Overview
The selection of lettuce in supermarkets is better these days than it used to be, but it still can’t compare to the wide assortment of varieties available in seed catalogs. There are hundreds of lettuce varieties to choose from, providing a wide range of sizes, colors, textures and tastes. Not only do you have more choices if you grow your own but your salads will be fresher, maybe less expensive – and there’s just something more satisfying about eating something you’ve produced yourself.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is one of the oldest known vegetables, developed from prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a wild plant around the Mediterranean and Caucasus regions which was used as a medicinal herb. Some reports point back as far as the Egyptians in 4,500 BC, but it was certainly cultivated by ancient Greeks and Romans. The Emperor Caesar Augustus even had a statute made memorializing the romaine-type lettuce he believed cured him from an illness.
Selecting for traits such as decreased bitter latex, fewer or no spines, increased head size, and delayed flowering created edible lettuce. The major lettuce types were available in Europe by the Middle Ages. Lettuce seeds were brought to North America in the 1600s from England. The heading lettuces were only developed in the 1700s and the common iceberg lettuce became popular just before the second World War.
There are four basic types of lettuce commonly available today:
 | Crisphead lettuce forms a tight head with very crisp leaves. Batavia or Batavian is a crisphead developed in France that is curlier and less crunchy. |
 | Butterhead or bibb lettuces produce loose, gently folded heads with delicate leaves. |
 | Romaine or cos (after the Greek island of Kos in the Aegean Sea) types form a long, loose head with broad, upright leaves. |
 | Leaf types do not form a head, but stay as an open rosette. The leaves may be rounded or elongated, lobed or with straight margins, and flat or curled. Individual leaves can be cut off as needed without harvesting the entire plant. These vary in texture from soft to crisp and run the gamut from pale green to dark red. They are sometimes called “cutting”, “bunching,” or “curled” lettuce. |
Growing Lettuce
Lettuce is one of the easiest, fastest and earliest crops for the home gardener. It doesn’t require a lot of space, doesn’t need to be started indoors (although you can do that to get an even earlier harvest), and doesn’t have many pests or diseases. It can even be grown in containers, or used as an ornamental in borders or flower gardens.
Lettuce is a hardy, fast growing annual that does best in cool weather – spring and fall in Wisconsin. Plant seeds in the garden as early as 4 to 6 weeks before the average date of last frost, or begin plants indoors earlier to set out 2 to 4 weeks before last frost. Sow every couple of weeks for a continuous harvest throughout the summer and fall.
With increasing day length and heat, lettuce has a tendency to bolt, or form a flower stalk – and the leaves become bitter. For summer lettuce, select heat-resistant varieties and grow them in light shade.
Plant lettuce seed in well-worked soil with good drainage and moisture retention. Sow seeds ¼ inch deep and space rows 12 inches apart. If you intend to allow your lettuce to mature and form heads (for those varieties that form heads), you will have to thin the lettuce. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, remove plants to leave individual plants 6 to 12 inches apart.
Plants can also be allowed to grow to about 3 inches and selectively harvested very young for salad, leaving plants at the appropriate spacing. Be careful not to disturb the roots of the plants you intent to keep as you harvest the others. If the rows were thickly seeded, or the plants are much larger than 3 inches, the remaining plants may flop over without the surrounding plants for support – mound a little extra soil around the base to stabilize the plant until it becomes re-established.
As lettuce grows outer leaves can be selectively harvested, leaving the inner leaves to develop, or entire mature plants can be cut off at the ground. The time to maturity depends on the variety planted.
Lettuce can be grown indoors in a bright window, and almost any type of container can be used indoors or out (as long as it has drain holes) to produce a quick crop of lettuce.
Cultivars of Lettuce
Literally hundreds of varieties of lettuce are available from numerous seed companies, and almost everyone will have their own favorite. The first named lettuce cultivars in the U.S. were made available in 1806, and some varieties that were introduced over 100 years ago are still available, including ‘Iceberg’ (released in 1894 by Burpee) and ‘Grand Rapids’ (released in 1890.)
One of the hardest things about growing lettuce is just deciding which varieties to grow. Disease-resistant varieties have been developed, primarily for commercial growers. Some of the many varieties available include:
- ‘Bauer’ is a fast-growing oakleaf type with dense, compact growth. A 2022 All-Ameridca Selections Winner.
- ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ is a reliable old-time light green leaf lettuce.
- ‘Buttercrunch’ is a slow bolting butterhead with tender leaves. It was a 1963 All-America Selections winner and is a popular favorite.
- ‘Deer Tongue’ is an heirloom variety with flat, triangular leaves.
- ‘Little Gem’ is a miniature butterhead type good for small spaces or containers.
- ‘Red Sails’ is a 1985 All-America Selections Winner. It is one of the slowest bolting red leaf lettuces.
- ‘Red Fire’ is a beautiful red fast-growing lettuce that can also take the heat.
- ‘Salad Bowl’ is a leaf lettuce with deeply lobed, green leaves. It was a 1952 All-America Selections Gold Medal Winner.
- ‘Sandy’ is an oakleaf variety with dark green leaves and good disease resistance. A 2015 All-America Selections Winner.
- ‘Sierra Batavian’ has red tinged over green, thick romaine-like leaves and great flavor, and grows well in the cool of spring or heat of summer.
Other Types of Greens
Some other salad greens that have gained in popularity recently and that are not difficult to grow (culture is very similar to lettuce) include:
- Arugula (Eruca sativa), also called salad arugula, rocket, or roquette, is a fast-growing, cool season green in the mustard family. The dark green leaves resemble dandelion, have a distinctive peppery taste, and are best when picked young.
- Wild arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is similar to regular arugula, but has a more intense flavor.
- Cresses are a group of botanically unrelated plants grown for the sharp, peppery or mustardy flavor of the leaves. Upland cress (Barbarea verna) and Broadleaf or Curly cress (Lepidium sativum) are easier to grow than Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), which requires very moist soil at all times.
- Endive and escarole (Cichorium endivia) are two types of chicory. Those with curled, deeply cut, leaves are called endive, while types with broad, waxy, crumpled leaves are escarole. Both have a slightly bitter flavor. Some common varieties of endive are ‘Lorca’, ‘Ruffec’, ‘Salad King,’, and ‘Très Fine’ or ‘Frisée’ (very finely cut, lacy leaves). Escarole varieties include ‘Broad Batavian Full Hearted’, ‘Full Heart Batavian’, ‘Grosse Bouclee’ (slow bolting), and ‘Sinco’ (large heads). Belgian or French endive is a different species, Cichorium intybus ssp. intybus, (also called witloof chicory) that has been forced to produce chicons (4 to 6 inch, spindle-shaped heads or buds).
- Mâche (Valerianella locusta), also called corn salad or nüsslisalat, is a cool season green popular in Northern Europe, France, and Switzerland. The fist-sized rosettes of velvety, dark green leaves have a delicate, flowery texture and flavor.
- New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) is a warm season crop typically grown as a spinach substitute during hot weather. As it is a vining plant, pinching promotes branching and regrowth.
- Orach (Atriplex hortensis) is an annual plant with a long history of use as an edible green. Both heat and cold tolerant, it can be sown in spring through summer. Harvest entire plants when 4 to 6 inches tall, leaving 1 to 2 inches of stem for regrowth. Alternately, leaves can be harvested individually once plants reach 10 to 12 inches.
- Radicchio (Cichorium intybus) is a type of head-forming chicory commonly grown in Italy. The plants form cabbage-like heads, with green outer wrapper leaves. The dark-red interior leaves with white veins of the red heading or Chioggia types are tangy to bitter and very crunchy. Some turn red only with the onset of cool weather. Selected varieties include: ‘Adria’ (large heads), ‘Augusto’, ‘Chioggia’, ‘Giulio’ (non-bolting, for summer harvest, turns red even during hot weather), ‘Rossana’ (small, heat-resistant heads), ‘Milan’ (early, vigorous), ‘Treviso’ (elongated, green in summer, turning red with white veins in fall), and ‘Verona Red.’ Some green heading types include ‘Grumolo’ (cold hardy for late fall) and ‘Zuckerhut’ (dense heads like romaine lettuce). Grow radicchio like lettuce, but it requires a uniform supply of water for tender growth.
- Malabar Spinach (Basella alba) is a warm season vine with thick, spinach-like leaves that have a mild, chard-like taste. It is typically grown during the heat of summer as a spinach substitute.
- Spinach, beet greens, kale, Swiss chard, fennel, and herbs are also potential salad ingredients, but these are very different plants that require different growing conditions and culture.
Growing Mesclun
Another option, especially if you plan to use the plants when they’re very small, is to choose a mesclun mix. Mesclun is the Provençal term for a mixture of young lettuces and leafy greens. In Europe, these mixes have exacting proportions of chervil, arugula, lettuce, and endive or other ingredients to produce a salad that includes every taste and texture sensation of bitter, sweet, tangy, crunchy and silky.
American mixes tend to be heavier on the sweet lettuce and lighter on the bitter greens; read about the contents before buying to determine if the mix is designed to be tangy, mild, or bitter. Custom mesclun mixes can be created to suit your taste buds by mixing seeds of favorite lettuce varieties and other salad greens. Leaf lettuce types are particularly well suited for mesclun and offer the most hues of green and red.
Grow mesclun by seeding thickly in rows spaced closer together than for full-sized lettuce production. If you are a salad lover, plant about five feet of row of salad greens per week, in successive plantings through the spring, in addition to your lettuce plantings.
Harvest mesclun by cutting off the top 2 or 3 inches of growth with sharp scissors once the plants have reached 4 to 5 inches tall, and then allow the plants to regrow for additional harvests. Or harvest entire bunches of plants when they are about 3 inches tall, cutting them off at ground level. Try to pick the leaves in early morning or evening, and avoid the heat of mid day. Handle the leaves carefully so as not to bruise the tender growth or destroy the crispy texture.
Author: Susan Mahr, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Reviewers: Allen R. Pyle, Horticulture Outreach Specialist, UW-Madison Extension, Bruce Spangenberg, Horticulture Outreach Specialist, UW-Madison Extension
Revised: October 2026
