Vegetable · Asteraceae
When to plant lettuce
Sow little and often. Lettuce bolts in heat, so the calendar matters more than the technique.
Start seed indoors
6 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
2 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Sow direct
3 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make lettuce plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 6 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 2 weeks before the last frost.
- Sow direct 3 weeks before the last frost.
- Expect 45–60 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
- Sow again every 10 days for a continuous supply.
- Can also be sown in late summer for an autumn crop.
Getting the timing right
Sow every ten days from six weeks before last frost. Pause through midsummer, then resume for an autumn crop - late sowings are often the best of the year.
Frost tolerance
Tolerates -3C and a light frost actually sweetens the leaf. Seed germinates poorly above 25C, which is the more common problem.
Classified as half-hardy, with damage expected below -3°C (26.6°F)26.6°F (-3°C).