hot weather lettuce

What's a good lettuce to grow in the heat of summer, and is there a lettuce that will grow through the winter outside. in temps that are 20 degrees or so.

kathy

Kathy, Check with Johnny's Seeds. They have a couple of varieties that will do well in hot weather. I grew, I think, "Summer Crisp" last year and it did well although our summers are not too hot. My experience with growing lettuce is that when the daytime high temperature drops below about 50 degrees, you won't see much growth. I believe that sustained 20 degrees will probably kill or severely damage most types of lettuce. One idea is to think not aobut growing but about harvesting. If you cover your lettuce with a floating row cover you can extend the harvest. If you cover the whole thing with a simple plastic covered frame, you can extend the season further. Another problem with winter growing is the reduction of sunlight. You also might look at some other types of greens. If you plant spinach in September, you probably can harvest all winter. Good luck. Tim

Kathy, here are some of the lettuces that grow fairly well for me during the hot, dog days of Summer:
Red Summer Crisp Magenta, Summertime, Slo-bolt, Rouge Grenoblaise, Red Sails, the Batavian lettuces, Simpson Elite.

If there's one lettuce that likes the heat: it's the Jericho lettuce. It's a romaine type of lettuce that has been bred and grown in the desert of Israel...talk about heat tolerance! You can't go wrong with that.
Here's where you can find some: www.seedofchange.com

Thanks for all the help guys,

Get your Jericho from Johnny's, they tend to supply a much better quality product then seeds of change. I've got some in the field and some in the greenhouse right now!

www.johnnyseeds.com

Even w/ the heat-tolerant varieties, sticking them under the beans or tomatoes wouldn't be a bad idea to give them a little relief during the hottest hours.

that's a good idea, thanks

This is my first time growing vegetables. I'm having trouble with my lettuce already, and it's not that warm yet.

I'm growing in a raised square foot gardening bed with a compost/vermiculite/peat mix. The bed is in full sun and we have been getting some wind off and on. Would it help to have covers over the lettuce?

I tried first with some small plants from the nursery -- 'gourmet' salad mixes. The baby mix bolted quickly and did not really put on any growth that I could see. The green and red leaf mix grew somewhat, but was bitter. I tried cutting off whole heads to see what would happen, and they are trying to grow back, but slowly. Very crisp, though. Arugula seeds sprouted quickly, but then turned purple and stopped growing. :-(

I will look for the seeds mentioned above -- any other advice would be welcome.