-Grow Your Own Baby Lettuce Mix – Cut & Come Again

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We introduced Lettuce Seeds (Lactuca sativa) to our inventory in 2022 as we discovered its potential for year-round cultivation in Zone 5, spanning from March to November. Although lettuce is typically categorized as a cool-season crop, there are certain varieties that are well-suited for warmer climates. By employing a few techniques, you can ensure a continuous supply of lettuce throughout the year while maintaining optimal growing conditions. Many growing guides emphasize the importance of selectively harvesting large outer leaves while allowing the smaller leaves to reach full maturity.

We decided to give it a try, despite our limited space for a vegetable garden. We planted 9 butterhead crunch lettuce and 9 romaine lettuce, hoping to sustain ourselves throughout the season. While we were able to harvest outer leaves consistently, we found that the yield from these 18 plants was not sufficient for the needs of two individuals. Additionally, they occupied a significant portion of our raised bed, which measures 12 square feet. The recommended plant spacing for lettuce is typically 12 inches apart, with a row distance of 8 to 12 inches.

Please take a look at these pictures from our friend’s garden. They have successfully grown an abundant supply of lettuce, providing enough to sustain their entire family. However, it is worth noting that achieving such results requires a substantial amount of space. Also, harvesting the outer leaves of lettuce can be quite labor-intensive. It involves carefully twisting off the large outer leaves without causing harm to the center leaves. After a year-long experiment, we have come to a conclusion: Why bother growing our own lettuce?

Most of the time, we use lettuce for salads rather than lettuce wraps. As a result, we frequently choose to purchase baby lettuce mix from the grocery store. So, before completely dismissing the idea of growing lettuce ourselves, we have decided to give baby lettuce mix a try. To our pleasant surprise, despite having limited garden space, we harvested a significantly larger quantity of lettuce than we actually needed. As of today, July 5, 2023, we have harvested 24.5 pounds of baby lettuce leaves. To put it in perspective, this translates to 78 servings (5 ounces per serving). Thanks to the bountiful lettuce harvest, my husband and I are able to savor a big serving of salad every day. Here is the log detailing the lettuce yield we have obtained between May 7 and July 4, 2023.

We conducted the experiment using both raised beds and large containers. Here are the specific setups we utilized: a 3′ x 6′ raised bed, a 2.5′ x 8′ raised bed, a city picker self-watering raised planter, and two 25″ wine barrel planters. The varieties of the seeds we used: arugula, Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce and Mesclun Mixed Greens Lettuce. In April, we sowed the lettuce seeds, and in late May, we removed sections of the lettuce patches to make room for a variety of warm weather crops. The raised bed now accommodates Lettuce, cherry tomato, slicing tomatoes, Shishito peppers, bell peppers, China long cucumbers, pole beans, shiso, basil, bush beans, kale, and loofah plants.

In the 2.5′ x 8′ raised bed, we sowed arugula seeds and Parris island cos romaine lettuce seeds. This picture was taken on May 9th.

Out of the three containers and the additional raised bed, the majority were dedicated to growing mesclun mixed greens. We sowed the seeds on April 1, and the pictures were captured on April 21.

The videos below showcase our lettuce-growing journey in 2023.

1. 3′ x 6′ raised bed. Mesclun mixed greens, arugula, 4 x shishito peppers, 4 x California wonder peppers, 2 x China long cucumbers, 4 x Helda pole beans, 2 x oriental yard long beans.

2. 25″ wine barrel planter. Mesclun Mixed Greens

3. 25″ wine barrel planter. Mesclun Mixed Greens Lettuce and a San Marzano tomato plant.

4. 20″x24″ city picker self-watering planter. Mesclun Mixed Greens Lettuce. 

5. 8′ x 2.5′ raised bed. Mesclun mixed greens, arugula, 2 x kales, 5 x purple shiso plants, 1 x basil, 1 x China long cucumber, 2 x Carmello tomatoes, 1 x Sungold tomato.

Growing lettuce using the cut-and-come-again method is indeed an efficient way to maximize your food production in a limited space. It also requires less time and effort for maintenance: No need to start seeds indoors and transplant; no need to thin the seedlings; no need to prune the suckers; no need to pollinate manually; use less time to harvest your crop. Lettuce matures relatively quickly compared to other vegetables. You can start harvesting leaves before other vegetables have fully matured. This allows you to enjoy homegrown produce earlier in the season.

Below are the notes we took on growing baby lettuce mix.

1. Water well. Lettuce and salad leaves need constantly moist soil/potting mix to thrive. Keep the soil moist (not soggy) from day one.
2. Incorporate blood meal into the soil as soon as it becomes workable. Then fertilize every two weeks with a balanced organic granular fertilizer. Look for a fertilizer in which the three numbers separated by hyphens (N-P-K) are equal or almost equal, such as 4-4-4, 5-3-3, 5-4-3. We are using Espoma Organic Plant-Tone 5-3-3 this year. For our 25” wine barrel planter, we just broadcast a handful fertilizer 2-3 days after harvest. We also apply worm tea to all vegetables every month. It’s not required but your plants will be happy if you serve them worm tea 🙂
3. When it’s time to harvest, cut as much lettuce as you need. take a bunch of leaves in your hand and use scissors to shear off leaves about 2 inches above the soil level. cut too close to the ground will hurt center crown and the plants may not grow back.
4. You can use any loose-leaf lettuce variety for the cut-and-come-again method but also some other leafy vegetable varieties and herbs, such as arugula (rocket) and even cilantro (coriander). Salad seed mixes can be convenient if you want to have a diverse selection of different leaves. We chose Mesclun Mixed Greens because it includes Arugula, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Endive, Kale, Mustards and Lettuces. Given our frequent consumption of salad mix, we want to incorporate as much nutrition as possible into our daily meals.
5. When the greens are not producing as much, or they begin to bolt, it’s time to re-sow. It has been two months since we began harvesting mixed greens on May 9th, 2023, and we still have an abundance of mixed greens for our consumption. We have observed that some of the non-lettuce plants did not regrow after bolting. However, the remaining plants have produced an increased yield of leaves compared to earlier in the season, likely due to their larger size. Additionally, our other vegetables have now matured and are ready for harvest. So there is no need to sow new batches of mixed greens at this time. Our plan is to re-sow in late August, with the aim of cultivating a fresh batch of mixed greens that will be available from late September to November. We look forward to sharing updates on our progress at the end of the season.

Talking about re-sow, here is the result.

8/7/23. Two days after sowing.

8/25/23. Lettuce Gourmet Mixed Greens thrive in warmer temperatures, growing significantly faster. Just twenty days after sowing, they’re ready to be harvested.

June 2024. Many of our friends have been asking questions about plant density, harvesting times, and methods. In the video below, we demonstrate the density of our lettuce bed, the hight of the plants and how we effectively harvest the leaves.