Right now here in Saline, Michigan it is 64 degrees on March 7th. I looked earlier at the ten day forecast and it appears early spring weather has arrived. So I am planning to head to the store in a little bit to get some soil to plant some butterhead lettuce into containers. The variety I bought is called Garden Babies. It is from Renee’s Garden
. This particularly lettuce was labeled as container lettuce. I am growing it in containers for a few reasons:
1) I don’t have to wait for the soil to warm up, so I am using brand new soil just bought in the store.
2) Lettuce is so easy to grow in containers
3) I can move the pot around as needed. Like if we are expected as really hot day, I can easily move the plant to shade.
When to Plant
In a container or the ground as soon as the soil can be worked: Early spring or late winter if mild like this year.
How Many Plants Per Pot
If you are growing this lettuce in a container you can do 5-7 plants in 12 to 15 inch container. You will need to thin your plants out so they still need some room to go, but you can get a lot of plants out of one container. When you do thin, do so when the plants are around 3 inches tall. Don’t throw them aside, use what you thin to be a part of your first salad of the season!
Expected Harvest
The range for this harvest is wide from 53-73 days, depending on how big the heads are. I should be harvesting the heads sometime between mid-May and mid-June with what I thin coming earlier.
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