dps wrote:

Plant more lettuce.

Most home gardeners think of spring as the time to plant and summer as
the time to start harvesting. Lettuce takes about 60 days (longer for
romaine), so when it's ready you should eat it. All. This business of
taking a couple leaves off to make the plant last longer doesn't work.
The lettuce eventually bolts and gets bitter.

If you have a dozen heads of lettuce that are ready to harvest and
don't want to be eating nothing but lettuce for the next week, pull
the plants up with the root attached. Wash the root off and put the
plant in a bag with a little water on the roots and put the whole
thing in the fridge. It will last a week or three there.

Better to plant lettuce every 2-3 weeks. That ensures you a continuous
supply of lettuce. As a farmer, I seed lettuce every week until early
August. In New England, it gets cold after September, so the lettuce
takes significantly longer than 60 days. Last year I harvested my last
lettuce out of the field December 21st (I covered it for the frosty
nights). (That was somewhat unusual, as we had no temperatures below
about 15 F before that). Note that lettuce in the field will take
temperatures down to 25F without much problem, although some varieties
will show some tipburn at those temperatures. Red edge lettuce seems
to be more resistant to that problem (maybe because the brown edges
look similar to the natural red edges).

Since lettuce doesn't like hot weather, watch your lettuce for signs
of bolting (elongated heads, stretching of the stem between leaves,
etc.). If you see preliminary signs, pick the lettuce (even if it's
small) and store it as above or cut it up and make lettuce mix. Cut
lettuce mix doesn't last in the fridge as long as heads (the cut edges
start to brown), but it's edible for a week or more.

To facilitate lettuce planting, I start lettuce in very small cells
(200 to a 10" x 20" flat, cells are about 3/4" square, 1" deep), one
seed per cell. Since lettuce seed is hard to handle on an individual
basis, I buy pelleted lettuce seed. It is basically lettuce seed with
a clay coating to produce a sphere about 1/8" in diameter, something
you can handle easily with your fingers. I get them in packages of
10,000, but I've seen them advertised in packages of 250, at a price
not unreasonable for a home gardener. After 3-4 weeks, the roots fill
the small cell so that the plant comes out easily and can be planted
directly in the garden at the proper spacing (I use 12" spacing). In
hot weather, germination is a problem, so as soon as I put the seeds
in the cells and water them, I place the flat in a cool place (60-75
F) for 2 days, then put them outdoors. Note that when the plants start
to size up, these small cells dry out quickly, so you might have to
water them twice a day in hot dry weather. Once in the morning before
going to work and again when coming home seems to work OK generally.
When they start to dry out regularly, get them out of the cells and
into the ground. The plants come out more easily if you soak the cells
a half hour before pulling the plants out.

If you don't have a 200 size tray, check with your local greenhouse to
see if they will sell you one. they're thin plastic, so you can cut
them up with scissors to accommodate the amount of lettuce you are
going to use. If they don't use 200 trays, anything up to 392 might
work, although the smaller cells (larger number of cells) dry out more
quickly. However, the roots fill the smaller cells more quickly, so
the plant will come out for transplanting more quickly. Above 392,
they might require water more than twice a day, and you might
encounter problems with the lettuce plants getting twined together and
hard to remove. Going to lower numbers, you will have to leave the
plants in the cells longer. If the roots don't fill the cell, the
plant doesn't come out cleanly, and transplant shock is an issue.
However, lettuce is tough, so it will probably survive. Just be sure
you water the plants as soon as they are transplanted. That improves
contact between the garden soil and the new plant roots, so the plant
can more easily develop its roots.

PatK wrote:

I've got a small garden going this year for the first time, and have
planted leaf lettuce that has been going fine. I was wondering since
the lettuce is starting to bolt, can I plant something in this space
at this time of year? What would do well? I've got peppers growing
around the lettuce now so whatever I plant needs to like some light
shade. The space I'm talking about is only about 2' by 6'. I'm in
zone 6a.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll plant more lettuce! G
Pat