The beauty of planting leafy produce is enjoying several regeneration harvests. Our basil produces tasty herb all year long. Almost as dependable for multiple harvests from one planting is lettuce.
In previous blog posts we talked about several early crops that were being harvested first. Radishes were first in and first out and first resown and now are ready to come out again. Once the second round of radishes are out, the succession crop will by Swiss Chard.
Spinach was next. Unfortunately it matured while we were on a 10 day vacation and had began to bolt by the time we returned home. We harvested the leaves, then pulled the plants. Beets are the succession plants where the spinach once grew.
Our peas, beans, and spicy peppers have all produced fruit as well, but there is much more to come from the peppers. The beans will produce much more too. Peas gave us a great first round and are now growing more flowers. Those peas are a sweet treat.
Ah, but lettuce. Lettuce is the succession plant for the lettuce. The term used for multiple harvesting of lettuce is Cut and Come Again. Cut the lettuce 1″ to 2″ above the ground and it will continue to grow. In a mere 17 days after the first cutting it came again and we cut it for the second time today.
For maximum crispness and sweetness it is recommended that lettuce be cut in the morning before the sun and heat wilts them a little.
If the remainder of the summer is mild, and if we do not get an early killer frost, we might get several cuts. That’s a lot of ‘ifs’. Typically one can plan for 4 cuts. We however, are eternal garden optimists.
Stay tuned!
Ron's Ramblings 