Tag Archives: summercrisp lettuce

Hot summers and growing lettuce in your SFG.

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Growing lettuce in the hot parts of the country can be a challenge. There are some like me who want that delicious, freshly harvested lettuce when the cucumbers and cherry tomatoes start  to arrive. 

We’ve had a really hot summer. A solid week of 100 plus temperatures, and maybe 2 weeks of 95-100 degree days. More of them are coming too. You can grow continue to grow lettuce if you know a few tricks. First and foremost is the soil. There is no soil as great as what we have in the SFG method. I’ve got an ebook that discusses the points needed to successfully grow lettuce right through the heat of summer. 

This is a summercrisp called Mottistone. I bought it from Johnnys years ago and now I see it’s no longer available on their site. I don’t know why this happens? You find a great variety of something only to return at a later date to discover it’s no longer there. This is a great tasting summer lettuce. Some will think the speckles are disease issues but that’s not the case. You can still find Mottistone seed. I found it on Amazon, which I personally wouldn’t do. Too many complaints from people thinking they bought a variety of something only to learn that it wasn’t at all what they were expecting. But you can find it here: https://viridishortus.co.uk/Lettuce-Mottistone-TZ-0281-615-05g. 

As summer is beginning to leave us, it’s probably a little late for summercrisps. Order for next year. Keep your seeds in the refrigerator and give it a try next summer. 

This is a summer lettuce!

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cherokee summer lettuce 081516This tastes so awesome! No bitterness at all-a bavarian lettuce variety that grew right through a couple of 100 degree days and most the rest of the days in the mid to high 90’s. There are some very unique advantages to the SFG system, and this shows why. If you can protect your crops and lower the temperatures by 10-15 degrees, you can do anything you want with lettuce. For most folks the hot weather is largely behind us. Maybe southern California with it’s hot month of September is a candidate for this. You really should give it a try. If you’re tired of lettuce failure in the summer months and the bitter taste of the lettuce that remains in late spring, try some of these great summer lettuces.

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Mottistone

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mottistone lettuce 72114This is Mottistone lettuce-categorized as a “summercrisp.” Summercrisp lettuces are more heat tolerant than other varieties. When attempting to grow lettuce in weather of 80+ degrees, it’s hard to germinate the seeds. If you have lettuce that’s already up, the hot weather usually makes them bolt and turns them bitter tot he taste. But by utilizing just a few easy techniques, you can grow the heat tolerant varieties right through summer. I grow 6 different kinds of summercrisps and each one tastes different from the others. Learn how to be a square foot gardener. By limiting the size of your gardens you have better control over what you can do and are better able to protect your crops from not only cold, but from heat as well. In several weeks I will be having classes at my home. These are designed to teach you how to build an inexpensive “low tunnel” so you can grow right through winter. If you want to learn how to assemble a high tunnel, we’ll be doing that as well. I’ll spend a minimal amount of time on the square foot garden method. If you’re a row gardener, no problem. It’s more work and not a big harvest, but that’s your option. Classes will fill up. The fee is $25 per person and I’ll be selling specialty fall/winter seeds from Johnny’s. You’ll save shipping charges if you buy them from me and nobody around here has these varieties. Stay tuned.