Lettuces in your vegetable garden herald the arrival of fresh produce from the ground. Lettuces are not only easy to grow but also one of the first vegetables to mature in the spring. Now that you no longer need to worry about their growth, it's time to start about lettuce harvest.
There is no method to harvest lettuce but harvesting garden lettuce whole means that's the end of it. Luckily, there are a few tricks that you can use when harvesting lettuce leaves.
Compared to other plants such as potatoes, garlic, onions, etc which can only be harvested once they're ready, lettuces have the most lenient harvest timing of any vegetable. In fact, most varieties of lettuces can be harvested any time as soon as they are big enough, particularly loose-leaf lettuces.
So you don't have to sweat it when thinking about when to harvest lettuce plants. We will tell you about the behavior of lettuce so you can understand our reasoning before proceeding to tell you about harvest techniques to extend lettuce production.
Plant Maturity
When to harvest lettuce leaves? When the lettuce leaves are tall and abundant right? Not necessarily. You don't have to wait for lettuces to mature, most loose-leaf varieties can be harvested and consumed once the plant has over 6 leaves and the bottom outer leaves are 4-6 inches long.
Hence, what we meant by lettuce has one of the most lenient harvest timing because spring lettuces can be harvested all spring and fall lettuces all fall.
Signs of Ripeness
So now I've explained when to harvest lettuce plants, I must emphasize that no two lettuce cultivars are the same. Most loose-leaf lettuce such as mesclun, freckles, etc can be harvested early and will taste just as good as if they were harvested later, but some lettuces such as romaine don't taste good until they're fully mature.
Loose-leaf lettuce leaves should preferably be 4-6 inches, butterheads 6-8 inches, and romaine lettuce leaves 6-10 inches long when harvesting. Crisphead lettuce leaves aren't easy to harvest individually but their diameter should be 6-12 inches before harvest.
Test Harvest
There's no one-size-fits-all formula that can tell you when to harvest lettuce leaves. Some leaves should be tender while other leaves should be firm when they are ripe depending on the lettuce type. The only absolute way to be sure is to do a taste test of your harvest.
Using clean scissors, cut off an outer lettuce leaf on the lower side of the plant which looks big enough and ready to eat. Bring it into your kitchen and wash it thoroughly before giving it a try. If it's juicy and delicious then they're ready to be harvested.
By using the previous method, you can determine whether you're ready to harvest and prevent harvesting too soon before they can become juicy and delicious. However, it can't hurt to know the general proper timing of lettuce harvests because you also don't want to leave the lettuce outside too long.
Similar to how unripe lettuce can be bitter and unappetizing, lettuces that are very close to or have bolted are too. Bolted lettuce is no longer tender and has a very bitter taste. Here's the general harvest time for various lettuce types so you can avoid harvesting too late:
Before we can get started with harvesting lettuce leaves, first we have to grow them. Luckily growing lettuce is going to be one of the easiest plant growing experiences in your life. But just to make it easier for you here are some advice to guarantee that your lettuce garden succeeds.
Water The Soil
Keep your lettuce plants well-watered, that's no surprise considering how juicy they are. But don't also water so much as to cause water-logging. Go out into your garden and check the state of your plant's soil before watering.
Only water when the soil of the lettuce dries down to an inch deep. If a heatwave or a drought, you should increase the frequency of water. Likewise, container lettuce plants need to be watered more frequently as the soil can dry out faster.
Check The Soil Texture
Check the texture and type of your garden soil. Lettuce plants prefer a loose well-draining, loamy soil with pH as close to neutral as possible. Incorporate compost rich in nitrogen to ensure that your lettuces will grow well regardless of whether they're clay-heavy or sandy.
Furthermore, lettuces can also perform well in containers filled with potting soil, as they have a shallow root system and won't outgrow the pot.
Sufficient Sunlight
Lettuce plants are sun lovers. After all, their entire body is composed of leaves, therefore it is best to plant lettuces in areas that get full or partial sun for them to thrive. Furthermore, lettuces grown in the sun grow quickly and become ready to harvest earlier.
Whereas shaded lettuce does not grow well and will take a long time to harvest because it takes longer to lose its bitter taste.
Remove Weeds and Debris
Harvest preparations also include cleaning the gardening area of lettuce plants. Weeds and debris result in pests, diseases, and other contaminants which will harshly impact the quality of your lettuce.
Create a clean and well-organized garden and follow good gardening practices by reducing possible vectors for foreign contamination of your plants via a clean garden with good spacing techniques and air circulation.
Spacing
Lettuces need space to grow so spacing is crucial. When thinking about spacing, the type of lettuce must also be considered. Loose-leaf lettuce can be typically grown together with 3-4 inches of space.
Whereas heart or head-forming lettuces require about 12 inches of space from center to center otherwise they won't form a good heart and mature properly. Romaines are in between and can be sown with 6 inches of space.
Before we can properly get started with the harvest of lettuce, here are some tools that you will require to ensure hygienic and efficient harvesting of lettuce.
Gardening Snipper or Scissors
To prevent doing more damage than necessary to the plant, we recommend using snippers or scissors when harvesting lettuce instead of harvesting with only your hands and tearing them off.
The tearing can cause extra unintentional damage which can overstress the lettuce and prevent any further growth. Furthermore, the snippers or scissors should be recently cleaned and made sterile as you are handling food that will go into the kitchen and thus wouldn't want to spread any bacteria, mold, or fungus.
Knife
Snippers and scissors are sufficient when harvesting loose-leaf, romaine, and butterhead lettuces. Most species of head lettuces with stiff tense cannot be harvested one leaf at a time and instead, the entire head must be cut off.
Using a knife will be easier to handle than a scissor when harvesting heads which require you to cut the entire stem of the plant. Doing so with one swift motion without additional bruising also ensures a higher likelihood of regrowth of a new lettuce head for head lettuce species that grow back.
Alcohol Wipes
Your tools will get dirty and less sanitary the more you work with them. You should carry a pad of alcohol wipes or make a DIY alcohol solution with a small plastic tub and a swab of cotton.
Regularly clean the tools after a few cuts or when changing plants to practice good gardening hygiene and prevent the widespread of diseases in your vegetable garden patch.
Two Buckets
Rather than only using a single bucket for harvest, when doing your rounds of harvesting lettuce it will require you to have two buckets. One bucket should be clean and sterile as it will be where you will put your nice and clean lettuce leaves after harvest.
However, the purpose of the second bucket is to carry disfigured, damaged, or diseased lettuce leaves in an attempt to prevent their spread any further. By acting quickly and removing bad leaves, you can prevent the lettuce from being completely consumed or destroyed.
While we have covered everything from how to properly grow lettuce that thrives, you must be wondering "How do you pick leaf lettuce?", or "How to cut lettuce?" To get started with, there are several ways to harvest lettuce.
Some methods are aggressive and intended to give convenience which reduces the growth of lettuce while others are more tedious but allow the lettuce to grow back quickly.
Best Time Of Day For Harvest?
The best time to harvest lettuce is early in the morning before the heat of the day from the overhead sun can set in. The leaves have the greatest water content in the morning which makes them tender, crisp, and flavorful while the sun causes the leaves to wilt for the day.
1. Cut-and-Come-Again Method
This method is mainly suitable for loose-leaf lettuce. Wait until the plant has 5-6 leaves that are 6 inches long. Cut a couple of outer leaves from the lower end of the plant before moving on to the next lettuce. Never cut more than 1/3 of the leaves as it will leave the lettuce vulnerable for a long time and might prevent quick regrowth.
Furthermore, an added benefit of this technique is that it redirects energy from old mature leaves to newer and younger leaves in the middle, thus encouraging new growth. The yield is low with this method and it's time-consuming but it won't hurt the ability of the lettuce.
This method is less time-consuming than the previous method which is especially helpful when you have a limited amount of time in your gardening work schedule. Rather than harvesting one leaf at a time, grab a handful of leaves almost like making a leafy ponytail, and snip them off below your hand using a clean pair of scissors.
With this method, you can harvest quickly but it will take a week or two to finally start seeing new leaves. Make sure to leave the bottom 3-4 inches of the lettuce untouched so they can regrow comfortably. Again, don't harvest more than 1/3 of a plant.
3. Off-With-The-Head Method
Not all lettuces will have loose leaves which will be easy to snip off. Some species of romaine, butterhead, and loosehead lettuce are already delicious before they fully mature and will continue to grow even if you cut off some outer leaves using the first method.
However, others of their species particularly crisphead lettuce don't taste good prematurely and won't regrow. Therefore, when the time is right take the knife and cut off the entire head of the lettuce cleanly at the base 1 inch from the soil. Some cultivars such as green salanova are capable after removing the head.
How Many Times Can I Harvest?
Most loose-leaf lettuce varieties take only 35-40 days to grow which is why they are most suited for these harvesting techniques. Using the cut-and-come-again technique, they can be harvested 3-5 times before they begin to flower mid-summer.
Other lettuce varieties are slow-growing and can only be harvested once or twice before they bolt. Remember to start harvesting lettuce at the earliest moment possible as you wait, there's an increased risk of the lettuce either bolting or being consumed by slugs and snails.
Fresh lettuce is best eaten right after harvesting. Therefore, with the first method, you wouldn't have too much leftover lettuce that needs storing. But if you had to harvest them in bulk then you'll want to store them correctly.
Sort The Lettuce
Before storing them, sort through the lettuce leaves and discard any that look yellowed, bug-bitten, or otherwise unappealing. In some cases, you might even find pests inside your lettuce that will continue to feed on the lettuce even after having harvested and stored it.
Don't Wash Lettuce
While it's not an absolute sin to wash and clean lettuce before storing it. The moisture can result in the spoilage of lettuce, therefore if you have rinsed them you need to make use of paper or cloth kitchen towels, or a salad spinner to thoroughly dry the lettuce.
An improperly dried moist lettuce will last in the refrigerator for 1 week while dry lettuce can last for 3 weeks. Therefore, if you are not planning to eat them immediately, store them in the refrigerator without rinsing and wash them only before consuming.
Lettuce is a cool-season crop and is less likely to bolt when it's less than 85°F (30°C). Eventually, the lettuce will reach the end of its lifespan and prepare to bolt by sending up a flower stem in the middle.
At the start of this process, the leaves may still be edible but won't last as long and will already start becoming tough and bitter. So if you still want to eat the lettuce, the time to harvest is now.
Bolt For Seeds
If the leaves are already bitter and unsalvageable, uproot the lettuces entirely and throw them into the compost bin. If you are interested in getting the seeds of the lettuces then allow a few of them to produce flowers.
Wait for the flowers to develop into fluffy dandelion-looking blooms. These pappuses will contain the seeds. These seeds once died should readily come out when you rub it against the rim of a bowl, otherwise they're not fully developed.
Is My Lettuce Spoilt?
While eating unripe lettuce is completely harmless, lettuce which has spoilt might not be such a good idea. Luckily you can do two simple tests to determine whether lettuce has begun to spoil even when they don't have a bad odor.
A spoilt lettuce will produce milk. Cut a lettuce leaf to see if it produces a little milk. If not, you are free to harvest the lettuce.
2. Taste Test
Lettuce milk is harmless so if you do see a little bit of milk. Do a small taste taste. If it's not bitter, harvest the lettuce and finish them as soon as possible. If they taste bitter, the lettuce is unsalvageable and should be thrown into the compost.
