Rooting lettuce

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Jebeld17 West Bradenton, FL Nov 23, 2011

Is it possible to regrow lettuce you buy at the store by planting the core back into the ground? I am interested particularly in Romaine Lettuce. Are there any other vegetables I can do this with?

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yardener Greenfield, OH(Zone 6a) Feb 06, 2012

I would guess no since its a biennial. You can try a few and see but I'm guessing it will shoot up flowers. Let me know what you find out.

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behillman Plantersville, TX(Zone 9a) Feb 06, 2012

Yes, I have planted the core of Romaine Lettace & it has grown, but it is tall & making flowers, & I guess seed later on.

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catmad Pelzer, SC(Zone 7b) Feb 08, 2012

I currently have a celery "plant" growing. I don't use celery very often, so by the time I want to actually USE it, its pretty far gone. This time I chopped it off about 2" above the base, and stuck it in water. Once it began to grow (pretty quickly) I put it in a pot. Now it has a little clump of green leaves reaching an inch above the cut. Eventually I hope to be able to take of a rib or two as needed.
We'll see.

Whoops! When I posted this, I hadn't noticed that there's a thread already talking about this.

sorry...

This message was edited Feb 8, 2012 8:28 AM

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petronius_ii Albuquerque, NM(Zone 7a) Feb 08, 2012

This business of overwintering biennials, which is basically what everybody's proposing here, is a GREAT way to increase your seed stock of vegetables that you especially like. A nice concise summary of some of the basics is at:

http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/expert.html

What Bill, the author, describes in the first paragraph of Beet/Chards as "root to seed" is the same as everybody's talking about.

Please keep in mind, this is Bill's "advanced" seed-saving page. But if you have just a little gardening experience, it's not necessarily as difficult as it sounds. I once got what appeared to be viable seed (though a bit puny-looking) from an overwintered beet, but I didn't try planting them. I definitely HAVE gotten some nice seeds from spring radishes that went to seed in summer, and am pretty sure overwintered winter radishes would be just as easy.

Grocery store specimens of a lot of these crops may well be F1 hybrids, and saved seed may not necessarily "breed true," but if you don't mind a bit of adventurous experimenting, that may not be such a bad thing. Instead of breeding true, something just might breed BETTER, ya know?

As far as getting a decent crop of green leaves from a replanted root, well, you will get SOME, but not necessarily very much. You won't get a nice head of lettuce or cabbage, for example. Unlikely to get decent-sized celery stalks, either, but I could be wrong on that; and, then, also consider how much people value celery seed for cooking, and decide if you want some. It's your time and your dime, so I'd say if any particular experiment appeals to you, GO FOR IT.

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