How to Harvest Lettuce in the Home Garden

As any victory gardener knows, lettuce is a crop that comes in all at once, gets bitter if left too long in the garden, and doesn't keep well. Staggered planting is one solution, but lettuce is a cool weather crop, so it is not a complete solution. For the home gardener the answer is simple. Farmers sell lettuce by the head but cooks do not serve heads of lettuce, they serve lettuce leaves. Home gardeners pick tomatoes one at a time, leaving others to mature on the plant. Harvesting leaves of lettuce should be no different. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Plant lettuce as early as the soil can be worked. When the plants have reached about half of their expected size, plant another crop for late spring harvesting.

2

Begin harvesting the largest whole outer leaves from not one but all of your heads of lettuce as soon as they begin to reach maturity. Pick only as much as you will use in a single day. Harvest the leaves with a sharp knife, being careful not to disturb the rest of the plant.

3

Check on your plants daily and continue to harvest and use your lettuce. The small inner leaves on your plants will continue to grow larger and the stalk upon which they grow will become taller. As long as the remaining leaves are increasing in size, they will be good to eat so don't worry if the lettuce in the garden is looking a bit leggy halfway through the harvest. It is more important that the heads have been harvested uniformly, not allowing any single plant to grow leaves past their prime.

4

Pull the stalks and any remaining leaves of plants that have been fully harvested and put them in your compost pile. Lettuce can be planted again in late summer and early fall, but by then, plants will be hard to find in your local nursery. For fall planting, therefore, start your lettuce indoors from seed about four weeks before you intend to plant outdoors.