Lettuce Growing Tips

Lettuce is an easy to grow spring and autumn vegetable. Hot temperatures causing lettuce to bolt and slugs damaging the plants are the two most common problems with growing lettuce.

Below are some tips to help you grow lettuce more successfully and avoid the common problems with lettuce growing.

• Make sure your soil contains a good supply of nitrogen to promote leaf production.
• Make early plantings in a full sun location.
• Plant more seeds every two weeks for a continuous harvest all summer long.
• As the weather warms up, start planting your lettuce in partial shade.
• Keep weeds under control. Lettuce has shallow roots and does not compete well with weeds.
• Keep your lettuce bed soil moist but not wet. Water at the base of the plants - wet leaves will encourage disease and rot.
• Aphids, flea beetles, leaf hoppers and leaf miners are some of the insects that attack lettuce, but slugs are the most notorious for loving lettuce.
• Avoid pesticides as lettuce leaves can absorb many insecticides. A mild soap or hand picking can usually control the majority of lettuce pests.
• One tip to avoid slugs is to avoid mulching lettuce.