Saturday, May 08, 2010

Butterhead lettuce

April 2010

May 2010

How do you know your butterhead lettuce is ready to harvest? I started these from seed in early March, transplanted them in early April, and now it's May. It looks like lettuce but not the lettuce I see at the store that has more leaves, the head is fuller. Are mine not ready or is homegrown lettuce different than what you find in the store?

2 comments:

Ms. F said...

Homegrown produce is often smaller with a richer colour because it is not from a hybrid variety (GMO) that has been bred to be enormous with a an extended shelf life. Start pruning it so it will produce more leaves, I find that the first growth on any of my plants will often be kind of small and spindly. Pruning is key!

Ms. F said...

Of course! (I'm posting here, but thanks for stopping by the blog!) I'm still a fairly novice gardener but I definitely believe in sharing my (limited) knowledge. I've been pruning our little head of arugala to inspire it to grow. I don't know if I mentioned it but you can always add a sprinkle of used coffee grounds to the soil to promote the nitrogen.