to me anyway lol. i have cucumbers and tomato growing but all my lettuce is long gone because of the heat. i think that is so silly. is there any lettuce i can grow now in this heat?
the picture of just something to look at.
max and my catnip
Farmgirl,
By and large, lettuces bolt in the heat. However, you might look into some of the Asian greens, many of which are heat tolerant.
No, they wont be lettuce. But they'll give you some tasty greens when most others won't grow.
I think chard is one subsitute but apparently everybody doesn't think so. My folks don't care for chard at all. I grow a few of the chenopodium varieties are a summer green as well.
Chris
thank you chris and brook. i will look into getting some.
Hot weather greens? Hmmm...New Zealand Spinach comes to mind (not really a"spinach") but will grow all summer, loves heat, is a good grower and you eat the leaves, either raw or steamed. (I personally never developed a taste for it.)
I also grow Swiss Chard all summer, yummy! Can be picked for its young leaves for eating raw in salads, or harvest the big leaves and cook them in a bit of olive oil, pinch of garlic, then sprinkle on some feta cheese! Whhooooeeeee!
(Tastes so good it'll turn your hair red.)
I experimented a few years ago growing lettuce in the summer under shade cloth. Worked OK, but had a terrible time getting the seed to sprout. Finally sprouted it inside (AC on full blast) then transplanted seedlings out. By then most of the terrible heat was gone, but lettuce grew well. I am going to do it again this year.
Kathy
i have the chard. i grew it last yr and didn't really like the taste. but dh did so i grow it for him. i got online lastnight and ordered a few different varities of summer greens. plus a few winter seeds lol. the summer ones are worth a try but i doubt they were talking texas drought summer heat. i will most likely set up a shade cloth to help somewhat but even in the shade it does get hot. i just think it is funny sad that when the salad fixins are ready the lettuce isn't.
i will most likely set up a shade cloth to help somewhat but even in the shade it does get hot>>
I'm in the same fix you are farmgirl. I'm in the desert. Years ago we covered the patio with wood lattice type structures. We covered the lattice with sheets of window screen. The idea was to provide a bit of shade on the patio and keep the flies to a minimum. Well it worked but we got a bonus we weren't after. (Isn't that the way it sometimes works).
Too make a long story short, while shelling seeds to save (one of the Chinese greens that I grow overwinter here), several seeds eventually made it into the cracks in the concrete floor and sprouted. Well me being the experimental type I am, left em there. The did fine. But here's the cool part. The Chinese mustard, never bolted to seed. Further the flavor of the harvested leaves never turned bitter. All summer. I was still harvesting leaves from that plant in Oct for stir fry.
One of this summers experiments was to build a raised bed ON the patio, fill it with a decent soil mix and try growing lettuce. It isn't just the bolting that's a problem. In the heat I find the lettuce starts tasting very bitter.
So I hope I have good news to report here, come August :)
I haven't found a lettuce yet that can take our Texas heat and still taste anything but bitter, Farmgirl. :( But I did hear of one person who had grown lettuce in her California garden with shade like Dsrtgdn said, only she grew it in between her rows of corn! Kept them all well watered and fertilized and she said it did great until the end of July and beginning of August. I've been thinking of trying that method out now that we've expanded the garden enough to grow corn.
(Max is beautiful, btw!)
my corn was very sad this yr. i see all we did wrong so next yr the crop will be better (i hope). i do have a shady spot i am thinking of trying out. i ordered summertime lettuce from pinetree now i know they are a northern company but i am going to give it an old try. maybe i can get some small heads before they want to go to seed. i can't believe everything that wants to seed already. this does not feel like june it feels like july-august. but i think because our drought here is tooooo early.
No kidding! Awful dry here, too. I like Pinetree ~ have you ever ordered from them before? I think you'll be pleased with their service and the seed quality.
yes i ordered from them this winter and all my seed did well that's why i thought i would give them another try. i did order a few seed for my winter garden too lol. i can not order any seed without ordering for all the seasons.
I can't order seed without ordering for the next five years! LOLOL!
try stir frying chard in a little butter and add chopped boiled chicken and garlic, not shabby at all.
Bitter lettuce is quite good added to chicken soup with bread and garlic of onions, old french recipe
My lettuce is now mulch......
If you are really, really lucky; and the goddess of gardens shines on you; and Venus and Mars are aligned in a full lunar eclipse....you can possibly have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time in the fall. This has perhaps happened to me maybe 3 or 4 times in the last 20 years. LOL
Debbie
This message was edited Mar 16, 2006 9:01 PM
I am going to try a method I saw posted somewhere. I am going to use a teepee like frame, let the squash trellison it,and plant the lettuce in the shade generated by the growing squash. Will let you know how that turns out.
I'm doing the same, defoecat, but w/ the beans teepee and the cukes' trellis. Course we don't get as hot as much of Texas, and using heat-resistant varieties it should work fine.
Last year I planted lettuce in the shadow of my tomatoe plants in raised bed. It did ok, but the lettuce got bitter and strong long before I got tomatoes to go with it. I ate it anyway,............funny how we will tolerate something like that if we grew it ourselves.
PeggieK...many times you can break the leaf of a lettuce (near the base) and if the sap/fluid looks milky it will be bitter. However, if you pick the lettuce (preferably before the heat of the day) and chill it that bitterness will disappear. (I usually pick summer lettuce, immediately drop it into cool water (we have well water) and then drain it, then fridge it. It does great!
The teepee shading will certainly help until air temps get so high that "shading from the sun" no longer is a factor. (At that point the only thing to do to keep the lettuce crops cool is a misting system but unless you have hundreds of plants that wouldn't be a cost-wise investment.)
For "summer lettuce" ya'll might want to try a variety called "Jericho" which has been bred to handle the heat. I believe it was bred for Israeli conditions.
Hope this is helpful!
Shoe.
Sorry, deleted message meant to be new post
This message was edited May 5, 2007 11:45 AM
I use angled or arched trellises open to the east for morning sun and use either pole beans or 60% shade cloth for shade. I plant thick every two weeks and harvest young as baby lettuce.
To get it to germinate, I water every day for the first two weeks (sometimes twice) in the evening and/or morning.
I grow soil-sprout greens on a windowsill all winter but I think it would work well for you folks during hot summers, take a look at the technique... www.thedailygardener.com to see how it works. My fam likes the greens and ask me to grow in the summer too! No rest for the wicked gardener!
Pete
Last year I grew a lettuce from Burpee called Crispy Frills that stood the heat really well. [here in IL, I don't know about down there in TX]. They didn't have it for 2007, but if you see it some other year, give it a try, with the shade cloth.
Right now I have in my garden Summertime head lettuce, making nice heads and not bolting. Capistrano heat-tolerant romaine is standing pretty well. Tom Thumb butterhead also did well, but the heads are tiny and now all gone - I should have planted more [all from Territorial]
I have grown the Icebrg lettuce this time of year but my summers are only in the 70-80's and a more mild than TX. But it is a treat very sweet lettuce.
Hi. I am new to this today and just read these posts. Here in South Florida fresh veggies are very expensive and my hubby & I both like lettuce & tomato on sandwiches most days. Since I am simply not going to pay nearly $2 for a head of lettuce I have had to figure out how to keep at least enough growing for our own use. I had an under bed plastic container about 6" deep, about 2x3 feet laying around so I made holes for drainage, filled it with potting soil and mixed in fertilizer. It sits out in a partly shaded area on our patio from October through mid June and I grow Black Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce. When it gets too hot for outside I have several big round pots for inside under plant lights to keep the letuce crop going for the summer. We don't have windows with wide enough ledges so I use the plant lights.
I use Earth Boxes for my tomatoes and have them most of the year. I'm still trying to learn about other kinds of things to grow here in Florida. Good luck with the lettuce!
A hearty WELCOME TO DG!, VeggieF!
It sounds like you have a great system for growing your lettuce, especially in the heat of Fla.
Hope to see you around the site!!
Shoe
Hi, Boca Bob here,
I'm growing Romaine lettuce right now and it's my 4th crop since November. I pick it young though way before it bolts. Tender, yummy, and cheap!
My lettuce is in the ground now!
YAY!!!!
Rich
Boca Bob,
Did you put plastic ontop the soil? Is that to prevent back splash?
Dean
Hi Dean,
What you see in my picture is the normal setup for Earth Boxes. It is a fitted plastic mulch. Works great!! Lettuce stays perfectly clean, no weeds, and potting mix stays moist all the time.(very important)
Thanks, Boca Bob, I'll give it a try!
