How to sow and grow lettuce

Our loose leaf lettuce includes of two fast-growing varieties. Instead of harvesting all at once, you can pick leaves from the mature plants for a long time.

All lettuce varieties that don't form heads, but can be harvested as individuals leaves are called loose leaf lettuce. When you harvest it, you pick the outer leaves and leave the center so it can continue to grow. 

Our loose leaf lettuce includes 2 varieties: one with tender yellow-green leaves and one with firmer reddish leaves.

There aren't that many vitamins and minerals in lettuce, but every little bit helps, right? 😉

There's a reasonable amount of vitamin A, and some B11 and C, iron, and potassium. So, it's not a superfood like winter purslane, but still good for you.

Our leaf lettuce is a mix of two varieties: ‘Red Salad Bowl’ and ‘Australian Yellow’. Both grow quickly, become large if left to mature and provide a long harvest.

Variety: mixed leaf lettuce
Family: leaf
Plants per square: 4
Height: 15 to 25 cm
Sowing time: mid-March to September
Sowing depth: 0.5 to 1 cm
Germination: 2 to 14 days at 5 to 18°C
Time to harvest: from 5 to 7 weeks
Sunlight: grows in sun or shade

We sell individual packets and also include this lettuce in the good-value Basic seed bundle.

All you need is:

In other words, an MM-Mini or a square patch in one of our garden boxes, filled with MM-Mix.

Growing your own loose leaf lettuce in this perfect soil mix is super easy. If you use poor-quality (potting) soil, it's much harder and the results will be disappointing. So just go for the best.

This leaf lettuce is included in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app. Use it and you will get step-by-step guidance from seed to harvest.

Every vegetable goes through several stages, which we call levels. The app tells you exactly what to do at each level and regularly asks you to check whether your plants are ready for the next one.

You do not need to know how to grow leaf lettuce successfully before you start.

But if you would like to read ahead, here is what the whole process looks like.

Choose a square patch at the front of your garden box in the 1st or 2nd row. Loosen up the moist MM-Mix and sow like this:

After about a week, you'll see something green come up. It depends a bit on the weather.

As soon as you see the first seedlings, you know things are going well. They probably won't all come up at once, but give it another week.

Then it's time for the next level.

When several seedlings come up in each spot that you sowed, choose the best ones and remove the rest: that's called thinning out. It might sound harsh, but it's necessary. The remaining plants need enough room to grow.

Here's how: take a pair of scissors, leave the biggest and prettiest seedling per hole, and cut off the others at ground level. Never pull them up like a weed. That can damage the roots of your remaining plants.

I like to leave 2 plants of both types. The yellow variety's seedlings are slightly lighter in color than the red lettuce.

If you see places where nothing came up, sow a few more seeds.

And keep an eye out for snails: they love these seedlings.

After a week or 2, your seedlings will become small plants. You hardly need to do anything: if the weather's dry, give them some water and remove the odd dead or yellow leaf.

Again: keep an eye out for snails, the rest is easy 🙂

About 5 to 6 weeks after sowing, your plants are ready for the first harvest.

Cut or pick off leaves from the outside of the plant, close to the ground. Leave some small leaves and the center of the plants so they can continue to grow from the inside.

This way you can can keep harvesting for longer.

You use the leaves as lettuce for salads. They're also tasty in green smoothies or on a healthy sandwich.

Start harvesting as soon as the leaves are about 10 cm long. They're still tender then: delicious for green salads. Even when the leaves are larger, they stay nice and fresh.

Only when the plants start to bolt do the leaves get tougher and a little bitter. Then use those leaves in a stew, stir fry, or soup.

Keep harvesting your loose leaf lettuce until the plants shoot up from the middle. This means that they'll start to flower soon.

That upward growth means it's time to harvest right away. The leaves won't be as tasty raw, but are still good in a stew or stir fry.

The last level: empty your lettuce patch in your garden box or your MM-Mini and prepare it for the next round of sowing. 

It's an easy vegetable to grow, you can harvest it for a long time, and the leaves look and taste fantastic.

Plus, our materials and app make it almost impossible to fail 😀

You can buy your lettuce seeds here or get started with a complete starter kit:

Enjoy!