Salad Days Heirloom Seed Collection
The key to success with these seeds is timing.
Lettuces and most greens like cool weather. These varieties were specifically chosen to resist bolting (which is when exposure to high temps triggers them to grow tall and flower, ending their life cycle.
You will get many more harvests out of these seeds as opposed to other varieties. But you can’t coax lettuces into quick germination when temperatures are warm. In fact, lettuce seeds sometimes enter thermal dormancy if temps are too hot for their liking and not germinate at all. So, heading into fall, you want to wait until you have temps consistently at or below 75º to start arugula and mizuna and cooler still for the lettuces. Little Gem especially will resist germination until temps are in the 60ºs (but will happily sprout in the 40ºs.) Stagger your plantings so that you have fresh rotations of salad greens throughout winter and into spring. In Austin, I usually sow in late November, anytime in December, and again in mid-February for several rounds of succession plantings.
The Low Down:
GROW ZONES: 3-9
IDEAL TEMP: 60–65°F (16–18°C). In Austin, you can grow lettuce in both spring and fall. Seeds germinate well in soils as low as 40°F (4°C) but often poorly above 75°F (24°C). If your seeds do not sprout, the most likey culprit is thermal dormancy, when seeds refuse to germinate in high temps.
SOIL pH: 6.0 to 6.5. Lettuce prefers a slightly acidic soil. Make sure it is weed-free and drains well. Work in some composted organic matter at least a week before planting.
COMPANION PLANTING: Plant mint near your lettuce to keep away the slugs that feed on lettuce leaves, or plant chives and garlic to repel aphids. Beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, corn, peas, radishes, and marigolds also work as good companion plants.
JOY MAX TIPS: As the season progresses and you are worried it’s getting too warm, start planting lettuces on the east side of the garden, where some shade from taller plants can occur, to prolong their harvest.
When planting out seedlings, try to wrangle a nice clump of soil around the root ball. Always immediate water with a small watering can or bottle so you don’t get the seedling all wet.
You can start seeds indoors if you’d like to get a jump on the season. You must have supplemental light for these seeds as they need it for germination but do not use a heating pad as obviously we want it to be cool. Arugula and mizuna will both sprout in the first couple of days indoors. Black Seeded Simpson will follow, then Buttercrunch and Ruby Red. Even indoors in the cool air conditioning, Little Gem will take its sweet time to sprout. Just be patient. Keep a fan on and the soil misted to cool things off.
Arugula and Ruby Red Lettuce seedlings under a grow light. I press the seeds into the moistened soil surface and add vermiculite around them after they sprout. I also make sure to keep the soil moist and a ceiling fan on in the room most of the time to keep air circulating as they grow.