Late this season, about the end of August I decided to experiment with a late planting of lettuce.  In the past I have kept my lettuce growing to the spring then quit when it got hot and the lettuce went bitter and bolted. If you live in a place where the summers get hot and you want lettuce throughout the summer you must do close succession planting. I just never bothered.  I was only planting a garden for my family, but my first summer as a market garden had me thinking a little differently about lettuce.

I wondered if I could plant a very late crop and be successful into October. At the end of August I planted seeds into soil blocks and tended and waited. after about two and a half weeks they were set out in the garden.  They did beautifully.  I was so excited watching them, anticipating sweet little heads of lettuce those last few weeks at market. We even successfully held them over through a hard freeze that took out the rest of the garden, by erecting temporarily tunnels covered with floating row cover and a thick blanket during the nights.

I had peeked at them a few times after they had been covered and everything looked so good. I felt my experiment had been successful and we would be able to do this again next season…fresh lettuce into October without a greenhouse.

Then I uncovered them and took a real close look. I first noticed it on the dark leaves and my heart sunk.  Little white exoskeletons, little aphids. Not only had my lettuce lived through the cold nights and hard freezes, but so had the aphids, and they thrived.
My beautiful crop of specialty romaine lettuce was a complete loss. While they will feed the rabbits and chickens, which in turn will feed the soil, I wanted them for market, and they are not fit to sell at market.

As always, everything is a learning experience.  I did learn that with a little effort we can grow lettuce into October and maybe even November in the garden without a greenhouse or hoop houses.  I also learned that pests will also extended their season in the nice warm shelters I create.  Next year we will experiment with organic pest control inside our mini hoop houses.