Written by: Charlotte Glen, Horticulture Agent

Lettuce and other salad greens are easy to grow and thrive in the cool temperatures of spring. They can be ready to harvest in as little as 30 days from sowing, making them one of the quickest vegetables you can grow. What’s more, lettuce and many of the greens popular in salad mixes flourish when grown in containers, so you can easily grow your own salad even if you do not have a vegetable garden.

What You Can Grow

Though iceberg may be the lettuce most familiar to many of us, it is not the easiest to grow. Fortunately there are other types of lettuce available that are tasty, beautiful and simple to cultivate. The easiest to grow are known as looseleaf or leaf lettuces, which make open, loose heads. Many selections are available, including ruffled green leaf varieties like ‘Simpson Elite’, red blushed or red leaf selections like ‘Red Sails’ and ‘Prizeleaf’, and deeply lobed types that are commonly referred to as ‘Oak Leaf’ varieties. When mixed together, the assortment of colors and textures that looseleaf varieties exhibit make a stunning display in the garden as well as in the salad bowl.

There are a couple of ways to grow looseleaf lettuce. They can planted as individual plants spaced eight inches apart and allowed to form loose heads for one time harvest, or can be sown thickly and harvested by clipping. When sown thickly in a container or the ground, these lettuces will form a patch of greens that can be harvested by clipping the leaves with scissors a couple of inches above soil level. Two or three harvests can usually be made from a patch, with the first cutting ready to harvest 30 to 40 days after sowing.

Two other types of lettuce that are easily grown in our area are romaine and butterhead, which is sometimes referred to as bib lettuce. The leaves of romaine lettuce, a staple ingredient in Caesar salad, are thick, crisp, and sweet. They make fairly large heads, and are ready to harvest within 60 to 80 days from planting. Young plants should be spaced 10” to 12” apart. Butterhead lettuces produce small, tightly folded heads of tender leaves with a delicate buttery flavor. Butterhead varieties are ready for harvest in 40 to 50 days and should be spaced six to eight inches apart.

Other spring greens that are often used in salads include arugula or rocket, mizuna (Chinese mustard), pac choi, red and green leaf mustard, tatsoi, and spinach. These can be grown individually, but are also available as seed mixes known as mesclun. Mesclun mixes are easy to grow and include a variety of lettuces and salad greens. Some are formulated to be spicy while others include varieties of greens with milder tastes. Mesclun is grown similar to looseleaf lettuce, in a patch that is harvested by clipping leaves, beginning three to four weeks after sowing.

Early March is also a great time to sow radish, green onion, and carrot seed directly in the garden. For a wider variety of flavors include cool season herbs like parsley, cilantro, chervil, and dill in your salad garden. To really brighten up your spring salads, plant edible flowers like pepper flavored nasturtiums, fragrant sweet peas, quick growing Johnny Jump Ups, and colorful pansies.

Salad Garden Tips

Small lettuce plants and salad greens are readily available this time of year from local garden centers. Or you may choose to grow your own from seed. If so, be sure to sow lettuce seed very shallowly and keep them evenly moist for best results. Also, use fresh seed since lettuce seed do not store well for more than a year.

The key to growing good lettuce and other salad greens is rapid growth. To keep these plants growing quickly, make sure they stay moist and well fertilized. Making successive plantings two to three weeks apart will provide a continuous harvest of fresh greens over a long period.

Learn More

If you have questions about growing vegetables contact your local Cooperative Extension office. In Pender County call 259-1235, Mon – Fri, 8am and 5pm, or visit us online anytime at //pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=askanexpert, where you can post your questions to be answered by email using the ‘Ask an Expert’ widget!

• Growing Lettuce, from Clemson: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/hgic1312.html
• Growing Spinach, from Clemson: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/hgic1320.html