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Grandpa Admires Lettuce
  • Grandpa Admires Lettuce
  • Grandpa Admires Lettuce
  • Grandpa Admires Lettuce
  • Grandpa Admires Lettuce
Grandpa Admires Lettuce

Lactuca sativa
$4.50
Description

A beautiful butterhead type lettuce with leaves that swirl around a crispy head, with a touch of reddish-bronze, or purplish-pink artistic watercolor-like strokes through the light green ruffled leaves. Truly beautiful!

We originally grew it after seeing how lovely it was at the demonstration gardens of Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. We were impressed with its vigor down here, and she is so, so pretty! This is also a favorite of local gardener, artist, homesteader and seed saver, Angie Minnow.

We've been saving this for many years now, so these seeds know our area a little better! Not the first to bolt in the garden, but not as long standing as some others. These plants can get quite large if well cared for. 

Named after George Admire, a veteran of the American Civil War.
Product details
  • About 100 seeds
  • 55 days from transplant to harvest
  • Seeds grown in Working Food gardens at GROW HUB in Gainesville, Florida
How to grow

Lettuce can be direct seeded or transplanted. Soaking for about 6 hours in cool water in a well-lit area helps germination. Sow very shallow, spaced 6-10" apart. Lettuce needs light to germinated, do not bury! We tend to do transplants, but that's just us. Sow often throughout the season from about September/October (when it starts cooling down) through February/March as it heats up. Lettuce is a cool loving crop and eventually will bolt and produce flowers and seeds when the temperatures are unbearable for it.
How to save seeds

Lettuce is a great crop for beginner seed savers and is quite easy, if you have the extra time to let it fully reproduce in the garden, which is a few extra months! It is an inbreeding plant and is not likely to cross with other flowering lettuces.

However, if you plan to save seed from more than one variety, it's still best to give them a little space, about 10ft or more apart just in case. Always save from later bolting plants as this is a desirable trait to select for. No one likes an early bolting lettuce!

5 or more plants are recommended for good seed but saving from only one healthy plant is also just fine! It's best not to harvest leaves heavily from a plant that you intend to save seed for. If your lettuce is exhausted after a season of heavy picking and eating, it might not have enough resources to make healthy seeds.

After lettuce flowers, small pods form with little white fluffy tops. Ideally, they dry down on the plant if the weather permits. Each little pod contains several seeds. Maturity is staggered over time so on the same plant it may take weeks to get all the seed off. You may also pull the plant out of the soil, roots and all once half or more shows maturity, and further dry indoors.

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