Green Batavia leaf lettuce: sowing and growing

Want to sow and grow your own Green Batavia leaf lettuce? This unusual leaf lettuce grows quickly and produces an enormous amount of crisp, bright-green, serrated leaves.

Harvest the outer leaves and leave the centre intact. That way, you can keep picking from one head for a long time.

Volwassen krop Batavia pluksla (Salanova) — *Mature head of Batavia leaf lettuce (Salanova)*

What is Green Batavia leaf lettuce?

Green Batavia leaf lettuce is a Salanova lettuce with crisp, bright-green, serrated leaves. The leaves stay fairly small, but the plant produces an exceptionally large number of them.

Harvest only the outer leaves. The head continues to grow from the heart, so you can keep picking it for a long time.

Vitamins and minerals in leaf lettuce

Leaf lettuce does not contain huge amounts of vitamins and minerals, but what it does contain is good for your body. Every little helps, right?

It contains a fair amount of vitamin A, as well as some folate, vitamin C, iron and potassium. And plenty of fibre, which is good for your gut 🙂

Red Salanova lettuce from the Makkelijke Moestuin: ready to pick — *Different Salanova lettuces, freshly harvested*

More about our Green Batavia leaf lettuce

You can harvest this unusual Salanova leaf lettuce for a long time. The heads grow quickly and produce an enormous amount of bright-green, serrated leaves that are all roughly the same size.

Variety: Salanova Green Batavia leaf lettuce
Family: leaf
Plants per square: 1
Height: 15 to 25 cm (front or middle row)
Start indoors: March to August
Sowing depth: 0.5 to 1 cm
Germination: 2 to 8 days at 5 to 18°C
Time to harvest: from 6–7 weeks
Sunlight: grows in both sun and shade

This variety produces bright-green, serrated leaves that stay fairly small, but it more than makes up for that with the sheer quantity. The plants also bolt much later than other varieties, so you can keep harvesting for a long time.

Salanova varieties have been specially bred to yield far more from each head, as well as to germinate faster and grow better than ordinary lettuce.

To achieve this, the seeds are primed, which makes them vulnerable. A coating of clay protects them. This makes them expensive, but every head provides masses of lettuce over a long period.

You receive 12 clay pellets*, each containing one seed, so sow them carefully.

Wat zijn kleipillen?

Sometimes our seeds come with a protective clay coating—a clay pellet. It makes sowing easier, and they germinate better than bare seeds.

What do you need to grow Green Batavia leaf lettuce?

Besides the seeds, you need the following to start them:

MM air pots (small size)
MM seed-starting mix or Makkelijke Voorzaaigrond (coco coir seed-starting mix)
Cling film and elastic bands (only with the traditional MM seed-starting mix, not with the coco coir mix)
One label per pot

Once the seedling is large enough to plant outside, you need:

one 30 × 30 cm square
Makkelijke Moestuingrond or Makkelijke Moestuin mix
a spot with at least 6–8 hours of sunlight a day

How do you sow and grow Green Batavia leaf lettuce?

This unusual leaf lettuce is included in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app, which explains step by step how to sow, grow and harvest it.

Every vegetable passes through several stages, which we call levels. The app tells you exactly what to do at each level and regularly asks you to check whether your plants are ready for the next one.

So you do not need to know in advance how to grow Green Batavia leaf lettuce successfully. But if you would like a preview, you can read all about it below.

Van zaaien tot oogsten staat stap-voor-stap in de Makkelijke Moestuin app — *From sowing to harvesting: every level is explained step by step in the app*

Pre-sowing

Level 1: Start Green Batavia leaf lettuce indoors

Green Batavia leaf lettuce takes about six to seven weeks to grow from seed into a plant you can harvest for the first time.

Because the seeds come in clay pellets and are therefore quite expensive, you want to make sure they germinate well. Start the plant indoors, move it outside later and plant it in its own square about four weeks after sowing.

Starting works best in small air pots filled with Makkelijke Voorzaaigrond (coco coir seed-starting mix). They take up little space and provide just enough nutrition for the first stage of growth.

Zaailing Batavia pluksla Salanova — *Green Batavia leaf lettuce seedling*

Levels 2 and 3: Move it outside

As soon as the seedling emerges, remove the film. From then on, place the pot in full light, preferably somewhere no warmer than about 16°C. A few days later, the seedling will be ready to move outside.

In March and April, keep the pot somewhere protected from frost and bad weather. From May onwards, even that is no longer necessary, as long as slugs cannot reach it.

You can sink the pot into an empty square or place it in an MM-mini. It will easily hold nine pots:

In één vak passen 9 potjes met voorgezaaide slaplantjes. — *One square holds nine pots with lettuce seedlings*

Sowing and growing green Batavia lettuce

Level 4: Plant it in its own square

About four weeks after sowing, your plant will be large enough to plant in its own square.

Net uitgeplant Batavia pluksla plantje. — *A newly planted Green Batavia leaf lettuce*

Level 5: Care and the first harvest

Green Batavia leaf lettuce needs very little care: simply keep the mix moist.

About two weeks later, you can start harvesting the first leaves.

Salanova Batavia plantje: groot genoeg om de eerste blaadjes van te oogsten — *A Batavia lettuce plant large enough for its first leaf harvest*

With this leaf lettuce, you harvest the leaves rather than the whole plant at once. Pick some of the outer leaves and leave the centre intact.

Level 6: Keep harvesting

Eventually, the head becomes quite large and fills the entire square.

If you keep harvesting the outer leaves instead of the whole plant, it continues to grow from the centre and you can keep picking leaves for several weeks.

Eén krop Batavia pluksla vult uiteindelijk het hele vak. — *One head of Green Batavia leaf lettuce eventually fills the entire square*

The next levels

During the final levels, keep harvesting the leaves until you no longer enjoy them as much raw in salads.

This variety is slow to bolt. Even so, younger plants have much tastier and more tender leaves, so it is better to harvest the whole plant well before then.

Finally, prepare the square or your MM-mini for the next vegetable.

Oudere Batavia pluksla - op het punt om in bloei te schieten (ruim 3 maanden oud) — *Older Green Batavia leaf lettuce, about to bolt after more than three months*

How do you use Green Batavia leaf lettuce?

As the name suggests, you use the leaves as lettuce. They are also delicious in green smoothies.

Start harvesting when the leaves are about 10 cm long. At that stage they are wonderfully tender and perfect for salads. They remain tasty as they grow larger too.

Only when the plants are more than two months old do the leaves become slightly tougher and more bitter. Use them in a mash, stir-fry or a tasty soup 😀

1 krop Batavia sla: meer dan genoeg voor een enorme salade — *One head of Batavia lettuce: more than enough for a huge salad*

So, what is stopping you from sowing and growing Green Batavia leaf lettuce?

It is a tasty, easy vegetable to grow, you can harvest it for a long time and the leaves look fantastic.

Add a fresh young plant to your garden regularly and you can enjoy delicious leaf lettuce from mid-April through October.

And with our materials and app, it is almost impossible to go wrong 😀

Good luck!

View Green Batavia leaf lettuce in the shop