This Romaine lettuce has green leaves splashed with red. The red darkens as the lettuce matures. Freckles is an heirloom which is tender and long standing. It makes a beautiful addition to any salad! Asteraceae Lactuca sativa.
Freckles Lettuce gets its name for being an unusual bright green romaine lettuce with crimson freckles! This uniquely colored lettuce is sun-loving and grows upright. This variety has a crisp texture that can be harvested early or late!
To harvest the entire plant when mature, cut it just above the surface of the soil; lettuce tastes best when fresh, but keeps in the refrigerator for about a week. Freckles lettuce is known for being high in iron and other beneficial minerals.
Speckled lettuce is a Dutch heirloom lettuce. It is a cross between a green butterhead and the German Forellenschluss or trout back romaine. It's noted for its rosettes of large, apple-green, rounded leaves that are heavily splashed with burgundy speckles, as they can truly beautify any garden.
Tango Lettuce is a fun curled baby leaf lettuce variety! This lettuce has a crisp clean texture and holds up well with numerous salad dressings. This attractive uniform plant forms tight erect rosettes that are 12" across and 6-8" tall. Tango is an oak leaf variety.
McDonald's recently updated the standard lettuce mix in all their salads, and instead of applauding a switch from iceberg lettuce to a mix of Romaine, baby kale, and baby spinach, bloggers are howling about the calorie, fat and sodium content of the salads!
There are four main types of lettuce: romaine (or cos), which forms tall and loose oblong heads; crisphead, which grows in tight heads that resemble cabbage; butterhead, which grows in soft, thick-leaved heads; and looseleaf, or leaf lettuce, which grows in a loose rosette of tender leaves off the stem.
Which brings us to the weird little dots you see on the lettuce pictured above. The condition is called “russet spotting.” Ethylene causes the lettuce to produce certain compounds which lead to those brown spots. The lettuce is still safe to eat, though make sure to give it a good rinse.
Wild Lettuce is a rigid, erect annual or biennial weed growing from a taproot to about 1 m high. It is more slender than Prickly Lettuce and the leaves are narrow and deeply lobed with no prickles. The flower head has pale yellow ray florets with toothed tips.
Sowing Outdoors: Spring when the soil temperature reaches at least 50ºF. Sow 1” apart, thin to 6-12”, depending on the size of lettuce you want, baby to full heads. Keep soil moist during germination. Sow every 2-3 weeks for a longer harvest period.
As long as you keep taking care of the plant, you can harvest a single lettuce that's grown in soil for four or five times. If you stagger the starting times for your regrowing project, you'll have a steady stream of fresh greens whenever you need it.
So it's important to harvest regularly. Unlike head lettuce, which is typically done once the head is harvested, leaf lettuce is a “cut and come again” crop. That means you can take a few leaves at a time or all of them at once, and the plant will regrow those leaves — until the plant bolts or frost comes.
Description/Taste
The leaves are crisp, ruffled at the edges, and tender. Freckles lettuce is succulent, notably minerally and bitter in flavor, has a clean and mild finish, and can be grown as a baby or mature lettuce variety.
The ideal lettuce growing location for spring and fall is in a spot that receives full sun. If you plan on growing lettuce during the summer or in warm planting zones, partial shade can provide protection from the heat.
Dark-green leafy greens offer plenty of the antioxidant beta carotene, which helps to form vitamin A in the body and may help lower the risk for certain diseases. The darker the leaves, the more nutrient-rich the lettuce. For example, romaine has nine times more vitamin A than iceberg lettuce.
Lettuce varieties range in sizes, shapes, colours and flavours however crisphead (iceberg), romaine (cos), butterhead and looseleaf are the most popular in Australia. Lettuce grows best at relatively cool temperatures and does not like extreme heat or cold.
One of the healthiest and highest producing lettuce plants that you can grow is romaine. Some plants may be beautiful or have other strengths but produce very little fruit. There are even fruit trees that won't produce anything worthy of eating for several years.
Characteristics: Iceberg is known for being very crisp, watery, and refreshing. It forms in basketball-sized heads, with large, tightly packed, pale-green leaves.
When should I avoid taking wild lettuce? Avoid use in pregnant or breastfeeding people, or in children. Also, avoid if you take sedative medications, herbs, supplements, or beverages, including alcohol, opioids, or antihistamines like Benadryl (diphenhydramine).
Downy Mildew
Lettuce that is exposed to long periods of cool, wet temperatures is highly susceptible to this fungus-like infection. Symptoms of this disease include yellow or brown spots on leaves; wilting; and the development of fluffy mold, typically on the underside of leaves.
A-The brown spots on lettuce may be cosmetically undesirable, but they do not make the lettuce unsafe to eat. The spots may be the result of a high storage temperature. Lettuce should be stored at a fairly low temperature in an airtight container. Stored this way, some lettuce can be kept for as long as three weeks.
Romaine. If you've ever had a Caesar salad, you've had romaine, also known as cos lettuce. With a long, upright head of crisp, pale green leaves sporting crunchy midribs, romaine—particularly the lighter leaves toward the center (the heart)—is more flavorful than some other varieties.
Butterhead. Generally grown to full-size heads, butterhead lettuce has a beautiful ruffled appearance, with a blanched heart and a delicate, sweet, and buttery flavor.
1. Crisphead lettuce (Iceberg) Crisphead lettuce is a type of lettuce that is easily recognizable by its large, tightly packed leaves and crunchy texture. It is the most common lettuce sold in grocery stores, with the specific cultivar 'Iceberg' being the most popular.