How to Grow Lettuce in the USA
On this page
- Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
- Quick Facts
- At a Glance
- Do You Need a Garden Bed, or Will Pots Work?
- Soil & Growing Conditions
- Growth Stages
- Harvest & Storage
- Does Lettuce Grow Back After Cutting?
- Diseases
- Pests
- Nutrient Issues
- Lettuce, Leaf to Seed
- Plan your Lettuce planting
- Growing Lettuce in another region
- Sources
- Do Coffee Grounds Help When Growing Lettuce?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Lettuce seed germinates best around 61°F (16°C) but can go dormant and fail to sprout in soil warmer than about 77°F (25°C) — in the heat of summer, sow in late afternoon shade and keep the soil moist.
The short answer
- Ready in
- 28–98 days
- Site
- 4+ hours of sun, soil pH 6–6.5
- Biggest risk
- Grey mould
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
Also known as: Garden Lettuce · 11 sources cited · Verified
Quick Facts
| Factor | Value |
|---|---|
| Soil pH | 6 - 6.5 |
| Sunlight | 4-4 hours direct sun |
| Germination temp | 61°F (16°C) |
| Optimal growing temp | 54-70°F (12-21°C) |
| Minimum survivable temp | 30°F (-1°C) |
| Time to harvest | 28-98 days |
| Soil texture | Clemson: "loamy soil with a high organic matter content". RHS: "fertile, moisture-retentive soil"; dig in plenty of garden compost to help retain moisture. |
| Edible parts | leaves |
| Documented problems | 3 diseases, 3 pests, 1 nutrient issue |
At a Glance
Do You Need a Garden Bed, or Will Pots Work?
Either works. Lettuces don't usually need feeding in a bed, but if you grow them in a container you can apply a general-purpose organic liquid feed fortnightly through the summer (RHS).
Soil & Growing Conditions
Growth Stages
| Stage | BBCH | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing & Germination | 0 | Sow lettuce seed thinly, about 1cm (half an inch) deep, in rows 30cm (1ft) apart -- either direct where it is to grow or in modules to transplant (RHS). Lettuce is a cool-season crop: seed germinates best around 61°F (16°C) and can go dormant and fail in soil above about 77°F (25°C), so in high summer sow in the cooler late afternoon or in light shade and keep the ground moist (RHS, Clemson). Sow from late March to late July outdoors for summer and autumn crops, from early February indoors for an early crop, and in August to September with cloches or a hardy winter variety for winter and spring pickings. Sow a short row every two weeks for a continuous supply, and thin or plant out to about 15cm apart for loose-leaf types and 30cm for hearting types (RHS). |
| Leaf Growth | 1 | Seedlings form a rosette of leaves that expands quickly. Keep the soil consistently moist -- lettuce is shallow-rooted and quickly checks or bolts if it dries out -- and water early in the day (RHS). Keep beds weed-free and protect young plants from slugs and snails, which are the main problem for lettuce (RHS). Loose-leaf and cut-and-come-again types can be picked from this stage, in as little as four to six weeks from sowing (RHS). |
| Hearting | 4 | Butterhead, cos and crisphead types now draw their leaves together into a firm heart, while loose-leaf types simply build a fuller rosette. Steady moisture and cool conditions give the best hearts; heat and drought cause loose or bitter hearts and trigger early bolting (Clemson). Feed hungry hearting types if growth is slow and keep watering even and regular (RHS). |
| Harvest | 4 | Harvest hearting lettuces when the heart feels firm, cutting through the stem and leaving a stump about 2.5cm (1in) tall (RHS); hearting types take roughly 10 to 14 weeks from sowing. Pick loose-leaf types by snipping a few outer leaves from each plant as needed, or cut all the top growth at once -- these are ready in as little as four to six weeks (RHS). Harvest in the cool of the morning when the leaves are crisp, and lift plants before they run to seed. Lettuce does not store well, so keep it in the fridge and use within a few days (Clemson). |
| Bolting & Flowering | 6 | If left too long, or stressed by heat and drought, lettuce bolts -- the stem elongates rapidly, the leaves turn bitter, and the plant sends up small pale-yellow, dandelion-like flowers (RHS). Choose bolt-resistant varieties and keep plants cool and evenly watered to delay it. Once a plant has bolted it is best cleared, though you can leave one or two to flower for pollinators or to save seed. |
| Seed & Senescence | 9 | Flowers give way to small seeds carried on fluffy, dandelion-like parachutes; lettuce is self-pollinating, so seed saved from a favourite variety comes largely true to type (Clemson). Left in place, plants self-seed readily. Clear spent plants to the compost at the end of the season and move lettuce around the plot from year to year to reduce the build-up of soil-borne diseases. |
Harvest & Storage
Does Lettuce Grow Back After Cutting?
Yes, if you cut it the right way. Loose-leaf types can be grown as a cut-and-come-again crop: snip the top growth, leaving a short stem, and it should re-sprout at least one more crop of leaves. Hearting types can regrow too: cut through the stem leaving a stump about 2.5cm (1in) tall, and it should re-sprout leaves for one or two further, smaller harvests (RHS).
Diseases
Pests
Nutrient Issues
Lettuce, Leaf to Seed
Plan your Lettuce planting
When to sow and plant Lettuce depends on your own frost dates. Check the USA vegetable planting calendar, or the month-by-month guides that cover Lettuce: January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.
Growing Lettuce in another region
Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.
Sources
-
Tomato mature-green 55-70°F, 90-95% RH, 1-3 weeks; firm-ripe same conditions, 4-7 days.
These 4 sources are specific to this region. The full list of 11 sources behind this guide (Clemson Cooperative Extension, FAO EcoCrop, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and others) is in the references of our UK guide to lettuce; they describe the plant itself, which is the same wherever it grows.
Do Coffee Grounds Help When Growing Lettuce?
A little, if used right — but not the way most garden folklore claims. Oregon State University Extension is direct about the biggest myth: spent grounds are nearly pH-neutral (6.5–6.8), so they won't acidify soil the way people expect, and at only 1–2% nitrogen they're too dilute to work as a real fertiliser. Their genuine benefit is structural — worked in at no more than about half an inch to a 4-inch depth, composted grounds improve soil structure and drainage. Fresh grounds are the wrong approach: they can tie up nitrogen and inhibit germination, so keep them away from direct contact with lettuce seed.
The other genuine use is pest control, and it matters more for lettuce than for most crops, since slugs are lettuce's single biggest pest. OSU Extension found that a 1–2% coffee solution drenched into the soil drove slugs out of treated ground, dying of caffeine poisoning as they went — a real, sourced reason to keep the grounds coming, just not as a soil "fix".
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does lettuce take to grow?
Typically 28–98 days, depending on cultivar and growing conditions.
What soil pH does lettuce need?
A pH of about 6–6.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.
What problems affect lettuce?
Our data links 3 diseases and 3 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
Almost everything on this page resolves to your own frost dates rather than the calendar — the last spring frost moves by roughly two months between zone 3 and zone 10. The USA Garden Planner works from your zone so the timing is already decided before the season starts.
Get the USA Garden Planner →Instant PDF download · Written for US growing conditions
How this guide is put together
The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against USDA hardiness-zone and frost-date data, with Cooperative Extension sources cited directly where one exists for a crop. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.
Related Problem Guides
Last verified 2026-08-06
Where To Go From Here
Take this crop from reading into a written plan for your own beds.
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Plan the next step
Use the printable SoilCommander planner for your region to turn this guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and weekly garden tasks.