vegetable · leafy green

Lettuce — Red

Pick it leaf by leaf or cut the lot. Red loose-leaf gives you salad from five weeks, and keeps giving if you only take the outside leaves.

Lettuce — Red seedling
Seedling
Mature Lettuce — Red
Ready to pick
Thrives
12–18°C
Water
High
Difficulty
Beginner
Ready in
35–45  days
Spacing
25cm apart
Containers
Yes

How to plant it

  • Plant 25cm apart. It spreads outward rather than hearting up.
  • Start taking outside leaves from about five weeks. Leave the centre alone and one plant keeps producing for weeks.
  • Or cut the whole loose head at once, if you would rather have it all together.
  • Keep the water up. Lettuce that gets thirsty turns bitter before it turns limp, and there is no coming back from bitter.
  • The red deepens in cool weather and washes out in heat, so it looks its best early and late in the season.