Fall lettuce

My fall lettuce is an enigma this year. I planted purchased seedlings since I have never had luck with fall lettuce from seed. I selected varieties much as I select seed for spring planting; a nice mix of color and texture. I went with Red Sails, Red Romaine and Buttercrunch. These were set out in early September, in a planter that gets morning sun.

The results have been interesting. The red color is almost absent, unlike my spring plantings, and probably due to the afternoon shade. The stalks are elongating but not putting on a flower head. The lettuce is still delicious, meatier than spring lettuce and not yet bitter.

I have a theory. Lettuce is a long day crop, needing over twelve hours of daylight to set seed, and hot weather has been demonstrated to hasten bolting. The seedlings were set out as the days were getting shorter but a couple of weeks ago we had a period where temperatures hovered around 90. Photoperiod trumped heat, resulting in the growth that precedes flowering, but lacking long enough days, the flowers did not follow.

All this speculation aside, I have been downright stingy with this lettuce. Planting seedlings means I do not plant nearly as many as in the spring when I start them from seed. And the lettuce is the last fresh green I will enjoy until April. So I mete out a few leaves to be mixed with market lettuce and spinach. My reluctance to use it all reminds me of long ago, playing outside as dusk descended. Just as I couldn’t bear to let even a photon of light be lost by going indoors I now find myself, an adult, unwilling to let the lettuce go as long as there are any leaves left to last until a killing frost. Curious