Alan Sung wrote:
"Bruce W.1" wrote in message
news:a8Rvc.9522$W01.505@okepread01...

Thought I try growing lettuce in pots on my balcony, which faces north
and get little direct sun.

Does lettuce like shade or lots of direct sunlight?


Lettuce likes lots of direct sun. Needs lots of water also.

Spring and fall lettuce do fine in full sun. In hot weather, lettuce
will do better in part shade. However, lettuce will grow in moderately
shady spots although it may be slower than in direct sun.

I generally advise against the practice of pulling a few leaves off the
lettuce at a time. This encourages the plant to bolt (try to set seed),
at which time the leaves get a bitter taste. Better to pull up the whole
plant, with roots, wash off the roots and put into a plastic bag with a
little water around the roots and keep in the fridge. It will last a
couple of weeks that way (unless it gets eaten first).

Try to plant sequential crops of lettuce, not just one planting in the
spring. I plant lettuce every week, although for a limited size garden
every two weeks would probably be OK. Hot weather encourages bolting in
lettuce, so when it's hot, harvest the lettuce early. This produces
somewhat smaller heads, but at least you get something out of it.

Lettuce will also take fairly cold weather. I've had lettuce survive
20F, although at that level it gets a fair amount of tipburn. 25-28F is
generally no problem. Red edge lettuce does better than green lettuce as
far as withstanding frost (at least the varieties I grow). Not sure
about lettuce in pots: at least in the field the ground will store more
heat from the day than a pot in the open air. On the other hand, the pot
is portable and you could just take it in at night.

Lettuce needs a moderate amount of water. It's not a wetland plant, but
it certainly doesn't like xeriscapes. I would estimate that it would
need to be watered in a pot every 2-3 days, possibly 1-2 days in really
hot weather.