I think it depends on which variety of lettuce you want to try. Some are more cold hardy than others, I would check based on that information.

I've sown lettuce at this time and it's done well. Lettuce is one of the easiest things to grow, I think, and it WSs very well. Lettuce is a cool-weather crop. I have some in my cold frames right now, although I'll admit I am afraid to look at it after the absolutely freezing temperatures we've had the last three days!

As far as sowing thinly or not, it depends. If you are going to transplant, and want heads, you may want to sow thinly enough that you can separate them easily.

Or you can sow thickly and use it for cutting - baby leaves and what not. I usually just cut it right from the container it's been sown in and eat it.

I suppose you could use HOS for this too. That way it gets transplanted out, so the roots have more room to grow, and you could still cut the baby leaves to eat. Being in the garden may lead to more re-growth than being in the container. I've never tried HOS with lettuce but I think it would work.

Sorry, I can't help with the indoor sowing. I never sow anything indoors!

Good luck - and enjoy your salads!
:)
Dee

The kind of lettuce I am trying is called Freckles Romaine. I would like to get heads so maybe I will sow it very thinly in a couple different containers. I have seen people sow it very thickly and didn't even think about cutting pieces off instead of harvesting the entire head at a time. I was going to sow some indoors just as a back up in case something happens to the ones outside.

I always WS my lettuces in January, and have sprouts by the end of February. I'm trying Freckles this year too. WS it on 1/16, in a huge kitty litter container, so I'll have way more than I probably need. I always get carried away when sowing lettuce, so the containers usually end up looking like Chia pets, LOL. Then I just HOS it into the veggie garden sometime in early April. Our last frost date is mid-May and the lettuces don't seem bothered by the frost, though I will say they really take off once the nights warm up a bit.

Never tried to sow any indoors, because it is such a foolproof thing to WS, and my indoor space is very limited.

Bonnie

I did Romaine lettuce last year - both in the spring and fall - and both times did the HOS method.

It worked wonderfully and this week I am starting my seeds again the same way since there are hundreds of seeds in only one 99 cent package!

Carrie

Okay that is exactly what I needed to know. I will wintersow them this week, and then plant out HOS. If none sprout by the end of February, maybe I will then do a couple inside. If they do then I won't have to. I have seen people's containers of lettuce that look like chia pets, and always wondered how that would work with lettuce. I guess this year I will find out. Thanks for the help guys!

gardenluv: I plant lettuce in the fall. This year, I was late and didn't plant the seeds until October. In November, we had a nor'easter. The lettuce beds were flooded for two days. When I saw white sand in the beds and on the plants, I thought that was the end of the lettuce.

But no ... After a few days, the little lettuces perked up. I put Reemay floating row cover over the beds to keep the temps up a bit and provide protection from the wind. This worked. We made it through January with temps in the teens. It's February 1 and we still have lettuce. The leaves are small but I planted enough that we can have salad every day. When the weather warms up in a few weeks, the little lettuces will become BIG lettuces and we'll invite the neighbors over to pick mesclun.

I also planted winter greens in Oct (a month late) - kale, collards, cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese (Napa) cabbage, pak choi, mustard greens, spinach, Swiss chard. Everything is doing well. The Chinese cabbages weight 8-10 pounds.

Napa or Chinese Cabbage

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The broccoli resprouts. The kale and collards do great in cold weather.
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I expect we will get another bumper crop of greens in the spring.

I grew freckles romaine last year and it was great. I sowed them close together and started out just cutting leaves, however they start to form heads pretty quickly and I let many of them form heads. They were great, really pretty in salad and slow to bolt also. I'm sure you'll love it.
Carol

Good to know! I am really looking forward to making a salad from out of the garden rather than buying the lettuce at the store! I hate paying what I pay for lettuce when it costs about a penny to grow a head!

You can grow it now inside in your windowsill. Lettuce will thrive in a cool window. A good choice for indoor growing is any mesclun blend. Lettuce is a cool season veggie and can be WSed but it won't sprout until very early to mid spring, so there's no rush and you can WS it near the end of winter.

There are a lot of different blends available, I've grown several from Renee's Garden seed. Of course you can purchase or trade where and when you can. I'll paste in a link to her lettuce page as its good reading--lots of descriptions to learn from.

T

Here is a link that might be useful: RG LEttuce page

Thanks Trudi! I do have a window that gets great sun during the day, but I think I will just wintersow the lettuce. I start a few tomatoes and peppers in that window. Thanks for the link!

I like your priorities, Gardenluv! I'm the same way. I save that precious window space for things that really need the extra time to mature. Lettuce is such a quick crop, and since it wintersows so well, why take up space indoors. Yep, my kitchen windowsill will be full of pepper sprouts by the end of March ... as many as I can squeeze in there : )

lol....I promised my husband that I would not be planting any thing inside this year. My oldest son suggested (hee hee hee) that we use his windowsill to start some tomatoes and peppers in. My DH hasn't noticed yet so yeah, I can only start a few inside.

Gardenluv, you might want to give your lettuce a bit more time to sprout than the end of February. Even though I sow mine now and through February, it doesn't always sprout so soon - maybe mid-May, depending on temps. Since I see you are a zone colder than I am, it may be even a bit later for you. Just something to keep in mind - I just didn't want you to be disappointed if February ends and you haven't got sprouts yet.

:)
Dee

Dee, did you mean mid-March? Keep in mind that Gardenluv is in the same part of the country as me, and the sun is VERY intense at high altitudes.

I have sprouts way earlier than most zone 5 folks, but I'm definitely a zone 5, with lows raching the -10 to -20º range during December and January.

Bonnie

Yes, the altitude makes a huge difference. Like highaltttransplant, I am definately a zone 5, but tend to get sprouts sooner than most zone 5ers. I will give it through March though just to see what happens, and then sow some inside if I need to. Thanks for the heads up diggerdee! I will definately have patience instead of just giving up on them if they don't pop up right away.

Duh! Yes, I did mean mid-MARCH, not May, lol! Gee, and I even proof-read that before posting!

I wasn't aware that altitude made such a difference. Interesting to learn! Thanks for catching my goof, and thanks for that tidbit of new info!

:)
Dee
who realized after reading this thread the other day that she has no lettuce seeds! Ack! I've got some seed shopping to do!

Dee, I figured it out the day after we arrived in Colorado, which was at the end of August almost ten years ago. I was in and out of the house supervising the unloading of the moving van, and the next day my face was sunburned. I was thinking, how can that be, I wasn't outside for more than 5 minutes at a time all day.

People get burnt all the time skiing, and assume it's the reflection of the sun off of the snow, which it is, but it's also because you are a couple miles closer to the sun.

Bonnie

Unless you live somewhere where it is a high elevation, most people don't believe you. I grew up in Tahoe and when we had relatives come to visit we always told them, load up on the sunblock because you will get fried. Since the high was supposed to be mid seventies, they never did and man would they be lobster red!!!! The sun can be intense and many times it can still be a bit chilly out!

That's so true. We used to live in the Upper Catskills. The air was sparkling bright. My father fainted once on a walk--the top of his head was badly sunburnt--he had sun poisoning, my mother who was very fair would turn purple if she didn't wear a hat. People think the elevation and the coolness of the mountains will keep you from sunburn--no way! Those rays are all the brighter because you're closer to the heavens, and truly so, most mountains have rural populations so there's no smog to diffuse the sun rays.And don't forget your sunglasses too. Especially when there's no snow on the ground and it's a clear day. You can't see because everything is so bright.

My last sentence should read...

Especially when there's snow on the ground and it's a clear day. You can't see because everything is so bright.

I need to sleep.

That's okay, Trudi. If I can say that my January-sown lettuce doesn't germinate until mid-May, you can say that having no snow on the ground blinds people, lol!

;)
Dee

There is equality in all things.

So I was all excited to sow my lettuce today. I had three jugs that were prepped and ready to go..... What did I sow? Two different types of dianthus and salvia blue bedder. Got the jugs outside and smacked myself in the forehead! DUH!!! I guess the lettuce will have to wait until another day. Oh well.

So, what types of dianthus?

T

I sowed Dianthus Siberian Blues and Maiden Pinks. I am very excited about these two which is probably why I totally forgot about the lettuce.

The reason you get sunburnt faster ay high altitudes is not because you are closer to the sun (actually you are but two miles closer compared to 93 million miles is negligible), but because there is less atmosphere for the suns rays to go through at high altitudes. The ozone in the atmosphere absorbs most of the burning high energy ultraviolet rays.

That's true. Sorry for my less than scientific explanation : )

Okay, my lettuce has their true leaves now and they are truly speckled and so adorable. Anyways, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with them, so very carefully I used a plastic fork and lifted about a third of them out and planted them in a container slightly apart from each other, and left the other sprouts in the container. We have a lot of birds in our yard so I am kinda concerned that they will eat the lettuce. I don't have any screen or netting I can put over the sprouts. We are supposed to be in the sixties this week and I don't want to fry them. Any other suggestions as to what I can use to protect them? Or do I need to even worry about it with birds?

Just for reference, I ws my lettuce (a green leaf lettuce, "green ice") on March 2, and it sprouted today (at least I noticed it today, and I checked yesterday, and the sprouts are tiny). We had warm sunny weather most of last week, and cool, cloudy rains all weekend. Hope it is happy in it's container, because I won't have the garden ready for planting out until the weekend of the 27th.

I direct sowed this lettuce last year, and that worked out OK also, but it was late and a foot away from where I sowed because of the super wet spring. Lettuce, broccoli, and spinach have been super easy for me. Always a good prolific crop, and very hardy. Mine suffer more from St. Louis heat/humidity by the end of June more than anything else. I always use slow-bolting varieties, and the hold up fairly well considering. I re-sow early to mid-August for a fall crop, and had lettuce through the end of October.

Sherri