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Growing lettuce

Sowing, spacing, watering and how to keep lettuce from bolting, plus succession sowing for a continuous supply.

Quick facts

Spacing between plants
8 in (20 cm)
Spacing between rows
12 in (30 cm)
Plants per square foot
2.25 per square4 per square, square foot gardening method
Sun
4+ hours a day
Water
1 in a week (25 mm)
Soil pH
6 to 7
Days to maturity
45 to 65 days
Yield per plant
0.5 to 1 lb (0.23 kg to 0.45 kg)
Start seeds indoors
8 weeks before last frost
Transplant out
3 weeks before last frost
Direct sow
4 weeks before last frost

Square foot gardening figures come from Mel Bartholomew’s method and assume an intensive bed of amended soil. Spacing-derived figures assume conventional rows.

Scientific name: Lactuca sativa. Spacing and planting dates checked against University of Illinois Extension. Yields, days to maturity and companion lists were never systematically checked — see how this data is checked.

Work it out for your garden

How many lettuce plants fit in your bed?

48 plants — 4 rows of 12, at 8 in apart with 12 in between rows.

The spacing divides evenly into both dimensions, so the bed is fully used. Try staggered rows

Sowing dates for lettuce

Enter your frost date for lettuce sowing dates, or use the full planting date calculator for a whole season.

What will you harvest?

3–6 lb over the season, from 0.5–1 lb per plant. Add other crops

This page has the numbers for lettuce: 8 inches between plants with 12 inches between rows, four to a square foot, direct sown four weeks before your last frost or transplanted three weeks before it, an inch of water a week, and half a pound to a pound per plant in 45 to 65 days.

The numbers matter less here than the calendar. Lettuce bolts in heat, so the page is mostly about sowing a short row every two or three weeks rather than one long row in April, and about when to stop and start again in late summer.

Sowing

Lettuce seed germinates at surprisingly low temperatures and refuses at high ones, which shapes everything about how it is grown. Direct sow from about four weeks before your last frost date, or start indoors six weeks before and transplant three weeks before the frost date — the seedlings take a light frost without complaint.

Sow shallowly. Lettuce needs light to germinate, so press the seed into the surface and cover it barely or not at all. Sowing too deep is the usual reason a row fails to come up.

In midsummer, germination becomes the problem rather than bolting. Seed sown into warm soil may not come up at all. Sowing in the late afternoon, watering the drill before sowing, and shading the row all help.

Spacing and thinning

Eight inches between plants with 12 inches between rows suits a full head. For cut-and-come-again leaves you can sow much thicker and simply cut across the row.

Thin early and thin properly. Lettuce left crowded makes small, floppy plants that bolt sooner, and the thinnings are the best salad of the season. Four plants per square foot is the square-foot-gardening figure and it is about right.

Water and food

An inch of water a week, and more importantly, without long dry gaps. Lettuce is shallow rooted and mostly water, so it feels a dry spell within days. Bitterness and bolting both follow drought stress.

Feeding is straightforward: nitrogen for leaf growth, given lightly and often rather than in one dose. Compost worked into the bed before sowing is usually enough for a crop this quick. Lettuce is a good candidate for the space between slower crops — a row of lettuce between young brassicas will be finished before the brassicas need the room.

Succession, the part that matters

The difference between a gardener who has salad all season and one who has a glut in June is entirely a matter of sowing little and often. A three-foot row every two or three weeks, through spring and then again from late summer, keeps a household in leaves without any of it going to seed uneaten.

Stop sowing through the hottest weeks and start again as nights begin to cool. Autumn lettuce is often the best of the year: the plants grow steadily, nothing bolts, and pests have mostly finished.

Common trouble

Slugs are the main enemy, particularly on seedlings in damp spring weather. Going out after dark with a torch is unglamorous and more effective than most alternatives.

Aphids collect in the heart of a plant where they are hard to wash out, which is an argument for picking outer leaves rather than whole heads late in the season.

Tip burn — brown, crisped leaf edges — comes from irregular water in hot weather rather than from disease. Mulch and consistency are the answer.

Growing alongside lettuce

Good neighbours

Carrot, Radish, Onion, Strawberry

Keep apart from

Broccoli

Watch out for

  • Bolting in heat
  • Slugs
  • Aphids
  • Tip burn

Companion planting pairings are traditional garden practice rather than settled science. Spacing, sun and water do far more for a crop than its neighbours do.

Lettuce questions

Why does my lettuce bolt so quickly?
Heat and lengthening days. Once a lettuce decides it is summer it sends up a flower stalk, the leaves turn bitter and no amount of watering reverses it. Sow in spring and again in late summer rather than through midsummer, choose varieties described as slow to bolt or heat tolerant, and give afternoon shade once the weather warms.
Should I cut lettuce or pull it?
Both work and they suit different aims. Cutting the outer leaves and leaving the centre gives you a longer, smaller harvest from each plant. Cutting the whole head an inch above the crown often produces a second, smaller flush. Pulling the plant frees the space for the next sowing, which is usually the better use of a small bed.
How often should I sow lettuce?
Every two to three weeks through spring and again from late summer. A single sowing gives you far more lettuce than anyone can eat in one fortnight, then nothing. A short row every couple of weeks is the whole trick to having salad continuously, and it costs no more seed overall.
Why is my lettuce bitter?
Stress, most commonly heat or a plant that has started to bolt. Irregular watering and a plant left too long both contribute. Bitterness is not reversible in a bolting plant, but harvesting in the cool of the morning gives noticeably better leaves than picking in the afternoon.
Can lettuce take a frost?
Most varieties take a light frost without harm, which is why lettuce can go out three weeks before your last frost date and carry on well into autumn. A hard freeze will damage the outer leaves. Fleece or a cloche extends the season at both ends considerably for very little effort.
Does lettuce grow in shade?
Better than most vegetables. Four hours of sun is enough, and in high summer partial shade is an advantage rather than a compromise — it slows bolting and keeps the leaves sweeter. A bed that is too shady for tomatoes may be exactly right for salad.

Other crop guides

Calculators for this crop

Last updated

Written by Muzamil Ali. The figures in the quick-facts table are typical published ranges that have not yet been checked against a primary source, so treat them as a starting point and defer to your local extension service. See the disclaimer and how these pages are made.