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Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
  • Queensland Lettuce
Queensland Lettuce

Lactuca sativa
$4.50
Description

An Australian heirloom Romaine-type lettuce with big leaves and quite large heads. 

Individual leaves can be harvested from the outer parts, leaving new growth to develop on the inside for a continual harvest, or you can harvest the entire head. This variety is exceptionally slow to bolt in warm weather, which is a key trait we select for in our climate. When our mild winters get warm for a few days, Queensland is less likely to bolt and become bitter, compared to other lettuce varieties. 

This is our 4th saved generation in Gainesville, always saving from later bolting plants. We originally got our seed stock from ECHO in South Florida and have been saving this ever since. If a few do well for you, don't eat the entire plant, eat some leaves but let them bolt and save your own adapted seeds!
Product details
  • About 100 seeds
  • 58 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 germinate, 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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