Last night when I stopped by the garden I decided to sample all of the different varieties and take some notes. Our temps in the 50s and 60s have been great for the lettuce. We had about a week or so of fairly warm weather, so much so that I was concerned the lettuce would become bitter. In my experience it doesn’t take much for lettuce to taste bitter. Apparently I have the gene for that. As much as I want to like it, I can’t do beer, all I taste is bitter. I’ve tried every variety that is supposed to be the ‘least bitter’ and really see no difference. Quite often lettuce and kale come across as bitter to me while others eating from the same picking don’t experience it as such.
There were two plantings of lettuce this year, I direct seeded a couple of 1′ wide beds in early March and transplanted some starts from the local garden center in early April. Into the beds went Renee’s “Baby Leaf Blend” and Territorial Seed’s “Mild Mesclun Blend”. The transplants were a of several varieties, unfortunately some not well labeled. I was Jones’n and it was what they had at the time so I gave it a shot. Once again I was reminded that I really gain nothing by planting lettuce transplants. The directed seeded lettuce almost always seems to catch up to the transplants by the time harvest comes around. This year was no exception. I think part of the reason I still do the transplants is that I am so longing to see SOMETHING growing in the early Spring that the transplants seem like an easy fix.
Lettuce Taste Test Results
Variety | Transplant(T) or Direct Seeded(S) |
Planting Date | Bitterness |
Unk Oakleaf | T | 4/10/2016 | – |
Speckled Amish | T | 4/10/2016 | – |
Slobolt from Territorial’s Mild Mesclun Blend | S | 3/5/2016 | – |
Renee’s Baby Leaf Blend | S | 3/5/2016 | – to + |
Butter Bib | T | 4/10/2016 | – to + |
Grandpa Admires Heirloom Butterhead | T | 4/10/2016 | + |
Red Sails from Territorial’s Mild Mesclun Blend | S | 3/5/2016 | ++ |
Unk Red Leaf | T | 4/10/2016 | +++ |
The varieties are graded on level of bitterness to my taste with +++ being most bitter and – – – being the sweetest. Note that in this test, even the most bitter of the bunch is fine when mixed with other greens in a salad. It just doesn’t’ taste great to me by itself.
Lessons Learned
There is really no reason to start lettuce early or buy transplants. Other than the satisfaction of seeing something growing in the bare ground of early Spring, direct seeding lettuce results in a nearly equal first harvest date.
I tend to prefer the oakleaf varieties of the type I tried this year, one as a transplant of an unk variety and one in the Renee’s lettuce mix. Even though Renee’s ended up with a range of tastes from slightly bitter to not, the variety of tastes, shapes and colors made it my favorite overall. I was also very fond of Speckled Amish and Butter Bib. All in all this has been a great year for lettuce.