However, when temperatures rise, lettuce plants begin flowering or bolting.
The main stem grows tall with lots of space between the leaves.
Then, the leaves turn bitter and lose their juiciness.
Credit: Helen Norman
Here is what it’s crucial that you know about lettuce bolting to harvest your crop at its best.
This growth pattern also happens to many other cool-season plants, includingcilantro,spinach, and broccoli.
When a plant bolts, it is doing what comes naturally.
It produces flowers that form seeds so more plants can grow, a process sometimes called going to seed.
After bolting, lettuce leaves taste bitter and grow slowly.
The plant uses most of its energy to produce flowers and seeds before dying.
Beyond that, these tips can help extend lettuce harvests:
1.
Sow Lettuce Seeds Outdoors in Early Spring
Start your lettuce outdoors early in the spring.
Sow more lettuce seeds every few days or weeks.
Grow in Well-Drained Soil with the Correct pH
Lettuce thrives when thesoil pH is between 6.2 and 6.8.
Fertilize the Plants
Adding nutrients to the soil will fuel healthy growth.
After the new lettuce seedlings are a couple of weeks old, fertilize them with a balanced 10-10-10liquid fertilizer.
Fertilize them every two weeks until the summer heat arrives.
Shelter the Plants from Full Sun
Give your lettuce a break from full sun.
Growpots of lettuce on a porch or patiothat gets some shade.
Mulch around your plantswith shredded leaves or clean straw to help hold the moisture in the soil.
Cut or pull head lettuce before the heading plants get too old and big.
The blooms on lettuce plants canattract pollinators such as beesand other bugs that prey on garden pests.
it’s possible for you to alsocollect the ripened seeds of open-pollinated lettucesbefore they drop and replant them later.
(Seeds saved from hybrid lettuces usually wont grow into the same kind of parent plant.)
Bolted lettuce is safe to eat, but it doesnt taste very good.
Do a taste test to see if your bolted lettuce will be tasty enough to serve.
