Who else is tired of food recalls? (Raising hand over here) If so, then never fear – you can grow your own lettuce in pots, and rest assured that what you’re eating is tasty and safe to eat.
3 MORE Reasons You Should Grow Lettuce in Pots
- You can move the planter to a prime location easily. Need more sunlight? Move them to a sunnier spot! Are you moving? Take your lettuce with you!
- Who needs to swing by the grocery store when you have lettuce at your doorstep! Snag a handful of leaves to use on your grilled burgers, toss the lettuce in a fresh side salad or use the leaves as a bed for cottage cheese.
- Kids will eat lettuce if they grow or harvest it themselves. I tested this by asking one of my nieces if she wanted to eat some lettuce she plucked from plants on my porch, and she gleefully chose lettuce over other snacks available.
Tamawi’s Tip: Plant lettuce in early spring or in early fall, avoiding the heat of summer. The seeds grow best in cooler temperatures and start to taste bitter when summer days become hot.
What You Need:
- Pack of Leaf Lettuce Seeds
- Container
- Potting Soil
Time: 10 minutes
Directions
Step 1
Choose your lettuce. I recommend planting leaf lettuce, rather than a head-forming type of lettuce. Leaf lettuce forms a loose, open shape that can be harvested repeatedly without planting new seeds.
Step 2
Select a container. Lettuce roots are shallow and a deep container is not necessary. A window box or even an old colander is ideal, so long as it has holes in the bottom to drain water.
Step 3
Fill the container with slightly moistened potting soil, leaving an inch and a half of space from the top for ease of watering. Gently flatten the surface of the soil to give the seeds an even surface of contact.
Step 4
Sprinkle a pinch of lettuce seeds into the palm of your hand and spread them on the soil surface.
Step 5
Place your container in a spot that receives four to seven hours of direct sunlight each day. Your lettuce will do best if you protect it from the full-power sun of midday to early afternoon.
Step 6
Water your container of new plants thoroughly, until the water trickles from the holes on the bottom. Your potted lettuce will need water about every other day during the first few weeks, but may require water daily once the lettuce gets growing and weather warms. Consider the weather in your area and provide more frequent watering if the weather is particularly windy or dry.
Step 7
Once the seeds start to sprout, you can pluck out entire tiny lettuce plants to eat in your salads. This is called “thinning” your plants. As the plants get bigger, you’ll want the plants to be about four or five inches apart, and thinning gives them space to thrive.
Step 8
In about one month, you can start trimming the lettuce leaves a couple of inches above the base. When you harvest by tearing off an outer leaf or trimming a few inches above soil level, then new leaves of lettuce will regrow without your needing to plant more seeds. Once the days are hot, harvest the entire head of leaf lettuce. Plant new seeds when the season changes and the temperatures are cooler.
How did you lettuce grow? I’d love to hear about your lettuce-growing adventure in the comments below or see your pictures on my Facebook page, Cultivating Curiosities with Tamawi.
Are you looking for other edible plants to grow in containers? Try strawberries!