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Leafy greens
Lettuce & Salad Greens
Fast, forgiving, and one of the few crops worth succession-sowing every few weeks for a continuous supply.
Get your planting dates
This guide covers how to grow, harvest and keep lettuce & salad greens, deliberately without sowing dates,
because the right date depends entirely on your climate zone. GardenBuddy's planting calendar
covers all seven Australian climate zones and will tell you exactly when to sow where you live.
Growing
Part sun in warm weather (full sun bolts it fast), consistent moisture, and rich, light soil. Heat is the main enemy, most varieties bolt to seed above about 27°C.
Common problems
- Bolting in heat, turns leaves bitter, this is a temperature response not a disease
- Slugs and snails on seedlings
- Aphids in dense heads, rinse thoroughly before eating regardless
Harvest
Cut-and-come-again: take outer leaves and let the centre keep growing. Head lettuce: harvest the whole plant once it's full and firm, before it bolts.
Preserving this crop
Best suited to:
Best eaten fresh, doesn't preserve well by any common method
Seed saving
Difficulty: Moderate. Self-pollinating but bolts fast once flowering starts, let a plant go to seed deliberately (it will look nothing like the eating stage). Seed is ready when the fluffy seed heads form, similar to a dandelion.