Growing lettuce all year-round.

[Bren In Pots]

Growing winter Lettuce.
I like lettuce and you only need a few pieces to make a difference to any sandwich. so I grow it all year round.

Winter varieties like ‘All year round’ and Arctic king both do well in a GH or under cloches in the garden.

Valmaine does ok in the GH so does Salad bowl.

Land Cress self seeds in the veg beds that seems to be fine even after being under snow.

For my winter crop I sow at the end of August then plant into buckets that stand on the GH borders once the Toms are out.

Please add what lettuce you find that does fine in frosty winters.

[Nicos]

Do you fleece them in the greenhouse when it’s particularly cold?

[Snoop Puss]

In the past, I've grown Winter Density, but maybe I sowed them too late in autumn. They survived OK in a cold frame, but didn't really become usable till late winter/early spring.

Come this time of year, I get a bit desperate for some fresh salad (no exaggeration). Looks like I need to sow earlier.

At the moment, I've got what I think are Marvel of Four Seasons, bought as plug plants and planted out late August. Still got a couple going strong now.

Would you be up for making this a year-round thread? That way we could all track you.

[Bren In Pots]

Nicos I did use fleece just the once but I’ve not bothered since, sometimes lettuce looks a bit floppy early morning but it picks up by lunchtime.

Snoop for me late August works well the lettuce is established by the time the weathers turned colder.

If I’d got a tunnel or large GH I could plant in the borders but usually the toms aren’t ready to come out by the time the lettuce needs planting out.

[ameno]

It's not an actual lettuce, but miner's lettuce (also know as winter purslane), is very hardy. It has slightly succulent coin-sized leaves, with a mild lettuce-like flavour, and never gets tough or bitter, even once it starts going to seed.
It does self-seed a lot if you let it, though. I have it coming up in my patio pots (and between paving slabs) every year. I get one lot germinating in spring, and another in late summer. The late summer lot lasts just fine over winter outdoors, and even in this freezing weather we have been having (it's reached -5c here), it has been completely unharmed.

[Bren In Pots]

Thanks Ameno I’ve not grown miners lettuce I’ll have to look out for it.

[Penellype]

I grow various varieties (currently lollo bionda and salad bowl) indoors under lights in winter. I tried some of them in my greenhouse but it gets no sun at all at this time of year and is actually colder according to a couple of thermometers than outside next to my garage wall! A couple of the plants have survived (I think) but they haven't grown at all.

As an alternative/addition I grow one of the winter salad mixes that contains things like mizuna, pak choi and mustard greens, which survives well even in my greenhouse, and I grow trays of microgreens in the house which at least give you a little bit of fresh greens for sandwiches.

[Snoop Puss]

Are any of you sowing anything at the moment or is that way too optimistic?

[Bren In Pots]

Nothing yet Snoop, will be in a few weeks time.

[smallblueplanet]

Are any of you sowing anything at the moment or is that way too optimistic?

Put some seeds in a self-watering propagator a few weeks ago when I didn't realise it was going to be soooo crispy weather! They've germinated and are now in the unheated utility room looking a bit straggly whilst only being a few cm tall. Hope they keep going and if so we'll transplant them. But probably we'll have to start again in a month or so.

[Penellype]

Are any of you sowing anything at the moment or is that way too optimistic?

At this time of year I tend to test old packets of seed for germination by sowing a few indoors. It saves disappointment later and gives me time to stock upon new seed if necessary.

[Snoop Puss]

Put some seeds in a self-watering propagator a few weeks ago when I didn't realise it was going to be soooo crispy weather! They've germinated and are now in the unheated utility room looking a bit straggly whilst only being a few cm tall. Hope they keep going and if so we'll transplant them. But probably we'll have to start again in a month or so.

What did you sow, smallblueplanet?

[smallblueplanet]

Hi Snoop, we sowed lettuce that we use as cut and come again, that we thought to be hardier than other stuff we grow in spring/summer.
So then (pops out to look in the growing diary)...
we sowed:
Black seeded Simpson, Mazur, Tango and Moonred.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, SBP. I'll look out for them. I'll be going through my seed collection this weekend to work out what I need to buy and will try Penellype's suggestion in the next day or so too.

[smallblueplanet]

Thanks, SBP. I'll look out for them. I'll be going through my seed collection this weekend to work out what I need to buy and will try Penellype's suggestion in the next day or so too.

Yeah, it's a bit tedious sowing salad seeds to have them fail, waste of a couple of weeks. I think maybe excepting parsnips, lettuce seeds seem the quickest to stop germinating. I think maybe I should keep better tabs on when I've bought them and when I lasted sowed them, but that's just another 'good intention'.