You can watch this segment from the High Performance Garden Show Week 5 to watch how to pick leaf lettuce. For more leafy greens and other vegetable gardening techniques, check out this free weekly show. You are sure to learn so much in the High Performance Garden.
From the video, did you notice how lettuce grows in a spiral formation? Those outer leaves are always the ones that are best to pick. When you pick them when they are young and tender you will find that they will have an incredible flavor and make beautiful salads. You can use this technique of growing all kinds of greens. Kale, swiss chard and beet greens are among the top types of leafy green that are always grown for too long. When you pick them when they are no more than 5 inches long you will enjoy a superior flavor and texture to that of a matured leaf.
After you pick the outer leaves, allow the crown to grow for another week. By that time the spiral will have grown out even more and the new crown leaves from before will be the outer leaves. This cycle continues for a few weeks depending on the variety. By picking this way you can also stop the plant from bolting as quickly as it would with other picking techniques.
When you cut the lettuce with scissors sometimes it can cause browning of the leaves and damage the crown. This technique is better for young salad mixes all season long. Our preference is the loose leaf salad, and it is the preference of our customers as well! The farm is well known for it’s tender salad mixes. When you grow any leafy green using this idea of the small individual leaves, you can plant closer together and harvest more. If you are interested in having the best tasting greens this season, why not try this technique?
Picking leaf lettuce this way is a key technique to having lettuce all season long. If you would like to grow lettuce all season long, take a look at the Leafy Greens Container Garden Course. In that course you can learn my family secret soil recipe, the farm’s techniques for succession planting, and how to feed the lettuce all season long. This is the garden course for everyone! No experience required to have a lush garden of your dreams. Watch the video below to learn more or read the Leafy Greens Container Garden Course summary to get started.
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Was amazed that the plants weren’t being pulled out of the soil when you picked the leaves from them. Guess my roots aren’t as good as yours. And loved the harvesting basket you were using, where can I get one like that?
The picking baskets are nursery tree containers from http://www.stuewe.com/. We use what we have around here and I really like these baskets.