Lactuca sativa
Spring lettuce, spring butterhead lettuce, early butter lettuce: this is the salad for the first fine days of the year, selected to germinate and form heads in still-cool temperatures. Its tender head and soft leaves make it the first fresh salad of the year, arriving before all the others.
Characteristics:
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Early maturity: it forms a head early, when other lettuces are only just getting started.
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Tender leaves: soft and delicate, with a mild, refined flavor.
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Suitable for cool conditions: it tolerates the low temperatures of the early season.
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Flexible cultivation: outdoors, under a cold frame, or in a polytunnel to gain a few more weeks.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: sunny — at the beginning of the season, it needs all the available light.
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Soil: cool, loose, humus-rich, and well drained, enriched with compost. Consistent soil moisture remains crucial, even in spring.
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Method: sow barely covered, as the seeds need light to germinate. From February to mid-May, staggering sowings every two weeks. Under a cold frame or in a polytunnel in February–March, then in the open ground. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant at the 4- or 5-leaf stage, spacing plants 25 to 30 cm apart, without burying the crown: this is the main cause of rot in young lettuces, particularly in spring when the soil remains damp.
Care advice:
- Water moderately at the base in the morning, without wetting the foliage — moisture on the leaves encourages downy mildew in spring.
- Lightly hoe to warm and aerate the soil between the rows.
Harvesting advice:
- Cut the head at ground level as soon as it is well formed. Do not wait: as the days lengthen, bolting comes quickly.
- Leave the stump in the ground; it often produces a few tender regrowths.
Beneficial pairings:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Let one plant bolt at the end of its cycle: its small yellow flowers attract hoverflies and solitary bees at a time when food resources are still limited.
- Its early cultivation helps cover the soil from the beginning of spring, when the vegetable garden is still largely bare.
Uses:
- Raw in salads, its tenderness needs only a simple vinaigrette. Its soft leaves are also excellent in spring soups and with French-style peas.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Let a strong plant bolt: it produces a flower stalk followed by tufted achenes, which should be harvested as they ripen successively. Since lettuce is self-pollinating, cross-pollination is rare — making it an ideal species for beginners in seed production. See how to save your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The first fresh salad of the year.
