Can You Harvest Lettuce More Than Once?

on October 14, 2022

Lettuce is a very common plant that is often grown in your garden at home, however, you may be wondering if it is possible to harvest lettuce more than once and if so how many times can you actually harvest the plant before it goes to seed?

You can harvest lettuce multiple times irrespective of whether it is a headed variety or a loose-leaf variety. However, the number of times you can harvest the lettuce will depend greatly upon the time of year that you are growing it and also the way that you actually harvest the lettuce which can affect the plants’ recovery rate.

The reason the time of year affects the number of times that you will be able to harvest the plant is that hotter weather tends to cause lettuce to bolt relatively quickly which means that there is less time to get multiple harvests from the plant.

Secondly, the method of harvesting also plays a significant role in the frequency at which you can harvest. Many gardeners harvest the plants by taking a pair of scissors or a knife and cutting the top off. This is not the ideal way to harvest lettuce as it affects the rate of recovery of plants.

The optimal way to harvest lettuce is to pick by hand the outer leaves of the plant which will be the oldest ones on the plant. By doing this you will leave the inner leaves of a plant, which are the younger leaves, to continue to grow. And because these leaves have been not cut their growth pattern has not been interrupted and therefore the plant has the ability to recover more quickly.

Can You Harvest Headed Varieties Of Lettuce Multiple Times?

The other common question that is asked is can you harvest headed varieties such as romaine (cos) and iceberg lettuce multiple times. And the answer to this is yes any lettuce can be treated as a cut-and-come-again variety which for home gardeners is usually the preferable way to harvest lettuce because most people need a little bit of lettuce regularly.

Headed varieties simply need to be treated in the same way as the cut-and-come-again varieties with the outer leaves being stripped away one at a time rather than having the entire head removed the plant which is what is done commercially.

How To Extend The Usable Life Of Lettuce

One of the biggest problems with growing lettuce at home, particularly in summer is the rate at that the plant bolts. For many inexperienced gardeners, it is inevitable in many cases for you to end up having lots of lettuce in your garden but none of it is edible. So what can you do to extend the life of the lettuce to improve the number of harvests that you can get?

Generally, there are a few tactics that you can use to extend the life of the lettuce but the reality is that due to the nature of the plant it will bolt at some point and obviously in hot weather it will bolt more quickly.

There are a couple of tips we recommend to help prevent this. The first to plant some lots of lettuce in full shade. The reason for this is that it is significantly cooler in these conditions which means that the lettuce will last a lot longer though the reality is that the growth rate will be significantly slower.

The second thing we recommend is that you grow a few different types of lettuce as some bolt faster than others. The easiest way to do this is to purchase a packet of lettuce seeds with multiple varieties in it. This will allow you to only buy a single packet of seeds and have 4 to 5 different varieties in one hit making life easier.

However, the most important thing to do with lettuce seeds is to plant them consistently throughout the year to ensure that you have multiple batches of lettuce on the go at any one time that are of different ages as this will help you to ensure that you will have at least some lettuce available.

It is also important to be absolutely ruthless with the removal of any lettuce plants that have gone bitter and it is important to note that this can happen before there are any signs of the plant bolting so you do need to taste the lettuce as you harvest it to make sure it remains a good quality.

How To Grow Lettuce

Lettuce is a plant that is relatively easy to grow and requires relatively little effort though there are a few tricks that we have picked up over the years that will help to accelerate the rate at that you can sow seeds and transplant seedlings.

The first thing that is important is to use open seed trays that do not have individual cells within them as that will slow down the sowing and transplanting.

When planting lettuce seeds into seed trays it is advisable to fill them up with a good quality seed-raising mix and then firm the soil mixture into the sea trays creating a flat level surface. Once this is done the lettuce seeds can be sprinkled on the surface of the soil which will be sufficient to get them to germinate, they do not need to be buried.

When planting the seeds in the seed tray it is important to sow thinly in rows approximately 2 inches apart which in a normal seed tray should allow you to get 5 or 6 rows of lettuce seeds into the tray.

Once the seeds have been planted it is important to water them in. Generally, is advisable to water from underneath rather than from overhead because there is a tendency to flood the surface of the soil causing the seeds to move around.

The easiest way to do this is to have another tray filled with water and then place the seed tray into that water which will ensure the soil is moist. I generally leave the seed trays in the water with the water being around half an inch to 1 inch deep which is sufficient to keep the soil moist on an ongoing basis and will reduce the frequency of watering required.

Once the lettuce has been planted it will typically take around 7 to 14 days to come up and will usually need to spend approximately 4 to 6 weeks in the seed tray before seedlings are large enough to plant out into the garden.

Transplanting Lettuce Seedlings

Once the lettuce seedlings are large enough to be planted out into the garden the next step is to select an appropriate location to place the seedlings. As mentioned earlier in the article lettuce seeds can tolerate a wide range of conditions including full shade to full sun. Generally, it is a good idea in the cooler months of the year to plant the lettuce seedlings in full sun as it will encourage more rapid growth.

However, as the weather warms up it is preferable to plant increasingly in shady conditions to reduce the rate of growth and extend the usable life of the plant.

The fastest way to transplant the seedlings is to create a pre-prepared furrow in your preferred location that is approximately 2 inches wide and 2 inches deep. This will allow the seeds to be picked up in rows and planted directly into the furrow quickly and easily using a towel.

Once the lettuce seeds are in position, cover the soil around the seedlings and then water them in well.

Harvesting Lettuce

Lettuce can be harvested at any stage once the leaves are large enough. The main consideration when deciding this is whether you can actually get a harvest from the plant without removing all the leaves of an individual plant as this will be highly detrimental to the recovery rate of the plants.

As mentioned earlier in the article it is best to pick a few leaves from the outer part of each plant ensuring that the central parts can continue to grow which will allow you to get a second harvest within a matter of a week or so.

As lettuce plants do bolt relatively easily it is important to remove the plants straightaway when this occurs and replace them with fresh young seedlings to ensure that you always have lettuce on hand.