Lettuce

Lettuce grows better in cooler conditions and needs plenty of water. Lettuce does not do well in hotter weather. If you plant your lettuce when low temperatures are around 40 degrees and high temperatures are around 60 degrees, your lettuce should do fine. Lettuce can survive light freezes, but be aware that a hard freeze will still damage your lettuce. This makes lettuce an ideal crop to grow either during the fall or the early spring.

Growing Lettuce

Lettuce is quick and easy to grow. Its shallow root system does well in container gardening too. Plant lettuce 2-4 weeks before the last frost date, and in the fall should be planted about 6 to 8 weeks before the first frost date. Lettuce is somewhat tolerant of frosts, although it will not take extended freezing temperatures. On the other hand, it will tend to bolt in higher temperatures. Because of this, it is very productive in fall gardens. In addition, it does not pay to let it go, lettuce is better picked early than late. Lettuce will do well with only 5 or more hours of sunlight a day, and in areas where the temperature will get fairly hot you can take advantage of that by planting on the east side of a building or fence, or putting up a shade structure. In general, lettuce is a light feeder, so an initial application of fertilizer is probably all that will be needed. A soil pH of about 6.0 to 7.5 is preferred. When planting in a container then try to get a soil depth of at lest 6-8 inches.