Now all the Bibb Lettuce have bolted. It seems to be everyone's least-favorite of the three kinds I grow, so actually most of it just went into the compost this year. I've saved two of the nicest ones for seed, but next year only plan to plant half as much. Even of our favorite, the Simpson (light-colored frilly variety) I had way too much lettuce! So next year I'm only going to have one plot be lettuce: half of it Simpson, a fourth each Bibb and Romaine.
I think the Bibb makes the prettiest towers when it bolts. You can see the Simpson in the background, even taller.
The Romaine is all nice, full heads now, it will bolt last of all.
After pulling out all the tall Bibb plants, I found a bunch of smaller ones that had grown between, unnoticed. Those I cut for tonight's salad. Chilling in the fridge in water for several hours will take away most of the bitterness.
The Lettuce plots are almost empty now, and I'm going to put corn in there (crossing my fingers!) with melons to shade their roots (they're still all in the coldframe, but tall enough now I have to leave the glass open all the time, or their leaves get bent).
Wow...the lettuce does really well! Do you plant the seed directly in the garden when you plant your lettuce? I'd like to do some romaine.
ReplyDeleteI do both. Plant outside, and inside. Because lettuce does best cool weather, I like to have some started indoors a few weeks early so it's ready sooner. It germinates outside really well, too. Here's a post about when I planted out my lettuce. Or you can use this tag to see everything I've done with lettuce. Next year I think I'm going to start them all indoors.
ReplyDelete