Lettuces For Spring Sowing
Relatively quick to grow, lettuce is a fantastic early crop for spring sowing. Lettuce successions can be seeded every 2-3 weeks for continuous harvest. Many farmers start lettuce in trays in late winter to plant into tunnels for early spring harvest, while others wait until last frost to plant outside for mid-late spring maturity.
For spring plantings, when the weather in many regions is still cool and damp, it is important to look for varieties with downy mildew resistance. This is especially important when planting in high tunnels with less air circulation. Planting quick-maturing varieties like our mini heads and little gems is also a great advantage to getting lettuce to your customers early. Cegolaine is a very dependable and eye-catching red/green mini butterhead that pairs well with our compact green little gem, Requena. Mini red romaine Truchas, and bronze Breen can be marketed with a mini green romaine, like Xalbadora or Newham, for a colorful trio.
We conduct many trials every year at our Mount Vernon, WA farm and collaborator farms across the country, including spring, summer, and late summer plantings, for both full-sized and mini heads. Standout varieties are added to our offering. New additions to our 2021 catalog include Grazion, a green leaf/Batavian with the most comprehensive disease package of our green leaf lineup, Milagro green butterhead, an all-season performer with excellent resistance to downy mildew, and Rictus, a heavy green romaine with resistance to all known races of downy mildew. Chicarita, mini crunchy cos is an iceberg/romaine cross with cupped leaves that are perfect as a base for dips. If you are a hydro grower, check out our new greenhouse hydroponic section.
Please let us know how our new additions perform for you.
Happy spring planting!
