{"id":239,"date":"2020-09-06T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rollingdownmygarden.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2022-06-18T12:01:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T12:01:36","slug":"lettuce-and-heat-a-bad-combination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rollingdownmygarden.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Lettuce and heat- a bad combination"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first and most grown vegetables is certainly lettuce. Butterhead, crisphead, romaine, or loose-leaf there is always at least one variety or type of lettuce growing in every vegetable garden. But what happens when the garden is just too hot to grow lettuce?<\/span><\/p>\n

Lettuce is a cold-loving vegetable thriving in the temperatures around 15\u00b0C (60\u00b0F) sometimes if the soil is wet enough it will germinate and grow even on 4\u00b0C (20\u00b0F). It will quickly start forming heads and the leaves will be doubling in size each week. <\/span><\/p>\n

The lettuce will continue to grow until the temperature stays under 26\u00b0C (80\u00b0F), but once the temperature reaches 30\u00b0C (86\u00b0F) this will happen:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Even the small and new-planted seedlings will soon start bolting or forming stems with flowers. Once the temperature is too high there’s no way of stopping it. The bolting will happen so fast that one day the lettuce plant will look normal and the next it will already start growing tall.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is something that happens in my garden every single year. Even this year which was milder than the past years, lettuce sown on the sunny side started bolting after a couple hot days.<\/span><\/p>\n


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The heads haven’t even started forming and the seedlings are already full of flowers. <\/span><\/div>\n

I’ve tried everything, shading, mulching, transplanting bigger seedlings, loose sowing. Nothing really helps. Once the temperatures get too high there’s no way to stop bolting and the temperatures in my garden in the afternoon are really high. The full sunbeds are in the sun for 9 hours a day, and the soil is baking.  <\/span><\/div>\n

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The crisphead lettuce varieties are a bit more resistant than the other types. Especially varieties like the great lakes. They will tolerate hot weather and temperatures below 30\u00b0C(86\u00b0F), but even they give up after a couple of 30\u00b0C+ days.<\/span><\/div>\n
We even have some native varieties that are supposed to resist the heat, but there’s little chance to get a big lettuce head even if you grow these varieties in full sun. <\/span><\/div>\n

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So how do I grow lettuce? <\/span><\/div>\n
Well while the summer is at its peak I don’t. There’s no way to grow it unless you have a greenhouse with good ventilation and shading. I do grow lettuce in my shaded part of the garden, which is only in the sun for 3-5 hours a day, but even there if the year is hot the lettuce starts bolting.<\/span><\/div>\n
I try to grow loose-leaf varieties and butterhead varieties that can be cut and will grow back. This is actually the only way to grow lettuce in the heat. Harvesting baby lettuce.<\/span><\/div>\n

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As soon as the leaves are big enough I harvest. I do this with all my lettuce. Some grow back, others don’t so I sow again but I don’t allow it to grow heads. Also, I sow it much closer than needed. This way it will stop the weeds from growing and it will slow the bolting. Giving the seedlings enough space will make them bolt faster.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Another good way to grow lettuce during the heat is sowing it in pots during the late summer and transplanting it in autumn. This will prevent the tiny seedlings from getting sunburns and once the days get cold enough they will grow into a pretty lettuce head.<\/span><\/div>\n


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And the lettuce that is already flowering? Well, there’s nothing much that can be done but to harvest the flowers and save the seeds for next year. I just cut the stems and place the flowers inside the flour paper bag. They are perfect for drying the lettuce seeds which will fall in the bag and won’t get lost during the drying.<\/span><\/div>\n

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One of the first and most grown vegetables is certainly lettuce. Butterhead, crisphead, romaine, or loose-leaf there is always at least one variety or type of lettuce growing in every vegetable garden. But what happens when the garden is just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[503,9,12],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardendiary","tag-heat","tag-lettuce","tag-my-garden-diary"],"yoast_head":"\nLettuce and heat- a bad combination - Rolling down my garden<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rollingdownmygarden.com\/?p=239\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lettuce and heat- a bad combination - Rolling down my garden\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the first and most grown vegetables is certainly lettuce. 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