Earliest date for transplanting 'cut and come again' lettuce strains outside?

[Rhys]

Charles

Based on your stories, I’ve got three strains of ‘cut and come again’ lettuce from Seeds of Italy and was thinking about how to plan the season.

I have an ‘early’ variety called Bionda a foglia liscia and a ‘late’ variety called Passion Bruni, along with Lollo Rossa, which doesn’t seem to specify a season.

Is it worth trying to transplant the early varieties before the middle of May? And would transplanting the ‘late’ variety at the beginning of August be the way to go?

Also, if you want leaves for three every day for salad supper, how many plants do you need on the go at any one time to keep the production line ticking over?? 24 harvesting 2 each day? 30 harvesting 3 each day??

[charles]

Early means ‘fast to produce’, at any time of year, and often means fast to flower too! I would sow a few of each to have more chance of them not finishing at the same time.
For 3 people, regular lettuce could come from 20 or 30 plants, hard to be precise because of variations in weather, the size you pick them (pick large for higher yield), varieties, soil quality and amount needed. 20-24 should be enough.

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