When to Harvest Lettuce Seeds: Grow and Save Seeds Now Jenny Graham, January 18, 2024January 17, 2024 Harvesting, saving and growing from your own seeds may seem tricky, as all plants are different. Many gardeners may be wondering how to grow lettuce and when to harvest lettuce seeds. When To Harvest Lettuce Seeds Lettuce plants have seeds that ripen at different times. Simply let your lettuce plants bolt, or grow flower stalk for seed production. The flower heads are your seed heads. Once the flower heads on the lettuce plant become white, fluffy and dry, the seed heads are ready to harvest. The seed heads will drop once they are ripe, so you have to stay on top of checking and collecting them to harvest lettuce seeds. How & When to Harvest Lettuce Seeds From Seed Heads Deciding when to harvest lettuce seeds is easy, as is collecting and harvesting seed heads. When you see that they are white, fluffy, and dry, which could take a few weeks, simply shake the seed heads into a paper or plastic bag until most of the seed heads have fallen off into the bag. What to Do With Harvested Lettuce Seeds After Collecting How and when to harvest lettuce seeds is the start to you growing your own homegrown lettuce from your own seeds. Now that you have them collected, let them completely dry out to harvest lettuce seeds. This is an important step, as you don’t want them to get moldy once they are stored for the next growing season. How & When to Harvest Lettuce Seeds From the Flower Heads Now that your flower seed heads are completely dry, you can start getting those lettuce seeds out. You can roll the dry seed pods in between your fingers, which will break them open, releasing the actual seeds. Alternatively, you can place the flower heads on a fine mesh screen, moving them around with your hands, breaking them open, to harvest lettuce seeds. The seeds, will fall through the screen. How to Clean Lettuce Seeds You’ll soon find that when you harvest lettuce seeds, it comes with a lot of chaff. Chaff is the flower head debris that comes along with breaking apart the seed heads. The chaff can be blown away, essentially cleaning your own seeds for storage. Just run a small fan, while you slowly drop a sprinkling of seeds and chaff in front of the fan. The fan will blow away the chaff while the seeds will drop into a bowl below. Some people just pick out the larger pieces of chaff by hand or with tweezers. Either way if fine. Having some chaff, as long as it’s dried, with your lettuce seeds won’t effect the germination rates. How to Save Harvested Lettuce Seeds for Next Year The best way to save you own seeds is in an airtight container. A plastic container with a lid or a mason jar work well. You can store multiple different seeds in envelopes all in the same airtight container. Storage and Viability of Lettuce Seeds When you harvest lettuce seeds, you can expect lettuce seeds that are properly dried and stored in an airtight container to last up to five years. I always recommend saving seeds each year for the most viable seeds possible. How to Grow Homegrown Lettuce Plants Whether you start them from seed or by transplanting, homegrown lettuce is an easy annual plant to grow. I think you’ll find that if you just try you can grow your own salad greens and ditch grocery store lettuce all together. Starting Lettuce Seeds Lettuce seed can be started indoors or can be sown directly into the garden. Most varieties of lettuce take anywhere from 2-10 days to germinate, which is much quicker than germinating jalapeno seeds. You’ll want to read your seed packet to determine the correct depth to sow your seeds when direct seeding. Most lettuce varieties will need to be sown about 1/4 inch deep and in cooler soil temperatures. Just be sure to keep them moist while you are waiting for germination. When to Plant Homegrown Lettuce Homegrown lettuce can be started indoors about 3-4 weeks before transplanting young plants into the garden. Lettuce is a cooler weather crop and likes to be planted early in the spring or late in the fall. If you are in the south or in Florida, like me, we plant lettuce in the winter. So it really depends on your climate. Many gardeners up north can grow lettuce in a cold frame in the winter months. The optimal soil temperature is between 45-80*F. Where to Plant Lettuce Plants Here in Florida, we often plant lettuce in the shade, especially if we are trying to get a harvest in spring or fall, which can be pretty warm. Shade cloth can come in handy for crops that bolt easily in the heat. Lettuce can be grown in full sun also as long as it’s not summer. Leafy greens are great to grow in small spaces, like containers, or in your garden beds. Water Requirements for Lettuce Plants Depending on your soil type and if you are growing lettuce in containers or in the ground will determine how much you need to water. Container gardening, as well as sandy soil usually dries out quickly. Generally speaking, lettuce plants have very shallow roots. They need to be checked at least every other day to see if the top inch of soil is moist. Nutrients Needed for Homegrown Lettuce Being that lettuce plants are leafy vegetables, nitrogen is going to be the main nutrient that is needed. Nitrogen is responsible for leaf production. Using an organic fertilizer like aged manure, mixed into your soil, will grow fantastic leafy greens. There are a variety of other organic soil amendments that you can add to your garden for nitrogen. Protecting Against Pests and Disease Your first defense agianst pests for your lettuce plants is to use row covers. Additionally, neem oil can be used as a preventative for disease and pests. If pests get out of control, you can always use organic pest control methods like Captain Jacks Insecticidal soap. Methods of Harvesting Homegrown Lettuce First you’ll need to consider what variety of lettuce you are growing. Is it leaf lettuce or head lettuce? They both have different methods of harvesting. Lettuce also has a better flavor and will be more crisp if harvested in the early morning. When & How to Harvest Full Heads Harvesting a head of lettuce is easy. Use a harvesting knife to cut the lettuce head right above the base of the plant to harvest the entire plant when it is firm and full size.. When & How to Harvest Individual Leaves Leaf lettuce is known as cut and come again lettuce. Harvesting lettuce leaves is easy. Just use a good pair of scissors to harvest individual leaves when they are a few inches long, from the outer edge. Another method, called the pony tail chop, is harvesting the entire leafy green lettuce at once by cutting the entire plant 1 inch above the base. You can continue to cut and come again leaf lettuce until the plant starts to bolt. Growing Different Types of Lettuce There are many different types of lettuce to grow. All of them can be grown together but may require different spacing and may have different days to harvest. Many lettuce plants are a great companion plant for larger plants with deep root systems, since lettuce has a shallow root system. All types of lettuce are great to intercrop throughout your garden. They all prefer to be grown early spring, late fall, or in the south you can grow lettuce in the winter. Growing Loose-Leaf Lettuce Loose leaf lettuce is easy to grow. Whether you are direct seeding or planting transplants, put them 6 inches apart, with rows 12 inches apart. Keep the top inch of the soil moist. You can plant in full sun, but in Florida I grow my lettuce under 50% shade cloth. Harvest when leaves are at least 3 inches long, cutting the outer leaves. Growing Romaine Lettuce Romaine lettuce is a staple in my garden. Direct sow your seeds or put your transplants in 12 inches apart. Romaine likes moist, but well drained soil. It can be grown in full sun to partial shade. You can harvest the entire plant at once or harvest outer leaves as you need them. Growing Butterhead Lettuce Butterhead lettuce loves cool weather. It can be sown in soil that is 35 degrees. Direct sow your seeds thinly in rows 1-2 inches apart in well draining soil that is full of organic matter. Butterhead lettuce can be grown in full sun but can handle a little bit of shade as well. It’ll be ready for harvest quickly, in about 50-60 days. You can harvest the whole plant at once. It is often a cut and come again lettuce. Growing Little Gem Lettuce Little Gem lettuce is a great choice to grow in containers or in the garden. They need full sun and to be planted about 6 inches apart. They are a cut and come again lettuce so you should get a few harvests if you time it correctly. Little Gem lettuce will make cute, small compact heads of lettuce. Just be sure to harvest 1 inch above the growing crown so it grows back. Growing Iceberg Lettuce You’ll want to start these seeds indoors about 4-6 weeks before transplanting out or direct sow your seeds as soon as the ground is workable. Iceberg lettuce does not grow well in the heat. This cool-season crop can take up to 130 days to harvest. Iceberg lettuce is ready to harvest when heads are round and firm. What is the Best Growing Season For Lettuce? The ideal time to grow lettuce will depend on your climate. Generally speaking, lettuce is a cool-season crop that grows well in early spring or late fall. Although in Florida and other southern states, you may find that it grows best in the winter. How Long Does It Take Lettuce to Grow? There are many different varieties of lettuce. You’ll find that some varieties of leaf lettuce can be grown as quickly as 30 days, like baby leaf lettuce, where some of the whole head varieties can take up to 4-6 weeks. Can You Grow Lettuce Year ’round The good news is, you can actually grow lettuce year round for a continual harvest. There are many varieties that grow well in warmer weather. If you choose those varieties and plant them under shade cloth or inter cropped with taller plants for shade, you may be able to grow lettuce year round. Now in Florida, the only way we are growing fresh lettuce year round is indoors, under grow lights during hot weather. Hot Weather Lettuce Varieties Black Seeded Simpson Red Sails Crisphead Lettuce Leafy Lettuce Salad Bowl Romaine New Red Fire Lettuce Paris Island Cos Summer Mizuna Arugula (not really a lettuce but great in salads) Little Gem Does Lettuce Need Full Sun? Full sun is not a requirement for lettuce but it is recommended with most varieties. Again, it really depends on your climate. In cool weather lettuce thrives in full sun. In warmer climates, it sure does appreciate some shade, keeping it from bolting or turning bitter. Will Lettuce Plants Regrow After Cutting? Yes, many but not all varieties of lettuce are cut and come again. If you want lettuce plant to regrow look for the loose-leaf types for a continual lettuce harvest. How Many Times Can You Harvest Lettuce? If your leaf lettuce is grown at the optimal time for your climate, you can often get 3-4 harvests of baby leaves off of one lettuce plant. If you are cutting the entire plant 1 inch above the base, you can expect to get 2-3 harvests. How & When to Harvest Lettuce Seeds Now that we’ve answered the question on how and when to harvest lettuce seeds, lets go ahead and get to growing some lettuce while this weather is cool. Happy Homesteading & Gardening, Jenny @ The GrahamStead Family Farm Jenny and her family have been homesteading for over 20 years. They are currently farming on their 10 acre Florida farm, that they built from the ground up, 8 years ago, growing 100% of their meat and a lot of their vegetables. From their small herd of Aberdeen Angus Cattle, Pastured Poultry, Sheep, and seasonal pigs, they are able to raise enough meat for the family while selling extra to the community. All the while, striving to butcher at home, as much as possible, and use the bits and pieces of their harvest by preserving food, making bone broth, and (Jenny’s favorite) tanning all kinds of hides! Sources: https://seeds.ca/d/?n=seedlibrary/community/how_to_save_lettuce_handout.pdf Gardening Homesteading