Quick… Lettuce Escape!
By Mark Roach
My initial reaction when I first heard of a lettuce bolting was… “Where to?” I suppose I had visions of all my lettuces scuttling out of my garden in the dead of night in a valiant attempt to avoid the dreaded salad bowl. That all now seems like a long time ago and, in my defence, I was a little… ahem… “green” when it came to growing my own veggies.
These days of course, I know that “bolting” simply means “going to seed” and, thanks to a shiny new database of gardening terms lodged in my already overstuffed memory banks, I am able to hold my own in most casual gardening conversations. I still have those strange visions though 
So, what exactly happens to your lettuces if it does start getting a little too hot under the collar for them? Well, they escape to that great salad bowl in the sky of course and in the process they produce a whole bunch of seed, a lot less edible leaves (which are also rather bitter in taste), they turn various shades of brown and then simply give up the ghost. Just like our “Lollo Rossa” red lettuce is busy doing…
Of course, if you also happen to leave a head of lettuce or two in the ground for too long, again like we did, it might just turn a sickly grey colour on the outside and into a putrid mush on the inside instead. Liquid lettuce… ugh, not a nice concept.
On the other hand, one of them might also decide that it has not yet lived life to it’s fullest and, just before being relegated to the compost heap, surprise you with a brand new lease on life. Like this little survivor did…
Lesson learned: Plant your lettuces in the coolest spot in your garden (especially if you’re trying to grow them during a hot spring/summer season), make sure that they are watered regularly, use a decent mulch, harvest the leaves often and don’t leave a head of lettuce in the ground for too long. The young’uns taste better anyway.
As usual, we would love to hear of your experiences and any suggestions you may have for growing lettuce so please leave us a comment below or drop us an email.
Happy gardening
Mark
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