🌱🥬Italian Lettuce Seeds🥗Salad Option （2000 seeds）

Lettuce is a staple main ingredient of any summer salad, and easy to grow at home. Home-grown, they are crisp, juicy and full of flavour - a far cry from the limp lettuces you can sometimes buy. Some varieties also have colourful, ornamental leaves, suitable for growing in flower borders.

Sowing lettuce

Sow a short row every fortnight, enough for your needs, to have a continuous crop. Sow seeds thinly 13mm (0.5in) deep, cover with soil and water in well.

The timing of sowing depends on cropping time.

• Summer/autumn crops: Sow outdoors from late March to late July. For an earlier crop, sow indoors with gentle heat in early February and plant out in early March under cloches.
• Winter: Sow outdoors in early August and cover the plants with cloches in late September. For a mid-winter crop, sow in a heated greenhouse in September and October and grow on in the greenhouse.
• Spring: Sow a hardy variety in September or October either in a cold greenhouse or outside under cloches in mild areas, or in pots on the windowsill.

How to care for lettuce

• Keep the soil moist at all times; if the soil dries out the plants may bolt (go to seed prematurely).
• Thin out seedlings when they’re about 2.5cm (1in) high and continue until the plants are 30cm (12in) apart, 23cm (9in) for dwarf varieties and 15cm (6in) for loose-leaf types. The thinnings can be used in the kitchen.
• To encourage fast growth that is tender and full of flavour, feed plants every 3 weeks with a balanced liquid feed.

Harvesting

• Lettuce is ready to harvest when a firm heart has formed. Cut the stem with a sharp knife.
• Loose-leaf types are harvested as and when needed once the plants are about 7.5-10cm (3-4in) high. You can either pick individual leaves or harvest over the whole plant with scissors.
• It is best to cut in the morning, when the plants will be at their freshest.