Succession Planting Lettuce: A Two-Week Sowing Schedule

Succession Planting Lettuce: The Two-Week Rule

Succession planting lettuce means sowing a small amount every two weeks instead of the whole packet on one day. UC Master Gardeners put it simply: sowing seed every two weeks is about right for lettuce. Each sowing matures two weeks behind the last, so as one batch is picked or begins to bolt, the next is ready. Start 2 to 3 weeks before your last spring frost, keep going while temperatures stay under about 75°F, pause or shade in midsummer, then start again in late summer for fall.

Here is how the stagger plays out with a leaf lettuce that reaches picking size about six weeks after sowing and is harvested over the following two weeks:

Sowing	Sow in	Grows during	Harvest during
1	Week 1	Weeks 1 to 6	Weeks 7 to 8
2	Week 3	Weeks 3 to 8	Weeks 9 to 10
3	Week 5	Weeks 5 to 10	Weeks 11 to 12
4	Week 7	Weeks 7 to 12	Weeks 13 to 14

Four sowings cover eight straight weeks of harvest from Week 7 to Week 14. Lettuce takes 40 to 80 days to mature depending on the type, so a romaine or crisphead will run longer than this example and a baby-leaf cutting will run shorter. The two-week spacing between sowings stays the same either way.

Why One Big Sowing Fails

Lettuce does not wait for you. Every plant from a single sowing reaches full size in the same week, and University of Maryland Extension notes that increasing day length and high summer temperatures then push plants to form a seed stalk. Once that happens the leaves turn bitter. A whole packet sown on one April afternoon gives you two weeks of more salad than you can eat, followed by a bed of bolted plants.

Small, repeated sowings turn that glut into a steady supply. Virginia Cooperative Extension gives the same advice for butterhead types, recommending plantings about two weeks apart for continuous harvests.

When to Start and When to Stop

Temperature sets the limits of the schedule. Utah State University Extension says lettuce seed can go in once soil reaches 40°F, with the optimum for germination at 55 to 65°F, and that soil temperatures above 80°F reduce germination. For the growing plants, UC Master Gardeners give 45 to 73°F as the best range and warn that heat above 80°F causes most varieties to bolt and become bitter. Utah State puts the comfort ceiling at 75°F.

Those numbers translate into a calendar for most temperate gardens:

1. First sowing: 2 to 3 weeks before the last spring frost. Young plants are not seriously damaged by temperatures down to 32°F.
2. Repeat every two weeks through spring.
3. Pause, or move to shade and heat-tolerant types, when daytime highs settle near 80°F.
4. Resume in late summer. For the fall run, sow 50 to 75 days before the date you want the crop to mature.
5. Keep sowing every two weeks until that fall cutoff.

To find your spring start, look up your frost date first. The method in when to start seeds indoors applies here. In mild-winter regions the calendar flips. University of Florida guidance describes planting lettuce from October through February, a couple of rows every month, because summer is the off season there.

How Much to Sow Each Time

The right amount is what your household eats in two weeks, and for most families that is a short row. Spacing tells you how many plants a row holds. Maryland and Virginia both give 4 to 10 inches between plants for leaf, romaine and butterhead lettuce, in rows 12 to 24 inches apart. Crisphead needs 12 to 15 inches between plants.

Type	In-row spacing	Plants in a 3-foot row
Leaf, butterhead, romaine	4 to 10 inches	about 4 to 9
Crisphead	12 to 15 inches	2 to 3

Sow seed shallowly. Utah State gives 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, and University of Georgia Extension suggests 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Thin leaf lettuce seedlings to 4 to 8 inches apart, depending on variety, and eat the thinnings.

Divide a bed into four strips and sow one strip per round. By the time the fourth strip is sown, the first is ready to harvest and clear, and you can sow it again. Lettuce also fits between slower crops early in their season, a tactic covered in the companion planting chart, and it grows well in window boxes and tubs like those in containers for a balcony vegetable garden.

Change Varieties as the Season Shifts

Sowing the same variety all year wastes the method. University of Vermont Extension’s advice is to choose cool-season lettuce varieties for spring and fall and heat-tolerant varieties for summer.

For the first and last sowings, leaf and butterhead types are the easy choice. Maryland and Virginia both say to seed them as soon as the soil can be worked in spring, or in late summer, while crisphead and romaine do better transplanted in early spring or fall.

For the sowings that will mature in warm weather, pick slow-bolting types. Maryland points to oak-leaf lettuces as heat resistant. UC Master Gardeners name the butterheads ‘Red Cross’ and ‘Aunt Mae’s Bibb’ as heat tolerant and slow to bolt, and describe ‘Muir’, a summer crisp type, as exceptionally heat tolerant. Utah State’s recommended home garden varieties include ‘Buttercrunch’, ‘Red Sails’ and ‘Summertime’, though its list does not rate them for heat.

Mixing varieties with different days to maturity in one sowing also stretches the harvest, since the faster ones are ready first.

Getting Through Summer Heat

Midsummer is where most succession schedules break. Two tactics keep lettuce going for longer, and a third accepts the gap.

Shade comes first. Virginia Cooperative Extension suggests placing lettuce where sweet corn, staked tomatoes or pole beans will shade it during the hottest part of the day, once temperatures are over 70°F. Shade cloth does the same job. Lettuce tolerates partial shade of 4 to 6 hours of direct light a day, and Maryland notes that baby leaf lettuce can even be grown entirely in indirect light in summer.

Water is second. Lettuce needs 1 to 2 inches of water per week, applied as frequent, light waterings that keep growth fast and leaves mild. A drip line makes that easy, and our guide to drip irrigation for a vegetable garden explains the setup.

If your summers stay well above 80°F, take the third route and stop for a few weeks. Seed sown into soil that hot germinates poorly, and the heat pushes surviving plants toward bolting. Use the gap to plan fall sowings, and see what to plant in August for crops to pair with them.

Use Transplants to Close Gaps

Direct sowing is simple, but starting some rounds in cell trays makes the schedule more reliable. University of Georgia Extension notes lettuce can be direct seeded or started 5 or 6 weeks earlier indoors. A tray started on the same two-week rhythm gives you seedlings ready to drop into a strip the day it is cleared. In late summer, trays also let you germinate seed in a cool room when garden soil is still above 80°F.

For the last sowings of fall, a cover extends the season. A cold frame is one way to shelter late lettuce once nights drop below 32°F.

Harvest to Keep the Cycle Moving

Harvesting on time is part of the system, because a strip that is not cleared cannot be resown. Leaf lettuce can be picked as soon as plants are 5 to 6 inches tall. Take the older, outer leaves first and leave the center to keep growing. For cut-and-come-again harvests, Maryland suggests cutting when plants are 6 to 10 inches tall.

Watch each batch for a stem that starts to stretch upward from the center. That is the start of bolting, and the whole batch should be harvested right away. Lettuce keeps for 1 to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, which bridges a short gap if the next sowing is a few days behind.

Quick Recap

• Sow a short row of lettuce every two weeks, starting 2 to 3 weeks before the last spring frost.
• Lettuce grows best at 45 to 73°F. Above 80°F it bolts and seed germinates poorly, so shade it or pause.
• For fall, sow 50 to 75 days before the date you want the last crop to mature.
• Space leaf, butterhead and romaine 4 to 10 inches apart and sow 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
• Use cool-season varieties in spring and fall, heat-tolerant ones for summer, and harvest leaf lettuce from 5 to 6 inches tall.