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Lettuce Leafy vegetables

Sowing lamb's lettuce in spring and autumn

Lamb's lettuce is an excellent vegetable for late autumn, winter and early spring. It is ideal for filling empty squares at the end of summer.

What is lamb's lettuce?

Lamb's lettuce is a leafy vegetable. It belongs to the valerian family rather than the lettuce family. As none of our other vegetables belongs to this family, we group it with the leafy vegetables.

The leaves are delicious in winter and spring salads.

The plants cope well with cold weather, so you can also sow them in summer for autumn and winter.

Lamb's lettuce growing outdoors in frosty weather — *Lamb's lettuce can even withstand a hard frost*

Is lamb's lettuce nutritious?

Lamb's lettuce provides several vitamins and minerals, including vitamins K, A and C, folate, iron and beta-carotene.

Like winter purslane, it also contains omega-3 fatty acids.

More about our lamb's lettuce

Lamb's lettuce plants are small and compact. You can sow them early in spring. Because they cope well with cold weather, you can also sow them in summer for autumn and winter. The leaves are longer and larger than the lamb's lettuce usually sold in supermarkets and are delicious in winter and spring salads.

Variety: Grote Noordhollandse
Family: leafy vegetables
Plants per square: 9
Height: 5 to 15 cm
Sowing time: February to March and mid-July to September
Sowing depth: 0.5 to 1 cm
Germination: 14 to 21 days at 10 to 20°C
Time to harvest: 7 to 10 weeks
Sunlight: Grows in sun or shade
Packet contents: approximately 200 seeds, enough for 8 squares

Lamb's lettuce belongs to the valerian family rather than the lettuce family. As none of our other vegetables belongs to this family, we group it with the leafy vegetables.

Lamb's lettuce

Lamb's lettuce is a great vegetable for late fall, winter, and early spring. Ideal for your empty vegetable patches at the end of summer.

€2.79

What do you need to grow lamb's lettuce?

In addition to the seeds, you will need:

one 30 × 30 cm square
Makkelijke Moestuinmix (or MM coconut mix)
a spot that receives at least 4 hours of sunlight a day

Lamb's lettuce seeds ready for sowing — *Lamb's lettuce seeds*

How do you sow and grow lamb's lettuce?

You will find this lamb's lettuce in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app. It explains step by step how to sow, grow and harvest it.

Every vegetable passes through a series of 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 to move on to the next one.

So you do not need to know how to grow lamb's lettuce successfully before you begin. But if you would like to read ahead, you can do so below.

Lamb's lettuce plants growing through severe frost — *Lamb's lettuce can even withstand severe frost*

Level 1: Sowing lamb's lettuce

Loosen the MM-mix in a square near the front of the raised bed, then sow as follows:

make 9 holes in the square, no deeper than 1 cm
place 3 to 4 seeds in each hole
carefully close the holes

Depending on the weather and time of year, you will see the first green shoots emerge 2 to 3 weeks later.

Levels 2 and 3: Lamb's lettuce seedlings

As soon as the first seedlings emerge, you know things are going well. They probably will not all appear at once, but most should have emerged after about a week.

The plants remain small. If several seedlings emerge from one hole, simply leave them together. There is no need to thin them out.

Sow a few more seeds in any empty spots. Apart from that, there is nothing you need to do.

Small lamb's lettuce seedlings in MM-mix — *Lamb's lettuce seedlings*

Level 4: Caring for your lamb's lettuce

Another two weeks later, your seedlings will have grown into small plants.

You will still have very little to do over the next month. Give them some water in dry weather and occasionally remove a dead or yellow leaf. Easy.

They usually grow without problems and are rarely troubled by pests.

Young lamb's lettuce plants growing in a square — *Small lamb's lettuce plants*

Level 5: Harvesting

At this stage, which you reach about 9 to 10 weeks after sowing in spring, the plants are ready for their first harvest.

You can harvest them in two ways.

Method 1:
Cut or pick individual leaves. As long as you leave the centre of each plant intact, it will keep producing new leaves and you can continue picking for several weeks.

Method 2:
Cut the plants 2 cm above the soil. They will regrow, and after about 3 weeks you can harvest them again.

Mature lamb's lettuce ready to harvest in an MM-mini — *Lamb's lettuce in an MM-mini, ready to harvest*

How can you use lamb's lettuce?

I prefer eating the leaves raw in salads. In winter, I also add a handful to green smoothies in the morning, when there are fewer other fresh greens available.

You can also cook lamb's lettuce very briefly, stir the raw leaves through mashed potato dishes or use it to make soup.

The final levels

During the next level, keep harvesting the lamb's lettuce until the plants begin to flower. The leaves will then become bitter and much less tasty.

At the final level, empty the square or MM-mini and prepare it for the next vegetable.

Mature lamb's lettuce plants nearing flowering — *Mature lamb's lettuce plants that are about to flower*

So, what is stopping you from growing lamb's lettuce?

It is a tasty, easy vegetable to grow, especially when most of the squares in your raised bed would otherwise be empty. There are also very few insects and slugs around at that time of year, so you will hardly need to worry about them.

And with our materials and app, you have plenty of help along the way.

View lamb's lettuce in the shop

Good luck!

PS:

Lamb's lettuce also grows well in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. You can even sow it in the middle of winter. The leaves will be slightly paler and less firm than those grown outdoors.

The lamb's lettuce below was sown in a cold frame in December. It took a long time to emerge, but the plants then grew faster than those outside. The leaves also became more tender and longer. The photo was taken on 1 April.

Lamb's lettuce growing in a covered cold frame — *Lamb's lettuce in a covered cold frame*