Crop guide · Vegetables
How to grow lettuce in containers: shallow, cool, and cut-and-come-again
A 6-inch-deep tray is enough. Sow every two weeks, shade it in July, and it pays for the seed packet ten times over.
- Container
- 6 in deep
- Width matters more than depth here
- Sun
- Part shade
- 3–5 hours. Full sun in July means bolting
- First harvest
- 30 days
- Cut-and-come-again gives you three cuts
Lettuce is the crop I'd start anyone on. It germinates in a week, tolerates a shallow container that costs almost nothing, doesn't need full sun, and gives you something to eat in a month — which matters more than it sounds when you're waiting three months for a tomato to decide.
Sow a pinch every fortnight rather than a whole packet at once, or you will have eleven heads ready on the same Tuesday. Cut-and-come-again mixes are better value than hearting types on a balcony: snip an inch above the crown and the same tray regrows twice more. The one thing that ruins it is heat — above about 75°F lettuce bolts, turns bitter and is finished, so move the tray into afternoon shade from July.
Full write-up coming: the varieties that hold longest in heat, sowing depth and spacing, and how to keep a tray going into November.
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About the author
Carsten
I grow food on a 4×6 balcony and write down what works. Not a master gardener, not sponsored. When a guide is wrong I fix it and note the date at the top. Questions, corrections and photos of your pots are welcome. say hello.