As the vibrancy of the summer garden begins to fade, the desire for salads begins to sneak back in and our focus turns to growing lettuce in the fall. It is almost like our bodies begin to crave the next season’s harvest before it arrives. Lettuce is a beautiful base for most any salads. Whether you like them topped with crisp fresh apples from your local orchard orchard, freshly roasted pecans from your backyard, or vibrant bright radishes. It is hard to go wrong with lettuce in your fall garden.
Top 8 tips to grow great lettuce
In this post, we are going to venture into the quest to grow great lettuce. For such a lovely plant, many things can go awry with growing lettuce in your vegetable garden. Insects such as aphids and thrips love to feed on the sweet leaves. Caterpillars that are still around love to munch on the leaves. Rabbits and deer find it a temptation too hard to leave alone. The sly groundhog has an uncanny way of sneaking in and devouring a whole row at a time. Frost can be an unwelcome party to the lettuce bed. And the list goes on. But no need to be dismayed! Farmer Nathan has you covered with some tips to help you succeed at growing great lettuce in the fall.
1. Fall lettuce Varieties
With the advancements of hybridization (Mother Earth News has some more info on hybrids versus GMO’s), lettuce plants have been bred to thrive in particular seasons or conditions. This gives you an incredible diversity of options for what grows best in your gardening zone. If you don’t know what zone you are in, You can find yours here. My favorite fall and winter varieties to grow on our farmstead includes:
- Forellenschluss – a beautiful green romaine with beautiful red speckles.
- Magenta Red – Crisp and cold hardy, making this perfect for any salad or sandwich
- Deer Tongue – Shaped like a deer tongue, the green variety performs especially well in the cold
- Red Rosie – A lovely purple romaine. Needs some covering for harsh frosts.
- Skyphos – Vibrant red butter bib with good cold tolerance
- Vulcan – Fiery red & green leaf lettuce. Quick grower with excellent tolerance for the cold.
If you are interested in learning about additional varieties to choose from or Farmer Nathan’s favorite seed sources, feel free to reach out to us here. Remember to get fresh lettuce seeds each year as the viability drops off fast!
2. Soil Composition
Now that you have your seeds on hand, the next step is to look at your soil after your summer garden. It is amazing how much of a difference soil composition makes! If you balance your soil, the soil will feed you well. Lettuce does not like its feet too wet. If you have a place in your garden that retains some moisture but yet drains decently well, you have found the golden spot. For heavy soils (like ours here in South Carolina), adding sand and organic matter works like magic. If your soils are too sandy, try adding some organic matter and peat moss.
Lettuce likes a balanced diet of nutrients. Adding a layer of compost will make you lettuces’ best friend. And a pinch of well aged manure and your garden is ready to go!
As the lettuce is growing, if you notice some browning of the tips and the leaves are dark in color, try adding a pinch of epson salt (½ tsp dilute to 1 gallon of water) and water lightly around each affected plant to boost magnesium. Fall continues to bring the decrease in sunlight, slowing down photosynthesis. To help counteract this, try using fish emulsion as a foliar feed every 10-14 days.
3. Direct sowing vs. transplanting
Lettuce can be directly sown by hand or transplanted to meet your needs. For zones 3-5, transplants can help give a boost to the plants before the first frosts slide down. Zones 6-8 can easily grow lettuce with direct seeding or transplants. If you are growing your own transplants, be sure to have a well established plant before planting. Once the roots start coming out of the bottom of your growing tray, you are ready to plant! Another tip is to harden off your lettuce before planting your transplants. This can be done by simply exposing the seedlings to 4 hours of sunlight for a couple of days. Add 2 hours per day after that until you have full exposure and you are ready to plant.
Direct sowing has the benefit of being faster and easier to plant. If conditions are right, it is also a little more forgiving if you forget to water the plants once they germinate. When planting, make a small hole ½ inch deep and drop the seeds in. Cover with soil and tap the soil lightly to prevent the soil from washing away. One thing to watch for is plant spacing, which can be achieved by thinning (more on spacing below).
Transplanting lettuce is similar to jump starting your garden by up to 4 weeks! This is a wonderful tool if you still have tomatoes on the vine or peppers ripening and didn’t want to pull the plants out yet. They eliminate the need for thinning as you have complete control over your spacing.
4. Spacing for growing great lettuce
Lettuce likes to breathe. It can be so tempting to pack the plants in tight for a heavier harvest. But without good airflow, diseases and pests can abound. We have found on our homestead that 8 inches apart between plants works perfectly. This gives the plants room to grow to their fullest capacity while yet having room for good airflow. When direct sowing, we suggest planting 3-4 seeds per hole 8 inches apart to ensure better germination success. (Get our free fall garden spacing ruler below!)
Spacing your lettuce at 8 inches apart also makes weeding much easier. Since weeding is a necessary evil in the garden, any way to make it less of a task is a blessing. Our favorite weeding tool is called a wire hoe. It cuts the weeds and can be attached to a long handle, making bending over to weed a rarity.
5. Irrigation for success in the fall
Now that you have your beautiful lettuce plants or seeds planted, the next vital thing on the agenda is watering. Consistency in irrigation for lettuce helps decrease plant loss and ensures a strong and healthy plant. And a healthy plant is much less likely to attract pests or disease. During the fall, lettuce performs very well with drip irrigation. If all you have is overhead sprinklers, those work as well.
Unfortunately there is no magic formula as to how long to water for as everyone’s soil conditions are slightly different. As a general rule to follow, try to prevent the surface of the soil from drying out for the first 2 weeks with lettuce transplants and direct seeding. After 2 weeks, decrease the frequency of watering to help prevent dampening off or mildew.
Another benefit to proper irrigation is soil that is wet holds more heat than dry soil. This is especially helpful if you have an unexpected cold front. Not only does this help protect from frost, but it also helps keep the microbes in the soil more active to help your lettuce grow quicker.
6. Pest protection
When growing lettuce in the fall, the last thing you want is the watch your crops to get eaten. At times, it seems like all of nature desires the tender leaves of lettuce as much as we do. If you desire to stay pesticide-free, there are some tools that can help with the success to grow great lettuce in the fall. My favorite tool to fight pests is to keep the garden clean. Remove dead leaves. Make sure the paths are weed free. And keep the perimeter around the garden well trimmed. This removes the natural habitat of many pests that would love to snack on your lettuce.
Fencing is a great option to keep animals out, but can be cost prohibitive. A less expensive alternative is to use a 20% shade cloth with wire hoops to prevent the critters from getting your delicious lettuce. If you want to keep insects out at the same time, you can use insect netting. Simply use the wire hoops, drape this over and it will help to keep the insects and larger animals out of your lettuce.
7. Companion Planting
There are also allies that you can plant near lettuce to give it a boost for growing lettuce in the fall! My favorite is to plant scallions in between the heads or onions or garlic on the prevailing wind side of the bed. Anything in the allium family will help keep aphids and thrips away. An extra bonus with the garlic is you won’t have to worry about vampires! 😉
Radishes help to bring up nutrients from lower in the soil and make great fillers among the lettuce heads. This helps to prevent weeds from growing and also helps to keep the soil a little warmer too.
8. Frost protection
The lettuce varieties above are more frost hardy than others, but this doesn’t make them immune to the threat of a hard frost. Especially for zones 3-6, it is a good idea to have some frost blankets on hand to help protect the tender lettuce from the cold. My general rule is if it is getting colder than 28 degrees, cover them up and let them be! Landscape fabric also helps to keep the soil warmer. The warmer the soil, the easier it is to trap in heat around your lettuce. For more on frost protection, check out these 4 ways to cover your garden.
I hope that you find these tips helpful in your journey for growing lettuce in the fall!