GardenAnnual Leafy Green · 42 varieties
Leaf Lettuce
Lactuca sativa
Asteraceae — the same plant family as head lettuce, common sunflower, purple coneflower, calendula and 12 more here. Relatives share pests and diseases, which is why rotation plans group by family.
Leaf Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an annual leafy green. It wants full sun and pH 6–6.8 soil, with about 1–2 in of water weekly. It matures in about 50–60 days from sowing, or 30–40 days from setting out a transplant. Watch for aphids and gray mold. Below: its full sourced profile from 10 extension sources, plus a planting calendar timed to your frost dates.
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP for yours. This calendar assumes the crop is started indoors. Timing is a guide from the crop's sourced growth stages; confirm with your local frost dates and extension before you sow.
What we will not put a number on
We do not give a feeding rate for this crop, and that is deliberate rather than a gap. The figures published by extension services are pounds of nitrogen per acre for a production field — they do not convert safely to a raised bed or a pot without knowing your soil test and your fertilizer's analysis, and guessing errs toward burning roots. It is also why every chart you find online disagrees with the next one.
We give watering as a depth per week rather than gallons per plant, because that is how it is actually measured and how the published figures are written. A gallons-per-plant number depends on your spacing, your soil and whether the plant is in a pot — so it would look more precise than it is.
Site & soil
- Sun
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6–6.8
- Soil texture
- Loam, Well drained
- Frost tolerance
- Half hardy
- Suffers in days above
- 75–85 °F
No published figure for the temperature frost starts to hurt it, the temperature that would kill it and a warm-night limit. We looked — where a number is missing here it is missing from the research, not skipped. The crop’s frost and heat tolerance above still applies.
The plant
- Mature height
- 6–12 in
- Mature spread
- 6–12 in
- Growth rate
- Fastest
- Spacing in row
- 4–12 in
- Between rows
- 12–18 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.5 in
- Container size
- 0.5 gal
- Support
- Self-supportingest
- Grown from
- Direct sow, Transplant
There is no line here for the point in its life when water matters most, because we have no figure to put there. We went looking and wrote down what we read — it is missing on purpose, not because nobody checked.
Water & feeding
- Water needs
- Moderate
- Water per week
- 1–2 in/wk
- Feeding
- Moderate
Timing & fruiting
- Days to maturity
- 50–60 days from seed · 30–40 days from transplant
- Harvest cues
- Rapid leaf growthest
Planted again for autumn
- Set plants out by
- late Sep typical · zone 6b
30 days to maturity from setting a plant out — that is what our sources measure for this crop, so this is a date for planting out and not a sowing date, counted back from the first frost above. Not published for anywhere in particular: it is your own frost date and this crop's own figure, which is why it works wherever you are. A days-to-maturity figure is a catalog number for a good season rather than a promise, and a cold month moves it.
Edible parts per source: leaf.
Compiled from the extensions cited below. Which ones actually show up depends on your region — your extension's local list is the last word.
Quick lettuce fills the row while slow carrots take their time.
A tall tomato throws exactly the shade lettuce wants once summer heat makes it flower and turn bitter (bolt).
On the classic charts — lettuce's own row lists onions.
Companion pairings from university extensions; badge = how strong the evidence is.
Open one and add it to your garden — it lights up here. The rest of the 42 are in the full list below.
| Variety | Type | Days | Color | Disease | What it is known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Yellow Heirloom | Looseleaf | 50 | Green | Pinetree Garden Seeds describes this asslow to run to seed in heat | |
| Bauer Lettuce | Oakleaf | 43 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | Johnny's Selected Seeds describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat |
| Bergam's Green Lettuce | Looseleaf | 51 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | |
| Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 45 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat | |
| Bronze Arrowhead Lettuce Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50 | Green, Brown | ||
| Bronze Beauty Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 45 | Green, Brown | Gurney's Seed & Nursery describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| Bughatti Lettuce | Oakleaf | 30–40 | Red | Paramount Seeds describes this asslow to run to seed in heat | |
| Cocarde Lettuce Heirloom | Oakleaf | 49 | Red, Brown | ||
| Cracoviensis Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 47 | Green, Red | Fedco Seeds describes this astakes the cold | |
| Ezrilla Lettuce | Oakleaf | 50 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | |
| Flame Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 45–60 | Red | True Leaf Market describes this asslow to run to seed in heat | |
| Grand Rapids Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 45 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Green Deer Tongue Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 46 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Green Ice Lettuce | Looseleaf | 45 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Green Oak Heirloom | Oakleaf | 65 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat | |
| Green Salad Bowl Lettuce Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Green Star Lettuce | Looseleaf | 53 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | Johnny's Selected Seeds describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat |
| Lollo Bionda Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 50 | Green | True Leaf Market describes this astakes the heat · takes the cold | |
| Lollo Rossa Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 53 | Green, Red | ||
| Merlot Lettuce | Looseleaf | 43 | Red | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| Midnight Ruffles Lettuce | Looseleaf | 45 | Red | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| New Red Fire Lettuce | Looseleaf | 55 | Green, Red | DOWNY_MILDEW | Botanical Interests describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat |
| Oscarde Lettuce | Oakleaf | 45 | Green, Red | ||
| Panisse Lettuce | Oakleaf | 48 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | |
| Prizehead Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 45 | Green, Red | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| Red Deer Tongue Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 50–55 | Red | Firefly Farm & Mercantile describes this astakes the heat | |
| Red Oak Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50–68 | Red | ||
| Red Sails Lettuce | Looseleaf | 45 | Green, Red, Brown | Botanical Interests describes this astakes the heat · takes the cold | |
| Red Salad Bowl Lettuce Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50 | Red | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat · takes the cold | |
| Rhone Lettuce | Oakleaf | 55 | Red | DOWNY_MILDEW | High Mowing Organic Seeds describes this astakes the heat |
| Royal Oak Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50 | Green | Hudson Valley Seed Company describes this astakes the heat · takes the cold | |
| Ruby Red Lettuce | Looseleaf | 45 | Green, Red | Urban Farmer describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| Ruby Sky Lettuce | Looseleaf | 58 | Green, Red | DOWNY_MILDEW | Johnny's Selected Seeds describes this asslow to run to seed in heat |
| Salad Bowl Lettuce Heirloom | Oakleaf | 50 | Green | High Mowing Organic Seeds describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Simpson Elite Lettuce | Looseleaf | 53 | Green | Territorial Seed Company describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Slobolt Lettuce Heirloom | Looseleaf | 53 | Green | Fedco Seeds describes this asslow to run to seed in heat · takes the heat | |
| Starfighter Lettuce | Looseleaf | 52 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | Johnny's Selected Seeds describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat |
| Sulu Lettuce | Oakleaf | 32 | Green | DOWNY_MILDEW | |
| Tango Lettuce | Oakleaf | 43 | Green | ||
| Two Star Lettuce | Looseleaf | 45 | Green | ||
| Vulcan Lettuce | Looseleaf | 50 | Red | Adaptive Seeds describes this astakes the heat · slow to run to seed in heat | |
| Waldmann's Green Lettuce | Looseleaf | 41 | Green | Urban Farmer describes this asslow to run to seed in heat |
- Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC
- Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
- Michigan State University Extension
- NC State Extension
- UF/IFAS Extension Leon County
- University of Illinois Extension
- University of Maryland Extension
- University of Minnesota Extension
- Utah State University Extension
We compile bare facts from these university-extension and horticultural sources, never copied prose. 16 of the 19 values on this page carry a citation. The rest are marked est; hover one and it says why — either nobody publishes a figure we could point at, or a person set it and attached no source. Figures vary with climate and seed source; confirm with your local extension before you buy.
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