Lamb's lettuce is usually considered a typical winter vegetable, but it can be grown in your own garden almost all year round. Since it grows relatively quickly and the work of pricking out is hardly worth it, it is usually sown directly on the spot in pots or in the bed.
When can lamb's lettuce be harvested?
Lamb lettuce can be harvested almost all year round because it is frost-tolerant. The harvest time depends on the time of sowing: there are around ten to twelve weeks between sowing and the first harvest. Repeated harvests are possible if you cut only the upper part of the plant and leave the root undamaged in the ground.
The harvest is determined by the time of sowing
Due to its frost tolerance, lamb's lettuce is a lettuce that usually replaces other types of lettuce in the winter months. Nevertheless, if necessary, you can harvest this salad almost all year round. The winter-hardy varieties of lamb's lettuce can be sown in late autumn and then harvested in spring a few weeks after the snow melts. Depending on the variety and season, it takes around ten to twelve weeks for lamb's lettuce from sowing to the first harvest.
The right seeds for every season
When selecting seeds, pay attention to the information in the planting instructions. Some varieties are optimal for sowing in spring, while others develop optimal growth when sown in autumn. Still other varieties can survive the winter outdoors or in balcony boxes and thus ensure a harvest in March and April. The following varieties are all-rounders that deliver relatively consistently good results all year round:
- Favor
- Ovired
- Gala
Don’t just harvest lamb’s lettuce once
Lamb lettuce has a special feature that makes it particularly valuable and productive in the vegetable patch. When harvesting the lettuce leaves, make sure to carefully separate only the upper part of the plants with scissors or your fingernail. If you leave the root and base of the plant undamaged in the ground, you can expect the lettuce plant to sprout again. This means that lamb's lettuce can be harvested several times in a row from the same plants without having to re-sow it.
Harvest lamb's lettuce from the balcony
You can harvest lamb's lettuce even without your own garden if you grow it in pots or flower boxes on the balcony. This cultivation variant is particularly interesting for a spring harvest. So you can grow lamb's lettuce in the fall from seeds of a hardy variety when the flowers have already withered and then let it overwinter in the flower box.
Tips & Tricks
Only harvest as much lamb's lettuce as you can use fresh. In cut form, this salad will only last a maximum of one to two days in the refrigerator.