Fall Into Lettuce To Wrap Up 2025

It’s finally Fall, the perfect time to start and grow all kinds of lettuce, as the days and especially nights are getting a bit cooler now, and that is what lettuce really likes. 

Lettuce be honest, once you’ve tasted fresh homegrown lettuce, there’s no going back.  It’s crisper, sweeter, tastier, and packs more vitamin A than anything you can buy at a supermarket.  Whether you’re a seasoned grower or just getting your hands dirty, we’ll walk you through sowing, planting, caring for, and harvesting this cool-season staple.

Quick to grow and delightfully low-maintenance, lettuce can thrive just about anywhere.  From crunchy to loose-leaf there is a lettuce variety just waiting for you!  Check out our 9 varieties available on the Marketplace.

Lettuce needs little introduction. Grown for its luscious leaves, there’s a cornucopia of both hearting and loose-leaf varieties to explore. There are Lettuces that form dense heads for harvesting and the looseleaf varieties that can be harvested whole or a few leaves at a time, known as cut-and-come-again.   

There are many colors available from the greens to the reds, to multicolored and each variety has its own unique taste and nutrients tied to the colors.

Lettuces are a great leafy green because they grow quickly, produce for a long time, and are not very demanding if you keep the plants sufficiently watered. Plus, lettuce grows beautifully in raised beds, making it ideal for small spaces. Lettuces are perfect for containers, which can be placed on decks, patios, balconies, and porches. 

If you have the time, successive plantings every few weeks or once a month, will keep you in lettuce for all your salad needs.  I plant once a month usually on the new moon, and plant more than I need, so that I can share them with my family and friends.  I usually plant about 30-40 a month, which may sound like a lot, but I make a salad every day for lunch and then eat any left-overs for dinner. 

                            

Sowing-Planting-Caring for-& Harvesting Lettuce

Lettuce likes about 5-6 hours of sun per day, so check out the area you want to grow in and make sure there is not too much shade.  Get your seed ready and some potting mix and trays and you’re ready to plant!

I like to start my seeds in cell trays. I add a little of my screened compost to the potting mix, assuring that there will be a light breakfast for the seeds as they germinate and grow roots.  After you fill your cells with the mix, lightly water the trays, and then make a little shallow depression in the center (1/4” deep) and put 2-3 seeds inside, thinning to the best one later.   Then press the seeds lightly into the soft mix. You can also try lightly watering when you are pau planting and see which way works best for you. 

After about 3 weeks, you will carefully lift the cells out, each with a single lettuce plant and transplant into your prepared garden bed or container about 4-6 inches apart.  That gives them room to spread out, but the mature heads will touch each other and shade out the weeds!

If you sow soon, it would be possible to sow enough lettuce to last you to the end of 2025!  Don’t forget some red and green varieties for your Christmas and Thanksgiving salads!

I do have friends with old mature garden beds who like to make a trench, line with compost and sow directly in the garden soil, keeping lightly moist.  Either way once they are planted, make sure the soil stays moist but not too wet. 

When they are mature enough you can harvest the whole head by cutting the main stem at the soil line, or start taking off some of the lower leaves and allowing the plant to continue growing. 

Another possibility if you have a really small space, would be to sow a whole tray with rows of seed and have them all come up and instead of transplanting give them a haircut with your scissors and let them grow back again. 

After harvesting I like to wash all the leaves looking for any dirt or unwanted critters, like an earwig or a tiny snail or slug.  One cannot be too careful , so take your time and really look at each leaf, and lay them out on the sink on a dry towel before wrapping up in another towel and placing in the vegetable drawer of the fridge.  This way lettuce can last up to 2 weeks and still be fresh. 

If you have time check out another Lettuce Blog we posted 3 years ago. https://www.hawaiiseedgrowersnetwork.com/post/lettuce-grow-together 

Finally, the Wit and Wisdom of Lettuce!

• Did you know that lettuce and sunflowers are relatives? They both belong to the Asteraceae (or “daisy”) family.

• “Lettuce is like conversation; it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.” –My Summer in a Garden, by Charles Dudley Warner, American writer (1829-1900)

• Eating lettuce for dinner can be calming and help to reduce stress.

  
  

I’d love to know your favorite salad or use of a lettuce leaf recipe.  

Post it on the Hawai’i Seed Growers Network Instagram at #hiseednetwork and I will too!

Wishing you all a calm and productive Fall Lettuce Planting!  And don’t forget to check out all the new varieties available on the Marketplace. 

Aloha,

The Hawai’i Seed Growers Network

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