Bloomin Lettuce

[joe645]

Some time ago I planted some Romaine Lettuce, or at least that's what the seeds said. I have harvested it 2 or 3 times and now one of the plants is looking more like a flower than lettuce. Anyone have any idea what this lettuce is;

[shevraeth]

That is romaine, but it's bolting to seed. It gets super tall and flowers like that when it's going to seed and die off. The lettuce will probably taste somewhat bitter as well. It usually bolts when the plant is consistently warm/hot, like over 80F. Is it hot under your lights?

[Shawn]

Lettuce and herbs love cold water.  I often check mine and if warm I throw ice cubes in to cool it off.  Cool water helps the bolting, wilting and bitterness.  Also, you should wait a day or two after giving nutes to harvest.  The nutes can give a bitter taste if harvested the day of or after feeding.

[joe645]

I keep the greenhouse at 68 degrees and my water temp has never been more than 70 degrees. The T5 lights don't produce a lot of heat either. I think I will depart from the lettuce for a while and start on some strawberries. Thanks all.

ever try loose leaf? Some don;t care for it, but it is ready to harvest in 4 weeks and is cut n' come again.It doesn;t last forever, though and has to be harvested regularly. Looks like your romain needed harvesting sooner and more often to get in that 'finished' condition. Even the one to the left which hasn't yet bolted looks like it should have been harvested weeks ago.

[joe645]

Unfortunately, we are a family of 2 and even though we have salads almost every night, you can only eat so much lettuce. I have harvested as much as needed off those 3 plants over the past 8 months. Since we prefer crunch lettuce, I think we will just buy at the store. Might try some spinach later.

[Jay]

Jan 11, 2020 15:39:40 GMT -5 @cornne said:

ever try loose leaf? Some don;t care for it, but it is ready to harvest in 4 weeks and is cut n' come again.It doesn;t last forever, though and has to be harvested regularly. Looks like your romain needed harvesting sooner and more often to get in that 'finished' condition. Even the one to the left which hasn't yet bolted looks like it should have been harvested weeks ago.

I'm doing loose leaf now, I've just been pulling from around the edges and have already had 2 good sized salads. I want to add a good heading lettuce, any recommendations @cornne? 

Head lettuce is not popular for the AG. Perhaps a buttercrunch would suffice? Usually salad greens, romaine and loose leaf are recommend.

[Jay]

Thank you @cornne!