Variety Trialing: Overwintering Lettuce

It’s still early in the season up here in the Pacific Northwest and we have some fun varieties we're trialing that are starting to grow.  

  We also thought ahead and overwintered some lettuce in a hoop-house although we weren’t sure how successful it would be because none of us have experimented too much with overwintering crops and it is something we are interested in continuing to explore.  

Last Fall we transplanted some lettuce into a hoop-house, mostly Eazy Leaf and little gem varieties and would like to share the most interesting surviving varieties with you. 

BURGANDY  

This is a new variety we just added to our catalog (which you can download here). It’s an Eazy Leaf bred by Enza Zaden. Burgandy is a red tango with bolt resistance and an excellent Downy Mildew resistance package. As you can see, its leaves are deeply incised, tipped with a deep red color and a bright green contrast. We fell in love with this variety because of its winter hardiness. It thrived when the check variety floundered. We typically have milder winters here in the Pacific Northwest, so we are definitely curious how this variety would fair when overwintered in colder regions. 

We harvest this head after being in the ground for 6 months. We had a warm spell in March and a lot of the lettuce either bolted or died in response to the sudden weather change. Not Burgandy though!

BRENTWOOD

It's difficult to appropriately capture the deep red beauty of the leaves of this variety on a cloudy day, so we'll describe it for you. The Burgandy has a beautiful contrast of green and red, while the Brentwood has the same contrast, but at a different ratio. The Brentwood also has a more pronounced ruffle, making it a good addition if loft is an attribute that you're looking for. 

Cegolaine

This little gal stole our heart with her buttery leaves and subdued colors. Cegolaine survived the winter like a champ, and she was still growing as of early April. We think she will continue to grow into herself to become an elegant, open-faced, small-medium head. 

We will continue our overwintering lettuce trials and hopefully find out our favorite varieties are tried and true!