Lettuce Makes a Rebound
With August comes your second chance to grow fresh lettuce for your salads. Growing a variety of lettuces makes a wonderful blend of slightly different tastes and textures.
Lettuce seeds don’t germinate well above 85 degrees. Start new seeds indoors in midsummer or in the shade, where it’s cooler, to transplant outdoors. If you haven’t started seeds, you can buy starts at many garden centers.
There are four basic types of lettuce. The cos or Romaine types have long, crisp-textured, distinctly flavored leaves. They take longer to mature but are a good spring planting as they can stand hot and dry conditions without going to seed.
The flat or rounded cabbage-head lettuces are subdivided into crispheads or butterheads (or bibbs). Crispheads have crisp leaves; the American Iceberg is an example. They also stand up to hot weather. Butterheads are a softer textured leaf with a mild almost nutty flavor. Buttercrunch is one of my favorite types. Tom Thumb, a miniature butterhead, is a favorite for growing in a container.
Looseleaf lettuces are a third category known as gathering or cutting lettuce, often referred to as salad bowl types. The leaves can be picked individually or the head can be cut one inch above the stem, and there will be regrowth. Loose-leaf lettuces are slower to go to seed than other types and are reasonably hardy. The oak-leaved varieties have indented foliage; some, like the Lollo varieties, are deeply ruffled and curled. Dark red Lollo Rossa is one of my favorites and looks beautiful on a salad plate.