Bolting Bitter Lettuce
If you are new to growing lettuce you may be surprised to see the ones in your garden putting on a tall stalk right about now. What will astonish you even more is when you make your next salad with that beautiful lettuce – a bitter surprise! Yep, once your lettuce plants decide it’s time to reproduce the leaves take on a very bitter taste.
Winter lettuce normally lasts longer but the very warm weather we’ve had in January and February have kicked the lettuce’s sex drive in to overdrive. It’s easy to forget the plant’s entire reason for being is to make more plants – not to give you a lovely salad. That’s just a nice benefit you get for giving the lettuce a place to get it on.
You can let the plants go to seed or, like I did, pull them up and add them to the compost pile. Good garden centers will have replacement plants available in 4 inch pots. Bohemian Bounty buys all its plants locally from a certified organic greenhouse and we are happy to resupply our client’s gardens. Just give us a call.
Personally, I think we have at least one more cold snap coming so any lettuce or other winter greens you plant now should give you good production until May.
