I started growing mostly lettuce about a month ago. The ones at the back row are older than the front. The Romain (Monte Carlo) at the back right are getting rather large. Are they ready for harvest or should I wait a bit longer. My younger plants are starting to get a bit big and I’ll need to start shifting things around soon-ish. Does the Romain at the back right look ready to harvest?
by mr_electric_wizard
5 Comments
You can start picking leaves off as soon as the leaves are ready to eat. If you want whole lettuce, the ones at the back are still pretty small, but they’ve headed nicely, maybe take the biggest two?
They’re basically always ready. I like to pick them kind of small because I think the taste is better.
It’s ready now. The great thing about lettuce is it can be very forgiving, and Romaine is really the most forgiving of all. I have kept them with similar spacing and no problem by just taking as many leaves as I need, always leaving about 5 good-sized leaves on the plant at minimum. The amount you take rarely matters too. Go from 25 leaves to 5 in one go and it will just start growing again.
In hydro, lettuce grows like a weed. In my experience, the worst thing you can do is not pick leaves for a long time. Then it starts getting sick or bolting. So spread the love and pick from all your plants regularly, always leaving them just enough leaves to get back to making you food.
Pick frequently to control the size. If you let it get too big or too wide it will begin to rot or even mold in the center. When that happens you have to purge the plant entirely. 5-10 leaves is really all the need to survive. If done right a plant can last years.