Lettuce is one of the best plants that you can have in your garden. It can continuously grow once harvested. But unlike other plants, you need to collect lettuce leaves before they can grow back.
If you’re clueless or unsure about how to cut lettuce from garden correctly, you’ve come to the right place! Below are several tips and a helpful guide on how to harvest lettuce so it keeps growing.
Table of Contents
Step by Step Guide
Learning to pick lettuce to keep it growing, is quite intimidating, especially if it’s your first time. But the whole thing is simpler than you might expect.
What to prepare
- Clean pair of sharp scissors
- Clean cloth
- Rubbing alcohol
Step 1: Sanitize and prepare your pair of scissors
It is important to use clean tools in cutting lettuce from garden. Unsanitized tools may contaminate your lettuce with harmful bacteria that will prevent it from growing back again and even kill the plant.
The first thing to do is to get a sharp pair of scissors. It needs to be razor-sharp to perform a clean-cut; otherwise, it will bruise the lettuce and prevent it from growing back.
After getting your cutting tool, you need to clean it with a cloth slightly wet with rubbing alcohol. Cleaning is important to remove excess dirt and other particles present in the blades.
After this, you’re all set for the next step!
Step 2: Choose the perfect time for harvest
To bring out the best quality of your harvest, you need to know precisely the lettuce maturity period and perfect harvesting time in a day.
So, when is lettuce ready to harvest?
In most common varieties, lettuce leaves take a month to be harvest-ready. Some may take a little more than a month, expanding to 6 to 8 weeks to be ready.
Nonetheless, lettuce doesn’t take a long time to grow fully.
Also, when is the right time to pick lettuce so it grows back?
Picking it up early in the morning is always advisable if you want crisp and fresh lettuce leaves for sale.
Not to mention, it is easier for the blade to cut through the lettuce when it’s crisp. With this, you’ll get a better harvest quality.
Step 3: Cut your lettuce
The only thing you need to keep in mind in this step is to protect the lettuce crown. To cut leaf lettuce smoothly without bruising or accidentally killing the plants, you need to slit precisely 1 inch, directly above its crown.
If the lettuce leaves are large, you can go 1.5 inches above for more safety of harvesting without killing the plant.
However, the lettuce will die if you cut below or directly at the crown.
Right after cutting, you can now proceed to wash the lettuce leaves and store them inside a vegetable crisper to prolong their freshness.
Step 4: Water your lettuce
The last thing to do in the way to harvest lettuce so it keeps growing is to take care of the remaining part of your plant. Do measures to maintain its well-being for you to continue to grow and harvest lettuce.
To ensure that your lettuce will grow again, you need to keep its soil moist. To maintain the desired level of moisture, a regular water supply is necessary.
This is necessary to keep the flow of nutrients inside the plant continuous, that’ll help the lettuce grow back much faster.
Helpful tips
After successfully harvesting your lettuce plant, the waiting game starts as it takes time for it to grow back. While waiting, you can plant some of these cut and come again lettuce varieties available.
1. Romaine Lettuce
Romaine lettuce is scientifically proven the healthiest variety of lettuce that you can get out there. It can be considered a bursting fountain of vitamins K, C, folate, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, and many more.
You can harvest romaine lettuce by chopping 3-4 inches from the bottom of its heart, depending on the length of the lettuce leaves.
2. Iceberg Lettuce (Crisphead lettuce)
If you’re a person who loves vegetable salads, iceberg lettuce is the best for you! Iceberg lettuce is considered the best variety for salads due to its crispiness and high water level.
It’s also overflowing with vitamins A, K, Iron, and Phosphorus. Moreover, Iceberg grows as a cute, circle-shaped wonder, making them perfect for small home gardens.
3. Red leaf Lettuce
Red leaf lettuce is under the family loose leaf lettuce. What makes this variation stand out from others is its color. Most Red leaf lettuce’s leaf tip is deep-red, which catches the attention of anyone.
This variety is packed with health benefits like vitamins C, K, and B6. It also contains thiamine, which allows your body to convert carbohydrates into energy.
Conclusion
Nothing beats the feeling of pure fulfillment of being able to harvest and grow brand new, fresh lettuce once again from the same plant. Being able to learn properly how to harvest lettuce so it keeps growing makes you several levels above compared to other lettuce owners.
So, be sure to carefully follow all the steps stated above all the time to become the most successful lettuce farmer out there!
Furthermore, each type of vegetable has a different harvest and storage time, explore the following articles to learn more:
Hi, I am William – Floridayards’ digital content creator. My job is to find answers to all your concerns with thorough research and our team’s expert advice. I will also bring you honest reviews on the best products and equipment for raising your beautiful garden. Please look forward to our work!
