I've tried growing lettuces several times but they always taste quite
bitter. What is the secret of growing good lettuce? My soil is clay of pH
about 7.0 and I usually fertilise with poultry manure and chemical
fertiliser.

On Sun, 18 May 2003 19:58:22 +0900, "Gyve Turquoise"
wrote:

I've tried growing lettuces several times but they always taste quite
bitter. What is the secret of growing good lettuce? My soil is clay of pH
about 7.0 and I usually fertilise with poultry manure and chemical
fertiliser.


Lettuce gets bitter when the weather is too hot for it.

Where do you live? Is it hot summer there?

Pat

When last we left our heros, on Sun, 18 May 2003 19:58:22 +0900,
"Gyve Turquoise" scribbled:

I've tried growing lettuces several times but they always taste quite
bitter. What is the secret of growing good lettuce? My soil is clay of pH
about 7.0 and I usually fertilise with poultry manure and chemical
fertiliser.

What zone are you in? In my zone 7/8 yard, I grow lettuce as a
cool season crop. If we hadn't had such a cool spring, I would
have already had to pull most of it up. As it is, I'm still
enjoying lettuce and dill, but they'll both bolt during the first
heat wave.


Pam
--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"

"Pam Rudd" wrote in message
...
When last we left our heros, on Sun, 18 May 2003 19:58:22 +0900,
"Gyve Turquoise" scribbled:

I've tried growing lettuces several times but they always taste quite
bitter. What is the secret of growing good lettuce? My soil is clay of pH
about 7.0 and I usually fertilise with poultry manure and chemical
fertiliser.

What zone are you in?

Thank you and Pat Meadows for your response. I live in eastern Japan near
Tokyo. I don't know what USDA zone this corresponds to. Winter minimum
temperature is about -4C and summer maximum is about 35C. Somehow my lettuce
always seems to grow incredibly slowly, which is probably why it gets into
the hot weather. My guess is that as Pat said this has made it taste bitter
in the past. Thanks again for your advice.

On Mon, 19 May 2003 15:56:17 +0900, "Gyve Turquoise"
wrote:


Thank you and Pat Meadows for your response. I live in eastern Japan near
Tokyo. I don't know what USDA zone this corresponds to. Winter minimum
temperature is about -4C and summer maximum is about 35C. Somehow my lettuce
always seems to grow incredibly slowly, which is probably why it gets into
the hot weather. My guess is that as Pat said this has made it taste bitter
in the past. Thanks again for your advice.




I'd suggest that you try to grow it as a spring crop, or a
fall crop, avoiding the heat of summer.

If the coldest is gets is -4C where you live, you could even
try growing lettuce during the winter.

It will withstand cold weather. I had lettuce outside in
pots this spring, and it survived a night of 15 F
temperature just fine (that's -9.4 C). It appeared frozen
in the morning, but thawed out and started growing again
immediately.

Pat

"Gyve Turquoise" wrote:

Somehow my lettuce
always seems to grow incredibly slowly, which is probably why it gets into
the hot weather.

Lettuce should grow quite quickly; look to moisture levels and nutrients,
especially nitrogen. Slow-grown lettuce is often bitter.

I spent some time down south, in Iwakuni. Beautiful place.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G