Growing your own organic lettuce is a healthy, life giving experience. Lettuce grows quickly and the changes from week to week are sometimes astounding. With enough water and some attention to variety, soil and garden conditions, it is easy to grow sweet and satisfying organic lettuce.

There are many, many varieties to choose from and the choices are overwhelming. A good place to start is to determine which varieties are being grown with success in your local area. If seeds from a popular local variety are saved for generations, then that seed
has adapted to the specific locale and will be more resistant to common insects and local weather patterns. Contact your local seed saving groups and horticultural societies for more information.
In general, head forming lettuce grows best as a main crop, which is usually in late spring/early summer. It is hard for the heads to grow quickly enough in the early spring, and if the heads have not formed enough by the time the weather starts to cool, in the fall, then they will never mature to a sweet head of lettuce. Loose leaf or loose head lettuce is preferable for early spring and autumn crops. The loose leaf will continue to grow and hold well for those shoulder seasons. There are also many cut and come again lettuce varieties that are becoming more popular as they do not require harvesting all at the same time.

Lettuce prefers a fertile, water retaining, humus rich soil that has been well worked. Lettuce is happiest in full sun, however it is a cool weather crop and may need shade or protection from the sun in the heat of the summer, to prevent early bolting (going to seed). Double digging your garden beds also gives more root space and the ability to plant intensively. We find that double dug beds out perform single dug beds every time. See my article on double digging for more information.
Ideally the soil ph should be between 6 and 6.8, and in order to get sweet tasting succulent lettuce, it needs to grow easily and quickly. Provide plenty of nutrients in various forms. For example use a quick release nitrogen source such as fish compost or well-rotted manure as well as a slower release version such as alfalfa meal or garden compost. A good organic amendments formula for growing lettuce is:

1 part kelp meal
1 part rock phosphate
1 part green sand
1 part glacial rock dust
1 part alfalfa meal
Mix these together and add desired amount of mix into your garden bed.

For a 10 feet x 4 feet bed also add 2 bags of fish compost and 1 bag of worm castings (or an equivalent of well rotted manure or other compost). Further feed the lettuce every 2 weeks with a seaweed liquid. Lettuce is one crop that likes to have water on its leaves, and the seaweed extract acts as a foliar feed. This should be done in the morning before the heat builds in the day, as leaves can be burnt if watered in the heat.


As well as providing the right soil conditions and nutrients, it is important to move the seedlings along from seeding to a bigger transplant container to the final garden location without delay. Lettuce will simply not taste as good if it is not given adequate food and root space in a timely manner.
We start our lettuce by using an organic soil less medium (peat or coir, worm castings and perlite) that does not have any added fertilizers or amendments (keep in mind the worm castings are a source of non burning nutrients), so the tender seedlings are not burnt.
We transplant our lettuce seedlings at 2, max 3 weeks (after they have come up, not after seeding) into our wooden transplant flats. See photo below. This step gives us the opportunity to give more food and root space. We add some of the above-mentioned organic amendments mix as well as fish or another form of compost in the transplant/soil less mix
The lettuce grows rapidly and in another 2 weeks we transplant it out to the final location, under one of our SunPod mini greenhouses.
Planting out under cover allows for earlier, and later plantings and provides an ideal humid, non-windy environment. Our mini greenhouses are also designed to change coverings, allowing you to choose the covering that works for your garden conditions. For example, attaching shade fabric to shelter and cool your summer lettuce crop, or using a combination of netting and greenhouse grade plastic to provide protection where not as much heat is required.
Finally I can’t say it enough Water, water, water. A head of lettuce is mostly water so keep the soil moist and don’t let it dry out. Harvest when it has been approx. 2 months (depending on variety) and before the central stalk (seed stalk ) begins to elongate or bolt as the lettuce will quickly become bitter after this point.

Enjoy your organic harvests!