What do you get when you butter your lettuce? LOL. Well, it’s not what you think, so before you get anymore ‘bright ideas’ let’s just explore how to grow butter lettuce, shall we? If you do a quick search on this blog you are going to find more posts on how to grow lettuce, how to regrow romaine lettuce and how to make lettuce globes. You can dive into those later, but for now focus!
Apparently this variety is a member of the Butterhead Lettuce family and has it’s origins somewhere in the Mediterranean. With it’s soft and sturdy loose leaves it tends to have larger heads plus a sweeter flavor than regular lettuce. You’ll have way more success growing this during the cool weather seasons, specifically during the spring or fall. When harvest time comes, you can enjoy your lettuce in sandwiches, salads, wraps and even soup.
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Here’s What You’ll Need:
- butter lettuce seeds
- compost
- organic fertilizer
- mulch
- seedling starter mix (optional)
- seedling trays (optional)
- row covers (optional)
The good thing about butter lettuce is that you have the option of starting the seeds indoors or direct sowing them into well drained soil in the garden. Start the seeds indoors at least 3 weeks before the last frost or direct sow them after the last frost. In row spacing is closer for direct sow seeds than for transplanted plants. The row spacing remains constant at between 10 to 12 inches apart. Work your compost into the soil, before planting or transplanting.
Aim to water the plants daily or at least every other day, this will help with enhancing the sweetness. Also make sure that you apply some mulch both for water conservation and weed control. Keep an eye out for diseases or pests like aphids, army worms, corn ear worms, crickets, black root rot, downy mildew and lettuce mosaic virus. The butter lettuce should be ready for harvest within 60 to 70 days. If you can avoid the pests and diseases, it’s pretty easy to maintain.
You can get more information on the Gardening Channel blog, here…
You can watch the video below on How to Grow Butter Lettuce…
You can watch the video below on Butter Lettuce: From Seedling to Shelf…
You can watch the video below on EASY REGROWING STORE BOUGHT BUTTER LETTUCE…
