Lettuce, Crisphead Lettuce 'Ithaca'

This is my first year planting Ithaca Lettuce. I grew from seed, and put the 6 week old seedlings out on May 10, 2005. Today is June 14, ...Read More2005, and I'm eating my first head for dinner this evening. It is very sweet, and the innermost head that completely blanched itself was as sweet as any Iceburg lettuce that I've eaten. I would say that the loosely packed head was a bit bigger than a softball. The weather here has been 85° - 95°F for the past 2-1/2 weeks, and this lettuce did not bolt or burn. I grow it in full sun, and use Garden's Alive organic Vegetable Fertilizer. I grow in raised beds, and put in fresh soil this year... an organic mix from a local soil company (topsoil, peat, compost, sand, mulch)

Lettuce is a cold tolerant, cool weather annual that will bolt to seed in warm weather when the nights grow short. Lettuce isn't suitable...Read More for late spring or summer planting because of bolting. The soil should be well drained and fertile to force fast growth.

Raised beds are beneficial for early spring sowings.
It is also great for fall plantings.

Start harvesting when the heads are half grown. Cut the entire plant and trim off most of the outer leaves.