What Are 2 Different Types Of Head Lettuce?

Lettuce is a hardy, cool season crop that thrives best in the early Spring. It will grow on practically every kind of soil, so long as that soil is not too acid. An extremely acid soil should be limed before an attempt is made to grow lettuce. Lettuce does best on a soil that has a pH of approximately 6.0 to 6.6. Good soil moisture should be maintained at all times.

There are two principal types of lettuce - loose leaf and head. The loose leaf type is represented by such varieties as Grand Rapids, Prizehead and Slobolt. The name Prizehead applies to a leaf lettuce and not to a head lettuce as one might think.

There are two different types of head lettuce. The one that is most commonly available on the market is the crisp head or so-called iceberg type. The butterhead or Boston type of lettuce.

Since lettuce is a short season crop, it is desirable to make several different plantings during the year. The first one should be made just as soon as the garden is dry enough to work early in the Spring. At that time lettuce seeds may be planted in place in the row where they will mature or hotbed-started plants may be set in the garden.

If plants are transplanted to the garden at that time, after being started indoors, then it is desirable also to make a sowing of seed at the same time. The two crops will mature some time apart, so that the transplanted one is likely to be gone by the time the seeded one is ready to use.

After the first planting, it is well to make a repeat planting once every two or three weeks. Of course, these plantings can be very small since the average family does not consume a great quantity of lettuce. The extent of the planting, to be sure, will depend on how well the family likes lettuce as well as on the number of folks in the family. Some like both leaf lettuce and head lettuce and will want to plant perhaps not more than five to 10 feet of row of each type at each planting. Others will want only the one type or the other and may want to plant a little more of each. Past experience is the best teacher in regard to quantities to plant for the family.