bell7283
Full Member
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:04 pm
Location: Rhode Island, USA

Lettuce Questions

My lettuce plants are just starting to flower but the plants still have lots of leaves on them, can I still harvest the leaves or will they have a bitter taste now that the plants have bolted?

Also would anyone in zone 6 have any opinions on when I should start my next lettuce plants?

gumbo2176
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:01 am
Location: New Orleans

bell7283 wrote:My lettuce plants are just starting to flower but the plants still have lots of leaves on them, can I still harvest the leaves or will they have a bitter taste now that the plants have bolted?

Also would anyone in zone 6 have any opinions on when I should start my next lettuce plants?
Why not just taste some leaves to judge for yourself if they are palatable or not. That said, it's been my experience that when the plant bolts, it gets too bitter for my liking. Unfortunately, my lettuce bolted about 6-7 weeks ago.

I usually plant several varieties of leaf lettuce early each fall and can harvest it over the entire winter unless we have more than 2-3 nights of below freezing temperatures. But I live in New Orleans and not Rhode Island.

Jeremy brua
Senior Member
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:41 pm
Location: Western Pa.

I have been having good luck with replanting lettuce this year. I have done 3 rounds so far. I have had realy good sucess with a kind called "green ice". It takes the heat real well. The hard part is keeping the seeds wet in this heat.

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farmerlon
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Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:42 am
Location: middle Tennessee

gumbo2176 wrote:...I usually plant several varieties of leaf lettuce early each fall and can harvest it over the entire winter unless we have more than 2-3 nights of below freezing temperatures. But I live in New Orleans and not Rhode Island.
Yes, and you can use a coldframe (or low tunnel) to extend your lettuce harvest through the entire winter in many locales [even with many nights below freezing] ... that works great for me, here in TN.



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