How many plants for average family:
40 per family

Type of plant:
annual

Best Varieties:
Iceberg – cool season, forms a firm heart, harvest whole plant.
Loose leaf - warm season, pick outer leaves as required:
Including Mignonette, Oak leaf, Frilly,
Buttercrunch
Cos – upright leaves, used for caesar salads

Sowing:
Can be sown direct or best transplanted with only 2 true leaves.

Growing Habit:
Small border plants or “fillers”.
Suitable for pots.

Growing Conditions:
Needs nitrogen rich soil.
Moist soil with regular liquid feeding.
Shade protection in hot weather otherwise bolting can occur.
Cover with cloche in winter; mulch in summer.
Pick leaves regularly to keep plant growing.

Companions:
Beans, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cherry, chervil, cucumber, lovage, marjoram, peas, radish, strawberry.
Avoid parsley.

Problems:
Bolting as warmer weather arrives or incorrect variety used for the season.
Once bolting occurs leaves tend to become bitter.
Rot can occur if foliage watered at night.
Snails & slugs.

Lettuce is an easy to grow spring and autumn vegetable. It's two worst enemies are hot temperatures and slugs.

Here are some tips to grow lettuce all summer long, even when temperatures soar.

• Make sure soil contains a good supply of nitrogen for good leaf production.
  
• Make early plantings in full sun.

• Plant the seeds 1/8 inch deep in a wide row, 6 inches apart in all directions.

• Plant every two weeks for a continuous harvest all summer long.

• As the weather warms up, start planting in partial shade. Either on the side of the house that receives morning sun or in the shade of other taller plants such as corn broccoli etc.

• Keep weeds under control as lettuce has shallow roots and can't compete with deep rooted weeds.

• Keep soil moist but not wet. Water at the base of the plant and not the leaves wet leaves will encourage disease.

• Aphids, cabbage loopers, flea beetles, leafhoppers and leaf miners are some of the insects that attack lettuce, but slug are the most notorious for loving lettuce.

• Avoid pesticides as lettuce leaves are very tender and delicate, and can absorb many insecticides. An insecticidal soap or handpicking usually alleviates the majority of lettuce pests.

• One tip to avoid slugs is to avoid mulching lettuce.

For more tips on how to control slugs on lettuce and in the entire garden visit:

http://www.apluswriting.net/garden/slugs.htm

Copyright: 2005 Marilyn Pokorney

About The Author

Marilyn Pokorney
Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment.
Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.
Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
marilynp@nctc.net

For more information:

Wikipedia: Lettuce
Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia's article on 'Lettuce'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce

Lettuce Recipes at Food Down Under Recipe Database
200000+ recipes for lovers of food ... Searched for lettuce : Found 284 recipes ... 1. 24-Hour Lettuce Salad. Salads ...
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=lettuce

lettuce varieties for home growing
A complete list of common lettuce varieties, when to grow them, what kinds. ... CRISPHEAD-(syn.'Iceberg', 'cabbage lettuce') this was virtually the only kind of lettuce in existance in the consciousness of ...
http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_vegetables_cultivars_lettuce.htm

Watch Your Garden Grow - Lettuce
... Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between ... Some types and varieties of lettuce withstand heat better than others. ...
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/lettuce1.html

botany/lactuca
... very popular salad plants commonly known as Lettuce. The most commonly grown kinds of Lettuce are derived from L ...
http://www.botany.com/lactuca.html

EWG Report || Rocket Fuel in Lettuce
... Eating lettuce or other vegetables grown in fields irrigated by the Colorado River may expose consumers ... action will be needed to reduce perchlorate in lettuce and other vegetables ...
http://www.ewg.org/reports/rocketlettuce