Crops & Breeds › Vegetable Garden
🥗 Lettuce
Vegetable Garden · growing reference
| Days to maturity | 45 days – 75 days, by type |
|---|---|
| Germination | 5 days |
| Direct sowing | +7 days vs transplants |
| Spacing | 10″ in the row × 15″ between rows |
| Planted as | seed |
| Water | ~1–1.5 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Recommended planting window around Apr 1. Start seeds indoors ~5 weeks earlier.
| Spring | Fall | |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 3 | May 1 | Jul 13 |
| Zone 4 | Apr 23 | Jul 18 |
| Zone 5 | Apr 12 | Jul 31 |
| Zone 6 | Apr 1 | Aug 12 |
| Zone 7 | Mar 18 | Sep 2 |
| Zone 8 | Mar 1 | Sep 17 |
| Zone 9 | Feb 6 | Oct 2 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Lettuce Types
- Looseleaf · 45 days · 0.3–0.6 lbs/plant — Cut-and-come-again (Salad Bowl, Black Seeded Simpson) — baby leaves in ~3 weeks; the red ones are varieties.
- Butterhead · 55 days · 0.5–1 lbs/plant — Soft folded heads (Buttercrunch, Bibb, Boston) — the tender garden classic.
- Romaine · 60 days · 1–1.5 lbs/plant — Upright cos heads — the Caesar lettuce; takes more heat than the round heads (Little Gem is a mini variety).
- Batavian · 65 days · 0.8–1.2 lbs/plant — Summer crisp (Nevada, Muir) — half leaf, half crisphead; the one that shrugs off heat.
- Crisphead · 75 days · 1–2 lbs/plant — The tight iceberg ball — the long haul; wants a cool finish and steady water.
🌱 Five Acres of Freedom — plan a year's food, map
your land to scale, and keep every homestead record. The numbers on
this page are the same ones the app plans with.
🍏 Download on the App Store
📱 On Android? Join the waitlist