planting head lettuce from seed Cherokee Red Lettuce Seed

planting head lettuce from seed Cherokee Red Lettuce SeedWhy Grow Cherokee Red Lettuce? A Beautiful Burst of Color Cherokee Red Lettuce has striking, deep red leaves that add a burst of color and flavor to your fall or spring garden. This lettuce has crisp leaves with a rich, robust flavor. They're great alone in a wide range of dishes, or mix them with your favorite green lettuce for a colorful medley. Extended Harvest Window Cherokee Red Lettuce is one of the most heat tolerant lettuce varieties we have

Why Grow Cherokee Red Lettuce?

A Beautiful Burst of Color Cherokee Red Lettuce has striking, deep red leaves that add a burst of color and flavor to your fall or spring garden. This lettuce has crisp leaves with a rich, robust flavor. They're great alone in a wide range of dishes, or mix them with your favorite green lettuce for a colorful medley.

Extended Harvest Window Cherokee Red Lettuce is one of the most heat-tolerant lettuce varieties we have found. Due to its exceptional heat tolerance, it has a long harvest window when grown in the late winter months into spring. This is great for backyard gardeners who only need to harvest 1-2 heads a time.

Cherokee Red Lettuce Growing Tips

• When to Plant Lettuce

Lettuce is a "cool season" vegetable that grows best in the fall and early spring months. Lettuce plants don't like warmer weather, and as a result will typically "bolt" quickly or have a bitter taste when grown in the hottest months of the year.

Cherokee Red Lettuce can be grown as a head lettuce or leaf lettuce. Either way, it will usually perform best when planted from transplants. It can be directly sewn in the garden if only using for leaf lettuce, but you'll get more from your pack of seeds when growing it as head lettuce.

Start seeds in your greenhouse or seed starting room 3-4 weeks before your intended in-ground planting date. Once the lettuce seedlings have an established root ball and can be easily pulled from their cells/containers, they're ready to transplant.

For smaller, compact heads of lettuce, place transplants 6-8" apart in your garden. For larger heads of lettuce, place transplants 10-12" apart. Lettuce works great when planted on double or triple rows to maximize space in your garden.

• How to Fertilize Lettuce

It's always a good idea to apply some pre-plant fertilizer to the soil prior to planting lettuce. We like to sprinkle Coop Gro organic fertilizer on our raised beds or along our rows prior to planting. This ensures the plants have the right nutrients to put down roots in their new soil.

Because lettuce is such a fast growing crop, often times the pre-plant fertilizer is all it needs to form a nice head of lettuce. If your lettuce plants aren't as green as you'd like, consider side-dressing them with more Coop Gro organic fertilizer or making a liquid solution of AgroThrive General Purpose Fertilizer and pouring it alongside the plants

To learn more about fertilizing lettuce, watch this video.

• When to Harvest Lettuce

Lettuce can be harvested at any time throughout the growth cycle of the plant. We prefer to wait and harvest the entire head at once, but many gardeners will choose to only pluck a few leaves as they need them.

Cherokee Red Lettuce will form heads as it enlarges. The heads aren't as compact as butterhead or romaine lettuce, but it does form a head. Wait until the leaves start to form a distinct head, then cut at the base of the soil. Don't wash lettuce until you're ready to use it, as it usually doesn't store well once the leaves are wet.