Does Lettuce Need Full Sun? How to Prevent Bolting In Lettuce

One of the most common questions from new gardeners is, “Does lettuce need full sun?” If you have planted lettuce plants and they have bolted, or are threatening to bolt, you are probably asking yourself this question.

In this article, we’re going to answer that question. Let’s take a look at what causes lettuce to bolt, and what you can do to prevent it.

Lettuce is light sensitive, meaning that it can be grown only in certain environments. So no matter what kind of lettuce you’re growing, treat it right and give it just the amount of sunlight it needs.

What Is the Full Sun?

In general, full sun means at least six hours of sunlight per day. But the amount of light in a full sun varies quite a lot depending on your location. for example, if you live near the equator the light intensity will be much greater than if you live far from it.

the light intensity also changes with the seasonality, a full sun in winter is not as same as full sun in summers.

How Much Sunlight Does Lettuce Need?

The amount of sunlight your lettuce needs depends on the variety. Leaf lettuce can thrive with as little as four hours of sunlight per day. However, if you are growing head lettuces, like iceberg or romaine, they will need more than six hours of direct sunlight per day.

The amount of sunlight that lettuce needs depend on the variety and your locale. For example, if you live in Florida or California, where the weather is sunny and hot most of the time, your lettuce plants will require more shade than those grown in northern climates.

lettuce varieties are also important for deciding on how much sun your lettuce will need.

Five Major Lettuce Varieties:

Romaine Lettuce:

Romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is upright-leafed lettuce with a crisp texture and dense head. It grows best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 through 10 and can tolerate temperatures as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit with light frost protection.

Romaine lettuce can reach heights of 12 inches and prefers rich, moist soil and partial shade during the hottest months of summer.

Crisphead Lettuce:

Crisphead lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is also known as iceberg lettuce because of its round, pale green heads. It grows best in USDA zones 8 through 10 and can tolerate temperatures as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit but grows best in mild weather conditions.

Crisphead lettuce prefers full sun during the growing season but it can also tolerate partial shade during the hottest months if necessary. So if you found your lettuce bolting or going to seed when temperatures rise move them to partial shade.

Leaf lettuce:

These varieties grow best in partial shade and will tolerate less sunlight than Romaine varieties. Red leaf varieties need less sunlight than green leaf varieties.

Butterhead Lettuce:

Butterhead varieties take only partial shade or full sun. Butterheads are a loose-leaf type of lettuce that have soft leaves and a sweet, buttery flavor.

Stem Lettuce:

Stem lettuce requires even less sunlight than butterhead varieties and can thrive with only three hours of direct sunlight per day or partial shade

Affect of Too Little or Too Much Sunlight:

When planted in an area that receives less than six hours, the lettuce will still grow and produce leaves, but they will be smaller and paler than those grown in an area receiving the full six hours.

Lettuce thrives in cooler temperatures and if it’s exposed to too much heat, it may bolt. Bolting causes the plant to produce a flower stalk and seeds instead of growing leaves.

If your lettuce bolts, the leaves taste bitter and the plant won’t produce for you any longer. When this happens, it’s time to pull up your plants and start over again.

Bolting of Lettuce Plants:

Lettuce is a cool-season crop that needs at least six hours of sunshine to grow well. However, if the weather warms up or you live in a particularly hot climate, lettuce can suffer from the heat and may bolt.

Lettuce bolting occurs when temperatures reach over 80 degrees F. (27 C.) and the plant redirects its energy from growing leaves to producing seeds. This causes the lettuce to take on a bitter flavor and stop producing new leaves for harvesting.

Can You Eat Lettuce Once It Bolts?

Once lettuce bolts, it becomes bitter and inedible. For this reason, many people choose to grow lettuce in containers on their patios or balconies when the weather is warm.

Some varieties of loose-leaf lettuce may continue to produce edible leaves after bolting, but head lettuces are ruined by bolting.

Once this occurs, the plant turns bitter, and you can no longer eat it.

What To Do With Lettuce Once It Bolts?

it is true that bolted lettuce is not palatable but there are other things you can do with your lettuce once it bolts.

Composting:

The leaves are still usable in your compost pile as long as they haven’t developed seeds yet. If you have a backyard compost pile or bin, you can add the bolted plants to it.

Composting is a great way to recycle nutrients in your garden back into the soil for future plant growth.

Seed Collection:

Allow your lettuce to flower, then collect seeds for future planting. You can try planting them immediately or next year depending on where you live and what time of year it is when the plants bolt.

Lettuce seeds are easy to collect — simply shake them out of the dried flowers into a paper bag or envelope.

Choosing The Right Variety of Lettuce:

Bolting is also more common with certain varieties of lettuce. To avoid lettuce bolting, look for varieties that tolerate warmer temperatures and grow quickly, such as:

• Buttercrunch
• Iceberg
• Boston Bibb

Romaine and looseleaf varieties are most prone to bolting when the weather becomes warm.

What Can You Do to Reduce Bolting?

Bolting is best prevented by planting at the right time and selecting heat-resistant types of lettuce. Growing conditions can also help protect your plants from excess sunlight and hot weather.

How to Protect Lettuce from Excess Sunlight

In hot weather, lettuce bolts or goes to seed prematurely as temperatures soar above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The first thing you can do to stop it from happening is to protect your lettuce from excess sunlight.

It’s quite easy to protect lettuce from excess sunlight – all it takes is a little planning and preparation.

Heat-resistant Types of Lettuce:

Some types of lettuce are more resistant to heat than others. If you live in a warm climate, you may want to consider planting some of these varieties:

• Butterhead
• Black-seeded Simpson
• Salad Bowl
• Little Gem

Start Early:

You can also protect your lettuce by starting it early in the season. If you plant it early, before summer starts, it will likely have time to grow before the hot weather comes.

Dappled Sunlight:

The best type of light for lettuce is dappled sunlight. Dappled sunlight is created when trees gently filter strong sunlight through their leaves, creating light spots among shadows on the forest floor.

This means that the plants only get about four hours of direct sunlight per day. The rest of the time they’re in a shaded area.

The easiest way to achieve this is by growing your lettuce under a tree or shrub that provides an abundance of shade during the middle part of the day.

Shade Cloth:

If you don’t have a tree or shrub handy, you can grow your lettuce under a shade cloth. This protective material is often used in greenhouses to reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches plants inside.

Shade cloth is a piece of fabric that acts as a barrier between plants and the sun’s harshest rays.

You can purchase shade cloth at most nurseries and garden centers in rolls that are of various lengths and widths, or you can buy directly from amazon.

Covering your planting bed with a shade cloth will reduce the amount of sun exposure your lettuce receives by roughly 50 percent while still allowing air and water to pass through.

Companion Plants:

Companion plants are great for shading lettuce during hot weather. These are tall-growing plants that provide shade without blocking too much sunlight from reaching your lettuce plants. Some popular companion plants include corn, pumpkins, and tomatoes.

They can also help protect your lettuce from pests and disease because they attract beneficial insects into your garden like ladybugs and spiders, which eat harmful insects like aphids that may feed on your lettuce.

Mulch:

The roots of lettuce are shallow, so lettuce plants are sensitive to drying out. Mulch helps keep moisture in the soil and also keeps weeds out of the garden beds.

Fresh mulch will help cool down soil temperatures and provide shade. Use fresh mulch around 16 inches deep or more depending on the thickness of the material you are using.

Mist Your Lettuce:

A spray of fresh water over your lettuce plants will help cool them down long enough to get through a hot afternoon without wilting or drying out.

Make sure the water you are using is fresh and cool because if it’s too warm it may cook the delicate plants instead of cooling them down.

Use Containers to Grow The Plant:

Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in a container. During the summer months when the temperature starts to rise and heat waves are common, your lettuce might need a little extra protection from the sun.

when you grow lettuce in containers you can easily bring them indoors for some time or place them in a spot where it doesn’t get scorched by the afternoon sun.

Harvesting Lettuce Leaves:

Most types of lettuce are ready to harvest within a month or two. During harvesting either pluck a few outer leaves or cut the whole plant at the soil level.

When you cut the outer leaves frequently, the maturity of the plant gets delayed and so is the bolting.

Common Pests and Diseases of Lettuce

Some of the most common diseases of a lettuce plant are

• Black root rot,
• Downy mildew
• Bacterial spot
• Soft rot

Here is the full list of all diseases of a lettuce plant.

Aphids:

Aphids are particularly fond of lettuce, so keep an eye out for these tiny sap-suckers on the undersides of leaves. The easiest way to control aphids is to hose them off with a strong stream of water from the garden hose.

Here are 12 cool organic methods of controlling any garden pests.

Conclusion:

With a little bit of knowledge about what causes lettuce to bolt and the right variety for your climate, you can enjoy crisp, delicious lettuce for months on end.

I hope this post was informative. Like always don’t forget to share this information with others.