Focus on... Summer lettuce

Lettuces are the foundation of summer salads — and, with careful sowing, spring, autumn and winter salads, too! Lucy explains how to boost your salad self-sufficiency

- Lucy Chamberlain

Lettuce 'Winter Density' is popular for autumn sowings

IF you are after an obliging, rewarding crop, then welcome to lettuces. Germination is simple, growth is rapid, and as for the freshly picked taste, it's unparalleled.

If planted out in March and April under cloches, you'll see crops in the run-up to summer

If you sow now, lettuce will germinate within a week and be ready for planting in three weeks. For cut-and-come-again (CCA) crops - which refers to harvesting whole young plants with scissors - you can be enjoying harvests just seven-ten days afterwards. Now that's speedy!

Red-flecked 'Mottistone' will brighten up your plot

Sow thickly, then cut just above their growing point, and the lettuces will quickly regrow for a second and often third trim. You can obviously let the lettuces mature instead if you like there are plenty of types to choose from (see my recommendations on page 20).

Hardiness varies, but some, such as 'Clarion' and 'Winter Density', will sit through winter under cloches, allowing you to provide lettuces for your family year-round with regular savvy sowing.

By sowing different varieties in succession and planting in many locations, you can have a year-long supply of lettuce

Most types heart up, but loose-leaf varieties don't, and if you regularly remove the outer leaves of this latter type then one sowing will last for months instead of weeks - which is handy if you can't be faffed to sow regularly.

"One sowing can last for months"

Just bear in mind that while lettuce seeds can germinate at low temperatures (8°C/46°F), they can enter dormancy over 27°C (81°F).