Lettuce Little Gem Seeds, average packet contents :  500 seeds

Lettuce Little Gem is very popular with amateur growers, and also a best seller in the supermarkets. It is a quick maturing, compact small cos type with tight hearts with a very sweet flavour. It is especially suited to smaller garden as it can be grown at a higher density.

Harvesting time will depend on sowing time.

General Guide to Sowing and Growing Lettuce Seeds

Lettuce need good soil to grow well, ideally the soil should have been well dug the previous autumn incorporating adequate manure as digging. Lettuce plants don’t like full sun but enjoy growing in an area which is slightly shaded and away from full sun.

Seeds can be started indoors or outdoors for a summer crop;

• Indoors: Sow 2 seeds to a cell, removing the weaker seedling as soon as the first true leaves appear on the plant. Plant outdoors once the seedlings are considered large enough.
• Outdoors: Sow seeds thinly in 2cm deep drills which are 30cm apart. Cover the seeds with soil. When sowing outdoors make sure you don’t sow the seeds to close as this will waste seeds and make more working thinning them out in a few weeks time.
• Lettuce Seeds germinate best at cooler temperatures, they may stay dormant if too hot.

You will need to protect your lettuce seedlings from slugs.

Harvesting Lettuce

Lettuce are quick growers and before you know it your lettuce will be ready for harvesting. The lettuce will be ready as soon as a firm heart has formed, you can test to see if they ready for harvesting by gently squeezing the top of the plant.

Pull the whole plant from the ground and then cut off the root and lower leaves. Making sure you compost the roots and lower leaves.