let's talk bolt resistant lettuce

[littleminnie]

Does anyone have suggestions for very heat tolerant lettuce? I was happy with my baby greens mix for the most part, but the farmer next to me at market had leaf lettuce much later into summer. I know one was just black seeded simpson. I think he has different soil and moisture too though. I would love (my dream) to have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time. I grow my lettuce with a little afternoon shade, some old manure and mulch. there are so many choices when it comes to lettuce!

[johno]

I think I read somewhere that red lettuces are slower to bolt/ more heat-resistant. Anybody else read that?

[grunt]

We get heat here so early that I don't plant anything but red lettuce. Some strains are more resistant than others, but I don't know which are the best. I'm growing one that showed up on its own in my gardenseveral years ago. If I can keep the sun off of the plants for 5 or 6 hours a day, the are very slow to bolt. I have seed around there someplace (I think), but I usually let the plants go to seed when they do finally bolt, so they always come up again the next year. If I find my seed, I will add it to my list when it finally gets put together + hopefully soon. And Dean, I will get seeds off to you soon as well. They are sitting in the living room, waiting for me to get off my skinny butt and do something with them.

[flowerpower]

I think the last one to bolt for me this yr was Redina. I never grow for full heads, only baby greens for mesclun. This yr I will be putting plants in between the garlic rows. I tried a couple last season and they did well. I figured the lettuce is done by the time garlic needs to be dug up.

[remy]

Dec 3, 2010 12:00:49 GMT -5 johno said:

I think I read somewhere that red lettuces are slower to bolt/ more heat-resistant. Anybody else read that?

I do notice many reds are listed that way. I wonder if breeding was done with the red heirloom 'Merveille De Quatre Saisons' making many new varieties with bolt resistance red.
But The most bolt resistant lettuce for me that I've grown to date is actually a green one, 'Radichetta'.
Remy

[stevil]

I wish they would bolt earlier - can't save seed on the red ones here as they don't ripen in time!

[toad]

I have the same here, only early bolters mature seeds. I try to get around it by starting the plants indoor, if I want to save seeds from a lettuce with any bolt resistance.

[seedywen]

Here on the coast of the lower Canadian west coast, I plant lettuce varieties especially red, as early as possible, in hope to mature the lettuce(letti:) for seed. About one year out of two, I succeed.

Generally the plants bolt, by July but sometimes the seed development seems to takes all summer.

If September is relatively dry, lots of seeds. If September is more wet, then the seed molds on the plants before drying naturally. Is there something about successfully collecting lettuce seed, that yet to learn?

[galina]

Dec 5, 2010 17:34:14 GMT -5 seedywen said:

Here on the coast of the lower Canadian west coast, I plant lettuce varieties especially red, as early as possible, in hope to mature the lettuce(letti:) for seed. About one year out of two, I succeed.

Generally the plants bolt, by July but sometimes the seed development seems to takes all summer.

If September is relatively dry, lots of seeds. If September is more wet, then the seed molds on the plants before drying naturally. Is there something about successfully collecting lettuce seed, that yet to learn?

Seedywen,

you do describe to a 'T' what happens here. All I do is start seed lettuce very early. The lettuces sown in February were ok, the ones sown in March were too late. I hope I don't run out of Red Sails seeds before I manage to save some. I only just managed Grandpa Admires this year, but 4 other earlier sown lettuces, including the red Marvel of 4 Seasons were well in time.

In desperation I have transplanted lettuce into the greenhouse to avoid the mold we get as soon as the autumn rains start. That works but not well, because mature lettuces don't like being transplanted much, but it works well enough to ensure some seeds. Advice to pull up the plant when the glum, rainy weather sets in and hang it upside down inside a large paper bag, has never produced much seed here. A really early start, then early planting out and protecting with cut off bottle cloches is the only successful way I know.

[grunt]

Pot up a couple of plants and don't water them beyond enough to keep them alive = they will bolt even if very young.

[remy]

I was going to sort of say what Grunt said, but I was going to suggest just starting a few plants in pots from the get go. If the weather gets crummy, you can easily move them to a sheltered location.
Remy

[seedywen]

Thanks for the lettuce seed saving advice.

Seems lettuce in wetter climate conditions, needs to be stressed more to better enable the seed formation. So will try pot culture next year of a few favorite varieties. Maybe do six plants instead of 40 for seed!

Back to Minnie's OP.

Have found red lettuce varieties generally to be slower to bolt in my garden.
Although experience is limited to Red Sails, Red Oak Leaf and Red Deer Tongue specifically.

Some of the standard market varieties of lettuce have been further bred for this trait. For example: Simpson Elite from Black Seeded Simpson. New Red Fire etc. Here's a page that mentions a number of varieties at easy glance.

www.naturalhub.com/grow_vegetables_cultivars_lettuce.htm

You might already be doing this: growing lettuce(and other vegetables) strategically in different places in the garden. Since I planted lettuce every two-three weeks for market, to grow lettuce all through the summer, often planted later rows, behind pea trellises, interplanted with early corn or closer to the house when position of the sun, causes a longer shadow etc. Also made these rows shorter just in case the new location didn't work well.

[flowerpower]

Dec 5, 2010 15:42:52 GMT -5 toad said:

I have the same here, only early bolters mature seeds. I try to get around it by starting the plants indoor, if I want to save seeds from a lettuce with any bolt resistance.

Could you keep a few in pots and bring them back inside in the fall? Maybe a few extra weeks will help.

If you want to get seed a little earlier from a leafy lettuce, don't ever pick off the leaves. It will just keep sending out more foliage & this will delay flowering.

[wildseed57]

I grow a lot of the older varieties of lettuces besides Amish Deer tongue you could also try another red romaine type called Cimmaron, some of the oak leaf types will hold up to some heat and longer days, I think that Mignonette Bronze and little gem holds up well also, don't forget to try a few Asian greens like Mizuna, edible Chrysanthemum and my favorite extra dwarf pak choy. I also use some of the wild greens to add more body to the salads corn salad or mache , red orach and even flowering okra. I like lettuce a lot but here in Missouri even planting it in a shady spot won't always help as I found out last summer and I ended up planting some in a long flower pot and grew some inside just so I would not have to buy it at the market. one of the many things that I tried out to fill in my salads with was little pattypan or colored scallop squash with the flower attached was a big hit with my grand daughters that and little sprigs of lavender. Sorry about getting off the subject of slow bolting lettuce, I get a bit carried away at times just thinking about a big bowl of garden fresh spring salad makes my mouth water.
George W.

[wildseed57]

I knew I would forget this one lettuce, I found it last summer when I was looking for the same thing a good bolt resistant lettuce. Kitazawa seeds has it its called Manoa lettuce and it is grown in Hawaii, its a semi heading type. So I now have it on my list to try.
George W.