Picking lettuces and varieties

[chrisParticipant]

Charles – I’ve purchased your book “salad leaves for all seasons” and have implemented your method of picking lettuces similar to the way I pick Tuscan Kale. I’m growing for market next year and find the quality of leaves is really top notch compared to grow baby greens and cutting. I’ve noticed that Cos lettuce seems to be the easiest to pick, with butterhead coming in second for me. I’ve read about the varieties in your book but are there any new ones that you are growing that you find easier to pick using this method? Oak leafs have been the hardest for me.

Also have you used shade cloth to extend these out into the warm summer months? I have couple slow bolting variates I’m considering but may use some shade cloth as well.

Thanks.

[charlesModerator]

Great stuff. Nice that you notice that quality difference.
The chefs I supply say the same thing, that my leaves stand up to dressing while the baby leaves collapse.
Yes I don’t grow butterheads at all. Grenoble Red is not the easiest to pick but endures for months, bice quality leaf.
Check out Navara, though a little prone to mildew, and Karen’s Saragossa. Also Bijou and Red Lollo Rossa.
Green Batavian for bulk.
And no need for shade cloth, it’s a myth. Lettuce love sunshine as long as their roots are in moist compost, undisturbed soil. Sun means less mildew and higher yield, unless you are in the tropics.

[chrisParticipant]

Thanks Charles, I will certainly check out those varieties and grow them out this year.

I’m in coastal New England in the States, so I’m not tropical but was wondering what is behind the myth of shade cloth? I’m building up my soil with compost at the moment but its really not at the amount of organic matter I would like it to be ideally.

Do you find that your lettuces bolt in July/August?

[charlesModerator]

Well you are lower latitude than here, we are 51N so your sun is brighter, just possibly some shade might be worthwhile.
In the UK a lot of myths came from aristocrats having loads of money to do fancy stuff which was not always necessary. Then others copied…
I water my lettuce in hot weather and they do not bolt in high summer, from sowings in early June, they keep cropping. Then a sowing mid July.

[chrisParticipant]

Thanks for answering my questions Charles. I think it might be worthwhile to just try a bed or two this summer vs non-bolting varieties. I’ve been growing a lot of Frank Morton’s lettuces https://www.wildgardenseed.com/index.php?cPath=43 the past couple years and he does great selection for bolting – so looks like may an experiment may be worthwhile. Slow bolting varieties vs shade cloth – I’ll try it out.

[charlesModerator]

Good plan and keep us posted!

[ElizaDParticipant]

As I am still picking and hugely enjoying several lettuce varieties and also radicchio, rocket and chervil from three unprotected beds I do not yet want to clear these beds. What is the latest time I can mulch the beds? I presume my salad stuff will not last that much longer outside but it does not seem to want to give up the ghost this year!

Eliza

[charlesModerator]

You can mulch at any time, or if gaps appear you can drop small piles of compost there for spreading out when the last plants are finished. A lot of my beds still have crop cover.

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