Probably the most frequent complaint about “homegrown” lettuce is that it is bitter. With a little attention, though, you can grow wonderful, crunchy, sweet lettuce. Lettuce, of course, is a cool weather crop. So starting it early will help to prevent bitterness.
Mulch the soil to keep it cool. Once the weather warms up watch for plants that are bolting and cut back the flowers that begin to form. Plants that are flowering and going to seed are a major cause of bitterness. Water consistently, and pick frequently. Young leaves are much more tender. Another cause of bitterness is slow growth. This may be caused by low moisture and/or low nitrogen. Just be careful not to over fertilize since too much nitrogen can also cause bitterness. The best advice is to wash your lettuce in cold water, spin dry, and then refrigerate for several hours. This seems to greatly reduce any bitterness. It has been a rainy, cool season for us in the NE, the perfect conditions for great lettuce!
Shared at: Monday Mania, Homestead Barnhop, Fat Tuesday, Living Green, Teach Me Tuesday, Tuesday Garden Party, Whole Food Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Healthy 2Day, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Rural Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Sunday School
I am here from Monday Mania! great lettuce tips, I have tried growing a little bit of lettuce for 2 years in my backyard now, and it IS bitter, but we ate it anyways
. Will try your tips for sure.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope it helps!
We grow our own lettuce and haven’t had a problem with it getting bitter. I try to pick up a lot, and maybe that prevents the lettuce from getting bitter.
Some very good tips–thank you for sharing them with us! We have also had some great lettuce-growing weather up here in the Pacific Northwest.
Also, a little bit of shade can be good! Especially here in Central Texas. All of our lettuce goes under shade clothes starting in May so they don’t get too blasted by the sun.
Absolutely, especially somewhere like TX. Even here in NEPA, I generally plant my lettuce where it is in full sun in the spring, and then I plant something like tomatoes to the south of the lettuce, so that the tomatoes eventually shade the lettuce. I also have a bed that gets only about 6 hours of sun and I reserve that for cool season plants.
This is terrific info — thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tips – this is my first year growing lettuce.
Great tips!
Beautiful capture!
Thanks for sharing.
Hope to see you on my blog:)
It seems as lettuce ages it becomes bitter. The more mature the plant the more bitter.
Washing in cool water does help for us. I was wondering if you had a lot of picked lettuce if you could spin it dry in your washing machine cycle on gentle? Just a thought cause I think using a salad spinner takes too long.
Well I can’t say that I’ve ever picked enough lettuce to need anything more than a salad spinner, but it seems to me that I’ve heard that lettuce farms do indeed spin lettuce in washing machines. I’d do a little research, though, before trying it, just to be sure.
Great tips — Thank you for sharing at Rural Thursdays this week!
These are great tips- I, too, get that comment a lot from people. It always kinda cracks me up in this day and age, though, when the popular greens in all the lettuce mixes from the store are bitter mustard, strong arugula, and bitter radicchio!
HaHa! Good point!
Oooh, I need to remember these for next year! I got too late of a start on my garden for greens this year, but next year, hopefully I will be able to. Thanks for sharing with Healthy 2Day Wednesday; come back tomorrow to see if you were featured!
Thanks for the tips I usually eat it after it’s picked, I’ll have to wash and store it. My husband always complains about it but I don’t really notice. I would love to know what you do for black aphids on arugala. Those little buggers ate everything. I did do some dish soap with lavender and mint essential oil and it helped but I got to them too late.
The only time I ever had an aphid problem was one year when I used too much manure. The high levels of nitrogen favor aphid reproduction. There is some good info here: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7404.html.
I follow beans with lettuce and plant okra close on the sun side. Okra takes a bit of time to get going, which will offer spring sunshine to get lettuce seeds started, but once growing it is like an organic umbrella for tender leaf plants. My okra is now fully 6ft tall with leaves that are 8in across. Trimming the leaves as I harvest keeps the okra from blocking air flow and encourages height quickly.
Nice use of space, Keith!