Gadenin日本語Get the appPlant young and plant shallow
Move loose leaf lettuce out when it has three or four true leaves and the roots have just reached the sides of the cell. Held longer, the rootball spirals, the plant sulks for a week after planting, and because loose leaf is picked early that lost week is a real fraction of its productive life.
The crown must sit at or slightly above the soil surface. Lettuce buried even half an inch too deep collects water in the growing point and rots there, and the rot spreads outward through the leaf bases you were planning to pick. Set the rootball so its top is level with the bed, then firm around the sides rather than over the top.
- Water the cells an hour before A saturated rootball slides out whole. Watering at the moment of planting makes the compost heavy and it breaks away from the roots as you lift.
- Make the hole with your fingers Push a hole the size of the rootball rather than digging a deep one. A hole that is too deep pulls the crown down as the soil settles.
- Firm at the sides only Press the soil in against the sides of the rootball. Pressing on top of the crown is what buries it.
- Water in individually Give each plant a pint (half a liter) at the base straight after planting to settle soil against the roots. A sprinkler over the bed does not do this.
Spacing depends on how you intend to pick
With no head to accommodate, loose leaf spacing is a decision about picking style rather than about final plant size. Tight spacing gives more small leaves sooner; wide spacing gives fewer, larger plants that you can strip repeatedly for longer. Six inches (15 cm) each way is the standard compromise for cut-and-come-again picking.
Wider than ten inches (25 cm) wastes bed space, because loose leaf never fills it. Tighter than four inches (10 cm) and airflow at the base drops enough that the lower leaves yellow and rot in wet weather, which is where nearly all loose leaf disease starts.
| Spacing | Picking style | Yield pattern | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 inches (10 cm) | Cut small leaves often | Fast, then exhausted | Base rot in wet spells |
| 6 inches (15 cm) | Outer leaves, weekly | Steady for 4 to 6 weeks | Low |
| 10 inches (25 cm) | Large plants, hard picking | Slower start, longest run | Weeds fill the gaps |
Soil: moisture holding beats richness
Loose leaf lettuce roots sit in the top six inches (15 cm) of soil and go no further. That layer therefore has to hold water through a warm afternoon, which means organic matter. Two inches (5 cm) of compost forked into the top spit before planting does more for leaf quality than any fertilizer you can add afterwards.
Do not overdo nitrogen. Heavily fed loose leaf grows soft, floppy leaves that wilt within an hour of picking and attract aphids. Aim for steady moderate growth: rich in organic matter, mildly fed, never allowed to dry to the point of checking. Slightly acid to neutral soil, around pH 6.0 to 7.0, suits it; strongly acid soil shows as stunted plants with pale, cupped leaves.
| Soil problem | What the plants do | Fix before planting |
|---|---|---|
| Dries out by midday | Leaves go tough and bitter early | Fork in 2 inches (5 cm) of compost |
| Stays wet after rain | Lower leaves yellow and slime | Raise the bed 4 inches (10 cm) |
| Recently heavily manured | Soft, floppy, aphid covered | Plant something else there first |
| Strongly acid | Stunted, pale, cupped leaves | Lime to reach pH 6.5 |
The first week after planting
Loose leaf lettuce establishes fast when the top inch of soil never dries. Water daily for the first three days regardless of weather, then judge by the soil. A plant that stands upright in the middle of a warm afternoon has established; one that flags at midday and recovers by evening is still living on its rootball and needs another few days of daily water.
Shade newly planted lettuce if the weather is hot. A piece of row cover on hoops for four days costs nothing and prevents the check that makes early bolting far more likely. Mulching at the same time is worth doing, but keep the mulch an inch clear of the crown so the growing point stays dry.
If plants flag every afternoon beyond the first week, dig one up. Roots circling in the shape of the old cell mean the plant was pot bound at planting and will never establish properly. Replace it rather than nursing it.
Records that pay off next season
Write down where in the bed each batch went and at what spacing. Because loose leaf is picked over weeks rather than lifted at once, a bed quickly becomes a mix of ages, and knowing which end is the older batch decides where you pick each evening.
Note the planting date and the date the plants first stood up through a hot afternoon. That gap is your establishment time for your soil, and it tells you honestly whether your watering after planting was enough. Also record any bed where plants rotted at the crown, because that is a drainage fact about that spot which will still be true next year.