Lettuce Plant: How to Grow Lettuce From Seed in Spring and Fall

Sow lettuce in spring as soon as you can work the soil, and for a fall crop, about 3 months before your average first fall frost, or a little later for a fast variety. Sow the seed shallow, only 1/4 to 1/2 inch (1/8 inch for baby leaf). Lettuce likes cool weather, about 55 to 70 F with nights near 50 F, and heat plus long days can make it bolt and turn bitter.

Lettuce is a cool-season annual in the daisy family, Asteraceae, and a close relative of chicory, endive and radicchio. It is semi-hardy: light frost is fine, a hard freeze needs cover. This guide draws on six extension services and a seed company and turns their timing rules into calendar dates at four airport weather stations.

Lettuce at a glance

Sun	Full sun in spring and fall; tolerates partial shade, 3 to 6 hours of direct sun
How to start	Sow seed in place, or set out transplants 3 to 6 weeks old
Soil temperature	Sow once the soil reaches 40 F; optimum figures for sprouting run from 55 to 80 F
Sowing depth	1/4 to 1/2 inch; 1/8 inch for baby leaf
Spacing	Leaf lettuce 4 to 12 inches; romaine and butterhead mostly 6 to 12; crisphead 10 to 15
Days to come up	6 to 10
Days to harvest	40 to 80 by type; leaf lettuce mostly 50 to 60 from seed
Ideal weather	55 to 70 F, with nights near 50 F and highs no warmer than 68 to 75 F
Frost tolerance	Semi-hardy: takes light frost, needs cover in a hard freeze
Fall sowing	About 3 months before the first fall frost; later for a fast variety
Water	1 to 2 inches a week; sandy soil more often

When to plant lettuce: cool soil, before the heat

Plant lettuce in the cool weeks of early spring, and again for fall. In spring, sow leaf, romaine and butterhead once the soil is workable and dry enough to rake, or work back from your last spring frost: sow 2 to 3 weeks before it, in soil of at least 40 F, or start transplants indoors about 5 to 8 weeks before it.

For fall, sow about 3 months before the first fall frost. Or count back from the harvest: choose an early variety, plan to pick it about 1 to 2 weeks short of the first fall frost, and sow 50 to 75 days before that. The table applies these rules to the median frost dates at four airport weather stations (1991-2020 climate normals).

Lettuce sowing dates at four airport weather stations

Station (1991-2020 normals)	Median last spring 32 F	Spring sowing, 2 to 3 weeks before	Median first fall 32 F	Fall sowing, about 3 months before	Fall sowing, counted back from harvest
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN	Apr 23	Apr 2 to Apr 9	Oct 18	Jul 20	Jul 21 to Aug 22
Chicago O'Hare, IL	Apr 16	Mar 26 to Apr 2	Oct 28	Jul 30	Jul 31 to Sep 1
Washington Reagan, VA	Mar 24	Mar 3 to Mar 10	Nov 18	Aug 20	Aug 21 to Sep 22
Atlanta Hartsfield, GA	Mar 15	Feb 22 to Mar 1	Nov 20	Aug 22	Aug 23 to Sep 24

Frost dates are medians, so one year in two the last spring freeze (32 F) comes after the date shown, and the first fall freeze before it. About 3 months is counted as 90 days. The last column is our arithmetic on the harvest count: 50 to 75 days before a harvest set about 1 to 2 weeks short of the first fall frost.

The 3-month date falls one day before the earliest harvest-count date at every station, and the later harvest-count dates suit only a fast variety. Use the station most like your garden; USDA zones map winter cold and give no frost date.

Farther south, on South Carolina's Coastal Plain, lettuce is sown February 1 to April 15 in spring and September 5 to November 1 in fall; in the Piedmont, spring only, March 1 to May 15. Wherever you garden, finish spring sowing a month or more before early summer's heat. Then plan on a summer break: in most of the state around Minneapolis-St. Paul, June through August is too hot for lettuce, and in the mid-Atlantic, leaf lettuce can grow from March to December, with July and August off.

Leaf, romaine, butterhead or crisphead: which lettuce to grow

Grow leaf lettuce for the quickest picking, and save the head types for a long, cool spell. Leaf lettuce is the most widely adapted of the five types.

• Leaf (loose-leaf). Loose green or red leaves, oakleaf shapes included, at full size in about 50 to 75 days.
• Butterhead (Bibb and Boston). Generally small, soft, loose heads in 60 to 70 days. The small-headed kinds suit succession sowings, and Bibb turns bitter readily above 75 F.
• Romaine (cos). Tall, upright heads of wavy leaves; it needs less care than crisphead.
• Crisphead (iceberg). The hardest: many gardeners find it difficult, since it needs a long, cool season and runs to seed once it warms. Where cool seasons are short, it is generally grown from early transplants; an early heat wave before the heads mature almost certainly ruins them, and in many places late-summer starts maturing in fall do much better.

Leaf and butterhead types stand heat better than romaine does, and romaine better than head lettuce. Named varieties include Red Sails, Buttercrunch, Parris Island Cos, Jericho (a heat-tolerant romaine), Black Seeded Simpson and Salad Bowl.

How to sow lettuce seed: shallow and thin

Sow lettuce seed shallow and thin: the seed is tiny, so take care not to sow it too thickly or too deep. Most guides call for 1/4 to 1/2 inch, some 1/4 to 3/8 inch, and baby-leaf seed gets just 1/8 inch of cover.

1. Rake a fine seedbed. A cloddy, lumpy bed lowers emergence.
2. Sow sparingly. About 10 to 20 seeds to a foot of row; baby-leaf beds are sown thicker. Clay-coated pelleted seed is bigger, so it can go 2 to 4 inches apart, and you thin less.
3. Cover lightly, or not at all. Some varieties, white-seeded ones above all, need light to sprout, so press that seed onto the soil and leave it uncovered. On heavy clay, cover the seed with potting soil rather than garden soil, so no crust forms.
4. Keep it damp. Water is essential for germination and for establishing the seedlings.
5. Thin early, at 3 to 4 true leaves, or when leaf lettuce is 1 to 2 inches tall. Snip the extras with small shears; the thinnings can be eaten.

Cool soil suits the seed; the table below gives the ranges. Hot soil can push lettuce seed into dormancy, and primed seed sprouts over a wider range of temperatures. For summer sowings, seedlings started in shade can be moved out later, with limited success.

Transplants can give an earlier crop and save thinning. Some guides set out plants 3 to 4 weeks old; another waits for 4 to 6 mature leaves, generally 5 to 6 weeks, and plants them near the last frost date. Harden them off for 2 to 5 days with less water and cooler air: young head-lettuce transplants hardened for at least 3 to 5 days can survive temperatures down to 20 F.

How far apart to plant lettuce

Space lettuce by type and by the size you plan to pick, from 4 inches for leaf lettuce to 12 to 15 inches for crisphead, and closer when you pick baby leaves. Rows run 12 to 36 inches apart, wider for heads. Do not crowd the rows: close spacing can encourage bolting.

How much water lettuce needs

Keep the top of the soil evenly moist, since lettuce roots are small and shallow. Give it 1 to 2 inches each week, more often on sandy soil. Water in the morning, deep enough to wet the soil 6 inches down; a mulch 3 to 4 inches deep can help prevent weed growth.

Lettuce numbers: the range across the guides

	What the guides give
Sowing depth	1/4 to 1/2 in, or 1/4 to 3/8 in; 1/8 in for baby-leaf seed
Soil for germination	Sow from 40 F; optimum 55 to 65, 60 to 68 or 60 to 80 F, by guide; often poorer above 75 to 80 F; raw seed: none above 95 F
Spring sowing	Once the soil is workable or dry enough to rake, or 2 to 3 weeks before the last frost; transplants started about 5 to 8 weeks before it. South Carolina: Feb 1 to Apr 15 on the Coastal Plain, Mar 1 to May 15 in the Piedmont
Fall sowing	About 3 months before the first frost, or 50 to 75 days before a harvest about 1 to 2 weeks before frost; late summer. South Carolina: Sep 5 to Nov 1 on the Coastal Plain; not recommended in the Piedmont
Succession	Every 10 days to 3 weeks; several plantings each season
Leaf lettuce spacing	4 to 12 in for full-size plants; closer for baby leaf
Head spacing	Romaine and butterhead mostly 6 to 12 in; crisphead 10 to 15 in; mini heads 6 to 8 in
Days to harvest	40 to 80 by type. From seed: leaf 50 to 60 (about 75 in one guide), butterhead 60 to 70, head 70 to 80, some heads from 55. Some counts start at transplanting: add about 14 for direct seeding

Succession sowing for lettuce all season

Sow a short row every 10 days to 3 weeks rather than one big bed, or stagger varieties with different maturity dates.

Spring sowings stop a month or more before the heat. Summer lettuce needs shade: heat-tolerant loose-leaf types can grow in the shade of taller crops with careful watering, with just 3 to 4 hours of sun a day, or under shade cloth. The fall crop starts in midsummer: for a frost date like Minneapolis-St. Paul's, start seed indoors in July and transplant in August. Leaf lettuce in fall is less likely to bolt.

What to plant with lettuce

Pair lettuce with tall summer crops for their shade: plant it behind corn or tomatoes, or between tomatoes or peppers. Shallow-rooted lettuce also pairs with carrots and radishes, and cilantro, dill or fennel sown nearby draw aphid-eating insects. Our companion planting chart weighs each pair.

How to harvest lettuce: whole heads or cut and come again

Pick leaf lettuce from the outside in, or cut the whole plant; cut head types once the head has formed.

• Leaf by leaf. Pick leaves once they are big enough to use, outer leaves first, and leave most of the small ones, so the center keeps growing and the plant can be picked again. Leaf lettuce can be used once the plants reach 5 to 6 inches.
• Cut and come again. Sow a bed thickly and cut it just above the soil when the plants stand 4 to 10 inches tall; watered and fed, it is ready to cut again about 2 to 4 weeks later. For baby leaf, cut about 1 inch above the growing point once the leaves are about 3 to 4 inches long.
• Whole plants. Cut at the soil line or just above it; taking every other plant gives the rest more room.
• Heads. Butterhead is ready when its leaves cup inward into a loose head. Pick romaine at 6 to 8 inches tall, once its overlapping leaves form a head about 4 inches across at the base, and crisphead once the head is firm.

Days to harvest run from 40 to 80 by type: leaf lettuce 50 to 60 days from seed in most guides and about 75 in one, heads from as early as 55 days to 80. Check what a packet counts from: some count from transplanting, so add about 14 days when you sow direct.

For crisp, mild leaves, water often in the days before harvest and pick the spring crop before hot, dry weather. Store lettuce cold and humid, at 32 to 40 F, for 2 to 3 weeks; keep it away from apples, pears and bananas, whose ethylene gas spots the leaves brown.

Bolting and bitterness in hot weather

Heat and long days can push lettuce to bolt, and the leaves turn bitter as the flower stalk forms. Heat can set it off at 70 to 80 F, or after several days above 75 F, and so can long days, strong light, dry soil or other moisture stress, and the plant's age.

A bolting plant stops growing and the harvest is over, so harvest the moment seedstalks appear and refrigerate the crop. Bitter leaves can be partly rescued: wash them and chill them for a day or two, which takes out much of the bitterness.

To head it off, grow lettuce mainly in the cool spring and fall months (a summer sowing needs shade and a heat-tolerant leaf type); choose slow-bolting or heat-resistant varieties; keep the water even, since water stress and heat (70 to 80 F and above) can bring on bitterness; and skip crowded rows and overgrown, stressed transplants, which are more likely to flower early.

Tipburn, slugs and other lettuce problems

Tipburn, a browning of the leaf edges, follows uneven water: rain or watering after a dry spell sets off a growth spurt. It comes from a calcium shortage, with drought and uneven soil moisture the main causes. Trim the brown edges and use the rest of the leaf; light, frequent watering helps prevent it.

Pests that may turn up include cutworms, slugs and snails, flea beetles, aphids, cabbage loopers and corn earworms, plus aster yellows, a disease leafhoppers spread; pests hit summer and fall crops much harder than spring ones. Floating row cover keeps flea beetles off and cuts slug feeding.

Growing lettuce in containers and under cover

Leaf lettuce grows well in pots. Use a container of at least 2 quarts (1/2 gallon), 6 to 8 inches deep, give cool-season crops like lettuce direct sun for 3 to 5 hours, and keep the potting mix evenly moist.

The Salad Table, an extension design from 2009, is a shallow, mesh-bottomed frame of potting mix, usually on legs, that moves with the seasons. On its mid-Atlantic schedule it goes into the sun, with direct light for 4 to 8 hours, from April to mid-June; into mostly shade, with up to 3 hours of sun, from mid-June to mid-September; then back into the sun through November. One table can be sown 3 to 4 times a year.

Cover can stretch both ends of the season. Row cover speeds growth in early spring, and floating row covers or cold frames carry lettuce into late fall. A light to medium spun-bonded row cover gives 4 degrees of protection, good to 28 F, and young plants come through 32 F without serious harm.

Lettuce can even overwinter. In the mid-Atlantic, healthy 3-week-old transplants set out around October 15 root in, and some varieties may last the winter with protection and give an early spring harvest; varieties recommended for this include Winter Density, Arctic King and Black Seeded Simpson.

Lettuce seeds and supplies

For seed, a leaf lettuce mix gives the quickest picking, and a romaine and a butterhead add heads for the cool weeks. Pelleted seed costs more, but its bigger size lets you sow it sparingly. Buy fresh seed each spring: lettuce seed keeps poorly, so store seed for fall sowing sealed and refrigerated. A cell tray grows 3 to 6 week old transplants, and a floating row cover protects the early and late sowings.

What you'll need for lettuce

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

• 

  Sow Right Seeds Garden Blend Lettuce Seed

  For seed, a leaf lettuce mix gives the quickest picking.

  Check price on Amazon
• 

  The Old Farmer's Almanac Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce Seeds

  A romaine and a butterhead add heads for the cool weeks; Parris Island Cos is one of the named varieties.

  Check price on Amazon
• 

  HOME GROWN Buttercrunch Lettuce Seeds

  A romaine and a butterhead add heads for the cool weeks; Buttercrunch is one of the named varieties.

  Check price on Amazon
• 

  Burpee 72 Cell Greenhouse Kit

  A cell tray grows 3 to 6 week old transplants.

  Check price on Amazon

Sources we used

Every number here comes from one of these pages, each saved when it was read. Where they differ, the page gives the range.

• "University of Minnesota Extension: Growing lettuce, endive and radicchio" (reviewed 2024)
• "University of Maryland Extension: Planting lettuce in a home garden" (updated March 25, 2026)
• "University of Maryland Extension: Growing Vegetables in Containers and Salad Tables" (updated September 10, 2026)
• "University of Maryland Extension: Flower Stalks Form or Bolting of Vegetables" (updated February 20, 2023)
• "Illinois Extension, Home Vegetable Gardening: Lettuce"
• "Clemson Cooperative Extension, HGIC 1312: Lettuce" (updated January 24, 2023)
• "Utah State University Extension: How to Grow Lettuce in Your Garden" (April 2020)
• "NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Lactuca sativa"
• "Johnny's Selected Seeds: Lettuce, Key Growing Information" (a seed company)
• Companion pairs: Oregon State University Extension, West Virginia University Extension, Washington State University Extension and Penn State Extension
• "NOAA NCEI: U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020": median 32 F dates, last spring and first fall, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago O'Hare, Washington Reagan and Atlanta Hartsfield airports

Related guides

• How to grow spinach, another salad green for spring and fall sowings.
• How to grow arugula, a peppery green with a sowing schedule of its own.
• How to grow kale, a sturdier leaf for the fall bed.
• How to grow Swiss chard, another leaf to pick a little at a time.
• Chicory, radicchio and endive, close relatives grown much like lettuce.
• How to grow radishes, a quick root crop for the edges of a lettuce bed.
• How to protect plants from frost, if a hard freeze is in the forecast.
• Row cover and frost cloth picks, from light row cover to heavy fabric.
• Seed starting tray picks, for lettuce you start indoors as transplants.

Frequently asked questions

When should I plant lettuce?

Plant lettuce in spring as soon as you can work the soil, or 2 to 3 weeks before your last frost, and sow a fall crop about 3 months before your first fall frost, or a little later for a fast variety. At Chicago O'Hare, that means late March to early April, and late July for fall.

How deep do you plant lettuce seeds?

Sow lettuce seed shallow, only 1/4 to 1/2 inch; some guides keep it to 1/4 to 3/8 inch, and baby-leaf seed gets only 1/8 inch of cover. Some varieties, mostly white-seeded ones, need light to sprout, so press that seed onto the soil without covering it.

How long does lettuce take to grow?

Lettuce takes 40 to 80 days, by type. Leaf lettuce takes about 50 to 60 days from seed in most guides (about 75 in one), butterhead 60 to 70, and head lettuce 70 to 80, though some heads are ready from 55. From transplants, one count gives 30 to 45 days for leaf and 60 to 70 for heads. You can start picking leaves sooner, once the plants reach 5 to 6 inches.

How do you harvest lettuce so it keeps growing?

Take the outer leaves first, once they reach a usable size, and leave the small center leaves growing; that allows several pickings. For a whole bed, cut plants 4 to 10 inches tall just above the soil, and cut again about 2 to 4 weeks later if the bed is watered and fed.

Why is my lettuce bitter?

Heat and long days can push lettuce to bolt, and its leaves turn bitter as the flower stalk forms. Heat of 70 to 80 F, or several days above 75 F, can trigger it, and so can dry soil or other moisture stress. Pick at once; chilling washed leaves for a day or two removes much of the bitterness.

Can lettuce grow in pots?

Yes. Leaf lettuce needs a pot of at least 2 quarts (1/2 gallon), 6 to 8 inches deep, and direct sun for 3 to 5 hours. Keep the mix evenly moist, and move the pot to mostly shade in midsummer, as with a Salad Table.

How do you grow romaine lettuce?

Grow romaine in the cool weeks of spring or fall, like other lettuce, but give it room: most guides space it 6 to 12 inches apart. Romaine takes heat better than head lettuce, though not as well as leaf and butterhead types. Cut it once the head stands 6 to 8 inches tall.

What can I plant with lettuce?

Plant lettuce beside tall summer crops that will shade it, such as corn, tomatoes or peppers. Pair shallow-rooted lettuce with deep taproots like carrots and radishes so the roots compete less, and plant cilantro, dill or fennel nearby to draw insects that eat aphids.