by True Timbers

Truth be told.."real lettuce" was what sucked me back into farming...lol

Just can not buy edible lettuce from the grocery very often.

Can not name a favorite, because it all depends on so many variables. IMO get proper lettuce culture down and they are all good!

On lights the T55s are are small twin tube bulbs only 2 foot long, packing 4800 lumen for 55 watts. One covers a 1020 tray nicely.

Oh.. Those without greenhouses should use simple cold frames for lettuce. Get it started early!! Even the far north can have lettuce much of the year.

Agree
I have a Cold Frame. But probably will germinate inside and then transfer to Cold Frame... and later from CF to garden.

Gardeneer

[Fiishergurl]

We also grow lettuce because like tomatoes it is so much better, fresher and tastier than what you can buy. Plus then we know its growing and handling history. Here is some i have growing right now....








Oops need to thin these out more to share with neighbors... :-)



Ginny

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

We also grow lettuce because like tomatoes it is so much better, fresher and tastier than what you can buy. Plus then we know its growing and handling history. Here is some i have growing right now....








Oops need to thin these out more to share with neighbors... :-)



Ginny

Ginny the Romain is just beautiful.
Do you see the lizard in it?

Worth