Welcome to my club!

I must have sowed a billion lettuce seeds last year and didn't have many more plants than you. The only thing that came up in the beds were weeds.

My first thought was to blame the seed - I have grown lettuce for years and never had a problem. Wrong! I have about two dozen plants growing now from those seeds, maybe more.

Some reading suggests:
1) Lettuce does not germinate well in hot or wet soils.
2) Whether the soil is nice and loose or not doesn't matter - my garden went through several freeze/thaw cycles and I had not touched it this spring
3) The soil needs watered but also needs to dry. I tried sowing seeds upstairs, following the same methods I have tremendous success with for almost every other veggie. Keep the potting mix damp and warm. After three weeks, when nothing had sprouted, I sat it on a bench by a window and forgot about it. A few days later - all kinds of plants!

I think I tried thinking too much, instead of just doing it!

Mike

I sprouted mine in a wet coffee filter in a baggie, on the bottom shelf in my studio/workroom (50 at night 60 during the day). I tried three different kinds, a "spicy mix" from Sample seed that germinated at least 85%, a Baby romaine that sprouted maybe 50% and a "4 season" leaf lettuce that hardly sprouted at all. I potted them up 3-4 in 4" pots and grew them under lights for 4 weeks. Here they are now ready to plant out, 5 weeks from sowing the seed.

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I always start my lettuce off in pots in the greenhouse. They are then planted into sectioned trays using a good peatless compost. When they get the size of mandolls seedlings I put them outside into the soil. Slugs and snails love to eat the lettuce where I live in the UK so I use nematodes and beer traps to keep them off the lettuce. Lettuce seem to thrive on comfrey tea so they get a couple of dosings while they are growing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Allotment Garden

I just direct sowed mine this year(mesclum), around a month or so before our LFD. I sowed the whole package in an area of about 20sqr-ft. Nothing seemed to have failed. Now, everyday I just thin some for salad as they grow.
The thing is that the soil has to be kept moist. So I lightly mulched with crushed up starw. As soon as I saw them poking, I removed the straw(gently). Two years go I started in cold frame. Again, no problem. Another thing is that lettuce seeds are tiny and should be covered accordingly.Then, of course, there is bad seeds problem.

Lettuce might need light exposure to germinate. Maybe you planted too deep. Just a thought.
Keski

Warmish soil, not too wet to germinate, after that moistish and temps not hot. Other than that, lettuce is very tolerant and surely there is a variety or 10 for conditions. Johnny's Seed IMHO has the widest selection of vars for conditions.

Dan

Thanks for all the advice! Based on what you all have said, I think what did me in was keeping the soil too wet while they were trying to germinate. Thanks again!

This post has me thinking as well.

I have five varieties of lettuce this year - Red Salad Bowl, Buttercrunch, Simpson Elite, Parris Island, and New Red Fire Leaf lettuce.

Started seeding every week in March. First three weeks - no problem. Four seeds of each were planted in black plastic 3-packs and the soil was moist - and they were not placed under lights until I saw at least one sprout.

The fourth week - only one Simpson Elite came up - and none of the others did. I then planted some just this past Thursday - and none of those have sprouted either.

I have no idea what gives. I used the same starting seed mix, the same compost tea/water mix, and the same everything basically. Temperatures in the basement are maybe five degrees warmer - 65 to 70 instead of 60 to 65.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

You're not alone. In past years I've had wonderful crops of loose leaf and loose head lettuces, from "regular" seed packets purchased at Lowe's or some other big box store. This year I decided to go "up scale" and ordered organic seeds of several varieties of lettuces and some spinach seeds from Burpee. Never again. Planted in the same raised beds where I have had such great results before NOT ONE SEED GERMINATED. NOT ONE. I'm willing to accept that because lettuces don't get planted deep that the birds get a few seeds, but EVERY ONE? I had some of the spinach seeds left, so I tried starting them indoors under plant lights and still nothing. I've never been so irritated in my life. Next fall it's back to "big box" lettuce and spinace seeds for me.

I've had much better luck with lettuce since I started sowing inside and transplanting then with direct sow. The direct sow had to be done at JUST the right time to work. The other way has been no fail.

Takes a bit longer with hardening off, but you can see what you actually have this way.

It's been cold and wet here this spring (welcome to the club, right? I know the whole great lakes region has been unseasonably cold and wet), but I finally stopped being scared it would snow and put some seeds in--including my lettuce. And wouldn't you know it--this year it's growing great. The soil's staying super-moist too, as it rains practically every day. Silly lettuce... maybe I'll just chalk it up to luck of the draw...

I grow 7 varieties of lettuce as well as spinach and arugula. I've always started indoors, and my germination is spotty. It doesn't seem to matter what the source of seed is, some of the seed will not sprout. This is at normal room temperature.

This year I tried the winter sowing method too (put seeds in flats, then put the flats out in an unheated cold frame back on March 5th). I had to brush the snow off the cold frame several times and it got so cold that sometimes the flats were frozen solid.

Low and behold, while my indoor gemination was spotty, the winter sown seeds had 100% germination! Every cell had several seeds sprouted! Same for the spinach, which had dismall germination indoors this year. I was stunned at the success rate!

Next year I'm starting all my lettuce/spinach seeds outdoors. I can bring some of them indoors under lights after germination for faster growth to get an early harvest (I'll have to harden them off before going back outside, but at least they will have germinated).

I think they like the cold wet conditions outside. Kind of makes sense. They do easily volunteer every spring, must like it out there. :-)

I got my best lettuce from the patch where I accidentally spilled my lettuce seed when I was planting turnips. The seed just sat on the surface of the soil. Lettuce seed does need light to germinate I think, so I agree that if you plant it too deep, you won't have much luck.

Susan

I have my best luck starting inside. Every week after I first plant out I start a six-pack or two (depending on how much I'm currently using) so when I harvest a head, I pop a new start in its place.