how do you protect lettuce from full sun and high temp?

[rainman]

I have a small veggie garden and I started last and I'm afraid the high heat will kill my lettuce, if anyone has any help let me know.

aaron

[Gardener Don]

Aaron, lettuce really likes cool weather, it is good for spring and fall. Now might be a good time to sow some seed for the fall. I will tell you I collected some of the big (3' x 3') political signs and took the steel hoops out. I arranged them over my lettuce and attached a sheet over the hoops to give them shade. Obviously, I like lettuce a lot. It helps some, but lettuce and hot weather just don't work. Good Luck. Don

[gardenman1964]

I love lettuce, it is my favorite.You can plant it in a shady spot and water it morning or when it starts to get hot.The evaporation will help to cool it.At some point it will bolt though.I live in NH and like to plant it in Aug or early sept.Then cover it with polypropelene cloth before frost.You can pick til Dec. or lift the cover in March(after snow melts) and you will have some nice early lettuce.Lettuce can easily survive 20deg. far.

[brewerjamie15]

I saw some old screen windows in someone's trash a while back. I grabbed them for the garden. In addition to using them as a pest deterrent, you can use them (or one) to screen the sun and make a nice shady home. I just use old sticks to stake the screen to the ground.

[mr_tumnas]

There are few heat tolerant lettuce varieties. They still can't take much heat, though. Jericho is a tasty romaine that won't bolt as fast in hot weather. Still, in my experience, shade or no shade you can't grow lettuce in the middle of the summer

[Gary B]

I used some winter frost protection material over the top of my lettuces lifted up with sticks and so far I have over 100 heads coming up just fine.