vegetable · leafy green

Lettuce

The quickest thing in the box. Plant buttercrunch seedlings and you will be picking soft, sweet leaves in three to five weeks.

Lettuce seedling
Seedling
Mature Lettuce
Ready to pick
Thrives
12–18°C
Water
High
Difficulty
Beginner
Ready in
21–35  days
Spacing
20cm apart
Containers
Yes

How to plant it

  • Plant 20cm apart, somewhere that gets sun but not brutal afternoon heat.
  • Water well at planting and keep the soil damp. Lettuce is mostly water and it shows within hours of getting thirsty.
  • Pick outside leaves as you need them, or cut the whole head once it firms up at four or five weeks.
  • Stagger a few plants a fortnight apart. Plant them all at once and you get a glut, then nothing.
  • Heat makes it bolt. If it shoots upward and turns bitter, that is summer telling you to plant again when it cools.