Summer Crisp Lettuce Info
If you’ve ever eaten lettuce grown in too-hot weather, it’s likely you found it bitter tasting and even tough. That’s a good reason to put in Summer Crisp lettuce plants. These plants grow happily in summer heat. But they remain sweet, without any trace of bitterness. Summer Crisp lettuce varieties are a great meld of open lettuce and compact heads. They grow in loose, making it easy for you to harvest the outer leaves if you like, but they mature into compact heads.
Growing Summer Crisp Lettuce
Summer Crisp lettuce varieties are all hybrid plants. That means that you can’t be a frugal seed-saver, but the plants have been bred to be extremely heat tolerant. Summer Crisp plants are also very slow to bolt and less resistant to tipburn or rot. On the other hand, you can grow Summer Crisp lettuce when it’s cool, just like other lettuce varieties. In fact, some varieties are even cold tolerant too. Among the different Summer Crisp varieties, you’ll find green lettuce, red lettuce, and also a multicolored, speckled type. Most of the varieties take about 45 days to go from planting to harvest. But you don’t have to pick at 45 days. You can pick outer baby leaves early for sweet, delicious salads. The rest of the plant will continue to produce. Or leave the heads in the garden for a much longer period than 45 days and they will continue to grow. If you want to start growing Summer Crisp lettuce, work in some organic compost into the soil before you plant. Summer crisp varieties perform better with fertile soil. You’ll find lots of great Summer Crisp lettuce varieties in commerce. ‘Nevada’ is among the most popular, with a sweet nutty taste. It forms large, handsome heads. ‘Concept’ lettuce is very sweet, with thick, juicy leaves. Harvest as baby lettuce leaves or let full heads develop.
