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Red lettuce

Temporarily 50% discount
€3.89 €1.94

In Stock

Free delivery from € 30 🇳🇱

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Additional

Airpots
Airpots
€5.95
MM coconut seed-starting mix
MM coconut seed-starting mix
€4.95

Description

This Makkelijke Moestuin leaf lettuce grows quickly, gives a generous harvest and is slow to bolt. The red-green leaves are tasty, crisp and fairly firm.

Specifications

Sowing time: March to August
Height: 15-25 cm
Contents: 12 clay pellets

In the app

Level 1

started indoors

Level 2

seedling emerging

Level 3

seedling

Level 4

planted in final position

Level 5

first harvest

Level 6

harvesting continues

Level 7

large plants

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  • The app helps you with almost everything you do in your vegetable garden: sowing, tending, and harvesting.
  • If something goes wrong, the app tells you what steps to take.
  • If that doesn’t work, you can ask us for advice.
  • If that still doesn’t help, we’ll look for other solutions together. Until we get it right.

More about our red-green leaf lettuce

This tasty leaf lettuce forms large heads with red-green leaves. The leaves are crisp, fairly firm and full of flavour. The head grows quickly, provides a generous harvest and is slow to bolt.
 
Variety: Trival Batavia RZ 
Family: leafy vegetable 
Plants per square:
Height: 25 cm (front or middle row) 
Start indoors briefly: March through August 
Sowing depth: 1 cm 
Germination: 2 to 8 days at 15 to 18°C 
Time to harvest: from 6 to 7 weeks 
Sunlight: grows in sun or shade 

This variety was specially bred to germinate quickly and grow better than ordinary lettuce.
 
The seeds are primed, which makes them more fragile, so they are protected by a thin clay coating. That makes them more expensive than ordinary seeds, but each head gives you plenty of lettuce over a long period.

You get 12 clay pellets, each containing 1 seed. Sow them carefully.

What do you need to grow red-green leaf lettuce?

Besides the seeds, you need the following for starting indoors:
Once the plant is big enough to plant outside, you need:

How do you sow and grow red-green leaf lettuce?

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

Every vegetable goes 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.

You do not need to know how to grow red-green leaf lettuce before you start. But if you would like to read ahead, the whole process is explained below.

Level 1: Starting red-green leaf lettuce indoors

Red-green leaf lettuce takes about six to seven weeks to grow from a seed into a plant you can harvest from. Because the seeds come in clay pellets and are fairly expensive, you want to be sure they germinate properly.

Start the plant indoors, move it outside and transplant it into its own square about 4 weeks later. This also lets you use the square for something else in the meantime.

Starting indoors works best in small MM-Airpots with Makkelijke Voorzaaigrond (coco coir seed-starting mix). The pots take up little space and give the seedling what it needs for its initial growth.
Red lettuce seedling
Red-green leaf lettuce seedling

Levels 2 and 3: Moving outside

As soon as the seedling appears, put the pot in full light, preferably somewhere no warmer than about 16°C. A few days later, the seedling is big enough to go outside. You can put the pot in an empty square or in an MM-mini. Even 9 pots fit in there easily.

In March and April, give it a little extra protection from frost and bad weather if needed. From May onwards, even that is no longer necessary, as long as slugs cannot reach it.
If you put pre-sown plants together in one square, 9 will fit.
If you put pre-sown plants together in one square, 9 will fit.

Level 4: Planting it in its own square

About 4 weeks after sowing, your plant is big enough to plant out into its own square.

Make a hole in the middle of the square and pour in a little water if needed. Then carefully remove the plant from its pot and place it in the hole.
Newly planted Red lettuce
Newly planted red-green leaf lettuce (photo SonjaMM)

Level 5: Care and the first harvest

Caring for red-green leaf lettuce is simple: just keep the mix moist.

About 2 weeks later, you can start harvesting the first leaves.
Red lettuce plant: large enough for the first leaf harvest
Red-green leaf lettuce plant: ready for its first leaf harvest
You harvest the leaves from this lettuce, not the whole plant at once. Pick some of the outer leaves and leave the centre standing.

Level 6: Keep harvesting

Eventually the head becomes quite large and fills the whole square.

If you keep harvesting the outer leaves - instead of taking the whole plant at once - the plant keeps growing from the inside and you can keep harvesting for quite a few weeks.
One head of Red lettuce eventually fills the whole square (photo SonjaMM)
One head of red-green leaf lettuce eventually fills the whole square (photo SonjaMM)
During the final level, keep harvesting Red lettuce leaves for as long as you still enjoy eating them raw in salads.

This variety is slow to bolt. But because the leaves of younger plants are much tastier and more tender, it is better to harvest them completely much earlier.

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

What can you use red-green leaf lettuce for?

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

The leaves are large, firm and crisp, and stay surprisingly fresh for a long time, even in salad dressing.

Pick three large leaves from the head and tear them into pieces, and you have enough for a beautiful salad:
With 3 large Red lettuce leaves you can fill a whole salad bowl
Three large red-green lettuce leaves fill an entire salad bowl

So, why not sow and grow red-green leaf lettuce yourself?

It is tasty and easy to grow, you can harvest it for a long time, and the leaves look fantastic. Add a fresh young plant to your garden box regularly and you can enjoy delicious leaf lettuce from mid-April through October.

Plus, with our materials and app it is almost impossible to fail 😀

Good luck!