Lettuce gone to seed

Jbeeman 5/5/2013, 12:17 am

My yummy lettuce is getting very tall now and there are flowers forming on the very top.
1) Is it still alright to eat the leaves?
2) How do I harvest the seeds?

This is my second try to be a success. The heat here, cooks most everything, in my small garden, during the summer months.

Thank you,
Joan in Arizona Rolling Eyes

Pepper 5/5/2013, 8:34 am

$glad you\'re here$ to the forum Jbeeman.
Yes you can eat them but they will be extremely bitter. We usually just pull them and put them in the compost pile; if caught before the seeds form.
As to saving seed someone else will need to pipe in.

Windmere 5/5/2013, 9:20 am

Jbeeman wrote:My yummy lettuce is getting very tall now and there are flowers forming on the very top.
1) Is it still alright to eat the leaves?
2) How do I harvest the seeds?

This is my second try to be a success. The heat here, cooks most everything, in my small garden, during the summer months.

Thank you,
Joan in Arizona

Hi Joan,

I'm not sure if this will help much, but I learned from my local extension office that Jericho Lettuce can help extend the growing season (a little bit) in warmer climates. Jericho Lettuce was developed in Israel to flourish in Israel's warmer climate.

plantoid 5/5/2013, 4:33 pm

Jbeeman wrote:My yummy lettuce is getting very tall now and there are flowers forming on the very top.
1) Is it still alright to eat the leaves?
2) How do I harvest the seeds?

This is my second try to be a success. The heat here, cooks most everything, in my small garden, during the summer months.

Thank you,
Joan in Arizona

Joan look in the thread " Seed saving " using the site search facility .
Ever thought of making a sun shade out of an old cotton sheet over hoops to make an open ended tunnel over the lettuce and if your around at th times fine water spray the sheeting a couple of times a day around main heat periods to drop the temps by the process of water evaporation.

**Turan** 5/5/2013, 4:49 pm

Cook the leaves, that deals with most of the bitterness in bolted lettuce. Then pull and compost the plant.

CapeCoddess 5/5/2013, 5:31 pm

Turan wrote:Cook the leaves, that deals with most of the bitterness in bolted lettuce.

No guff. I never knew that. Great info!
Thanks!
CC

Windmere 5/5/2013, 7:08 pm

Turan wrote:Cook the leaves, that deals with most of the bitterness in bolted lettuce. Then pull and compost the plant.

Turan, I like your tip about cooking lettuce leaves. It sounds great. Do you grill, boil, or blanch (or some other cooking method)?

**Turan** 5/5/2013, 7:14 pm

I chop and toss them in at the end of cooking stir-fries or curries or lentil stew. They might not loose all their bitterness, but we like some flavor in them in these recipes. If you want to loose all flavor you might blanch and discard the water, like you do for dandelions, but that seems a lot of work to me.

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