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When to Harvest Lettuce

Question from Ginny:
How do I know when the lettuce and shallots are ready to pick? What is your best book regarding this. I live in San Marcos, CA.

Answer from Pat:
The time when lettuce is ready to pick depends on the variety you are growing, the number of days to maturity, and also your desires. if you are growing lettuce as one ingredient of mesclun you will want to broadcast it, or grow in a wide row and then begin to cut it with scissors when it is only 3 to 5 inches tall. Follow up with fertilizer and water and the plants will regrow. For best results with bib lettuce you will want to read package directions and grow to the the number of days recommended on the package and pick the whole head. Then pull up the root and grow something else in that spot. If you are growing Romaine lettuce and if you want to make Caesar salad you will want to wait until it is one foot tall at least and filled out enough so the ribs on the inside leaves are crisp. You can however, begin harvesting the outside leaves when the Cos or Romaine is 8 or 10 inches tall. The rest of the plant will continue to grow and bear leaves. And if you are growing loose leaf lettuce you have a choice also. Once it is up about 5 inches you can begin harvesting outside leaves and leave the centers growing. In this way you can lengthen your lettuce harvest over a long fall, winter, and spring season. Cutting the outside leaves is a very satisfactory way to harvest lettuce since you get so much more in the long run. Be sure to control slugs and snails. Fertilizer and water is important also since you need to keep lettuce rapidly growing in order to grow a good tasty crop that is not bitter or tough. Practice makes perfect with lettuce and it’s much easier to grow it well in a raised bed where you can fuss with it a bit. Mesclun is good in a tub also. There are some lovely seed mixes in catalogues.

My book called “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month” is the best one to follow for advice on lettuce and all vegetables and how to plant, fertilize, harvest, and care for them month by month. This book reminds you how to do the things necessary as you go along to have a very satisfying experience with gardening.

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