Time to plant some fall lettuce!

As I have some romaine seed left over from the spring plantings, I thought it might be a good idea to great a few fall heads before the serious cold sets in. Since I have two small cold frames, I know from experience that I can raise the lettuce to the point where they will go into a form of hibernation over most of the winter months. If I time everything just right, I’ll be eating lettuce right through the month of December.

To start my seeds, I will be using a couple of six pack growing cells which will get two seeds each and I also plant to direct seed in a small area out in front of my home. The starting mix for the indoor trays will be Miracle Gro’s potting mix, or in plainer language, some mix I had left over from the spring. I let these sit in warm water for a few hours then planted the seed very close to the surface. I’ve found that lettuce seeds, in particular, respond to a process called ‘photo-activation’. Doing it that way, I get really fast germination, typically two to three days!

Once the seeds get to be about two inches high, they will go into the cold frames which are open at this time of year. I’ll do a short blog on that process in a couple or three weeks when my seedlings get to proper size.

Update: This is a fine how do you do! Nothing came up! Hmm, maybe the seed was too old. It could also be the gardener....