Growing Organic : Saving Heirloom Lettuce Seed

You wouldn't think tennis balls, Thomas Jefferson, and lettuce have anything in common but Tennis Ball lettuce is an heirloom variety Thomas Jefferson grew on his farm at Monticello. Visiting Monicello and Mount Vernon are high on my bucket list. Not only do I respect these statesmen and their role as Founding Fathers I also admire their role as Founding Farmers.

Tennis Ball

Tennis ball is a cultivar still available today to plant in your garden. This can be your own piece of history to continue cultivating and saving seed from! Tennis Ball is a butterhead lettuce of "small rosettes of light green leaves measuring 7" in diameter." (Seed Savers) This lettuce was often pickled in the 17th and 18th century in a salt brine. Who would of thought you could pickle lettuce?

As odd as it may seem lettuce is one crop I love to grow. Lettuces culinary uses are limited to salads and it cannot be preserved, yet there is something fascinating to me about the varied colors, leaf shapes, and textures. When I come to lettuce in the seed catalog, I slow down and enjoy reading the history of heirloom varieties. Some just speak to me and must be planted in my garden.

Heirloom lettuce is a good place to start your adventure into seed saving. I think sometimes we take it for granted that our favorite varieties will always be around and available in the seed catalogs. Sadly that is not the case. One loose leaf lettuce, Bronze Arrowhead, has always had a place in my garden. It has beautiful arrow shaped leaves that have bronze tips and edges. I shared these seeds with my daughter-in-law and both of us have grown them repeatedly in our gardens. This year when I went to re order this seed it is no long available through the catalog. Fortunately I can still get it off the seed exchange, but it's a reminder that we should all be saving our favorite open pollinated and heirloom varieties.

Bronze Arrowhead

Flowering

Lettuce is in the asteraceae or sunflower family. With perfect flowers that self pollinate, it is a good crop to save seed from. Flowering is triggered by long days and/or high summer temperatures. The flower stalks can be quite beautiful reaching 2- 5 feet tall. Lettuce that forms heads may need a nudge to induce flowering. Do this by cutting one to two inches into the head as it reaches maturity. The trick is to not cut so deep that the growing point is damaged.

Lenox lettuce flower stalks

Isolation Considerations

If saving seed for yourself, isolating is not a concern. There is very little outcrossing with lettuce. To be extra safe you can separate varieties by 20 feet or plant a tall crop in-between varieties. What is a concern is the weed prickly lettuce which may grow near your garden. It's always a good idea to know the weeds in your area. This weed will cross with garden lettuce. (The Complete Guide to Seed Saving. Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough) Also if you are saving seed to preserve genetic diversity isolation is suggested.

You can see the flower stalks and flowers buds forming.

When to Harvest Seed

The type of fruit a plant bears is the key to how and when seed should be harvested. Lettuce fruit is an achene. These fruits are a single seed attached to the ovary at only one point. (The Complete Guide to Seed Saving) Flowering in lettuce occurs over an extended period of time. Terminal flowers open first followed by the lateral flowers. The seeds are ripe for harvest 10-24 days after the flowers shed their pollen. Lettuce seeds develop pappus, the white, feathery dandelion like structures which carry the seeds in the wind. When half the stalk is in this stage you can begin harvesting seed.

Merlot Lettuce developing a flower stalk

How to Harvest Seed

There are several methods to harvesting. You can shake the seed heads into a bag as they begin to dry. A seed bag can be placed over the entire flower stalk prior to flowering to avoid losing seed to shattering. Bagging is also an isolation method. With the final method, the entire plant can be pulled up, hung upside down to dry for about a week and then the seeds are harvested.

Lenox lettuce with it's beautiful oak leaf burgundy leaves developing a flower stalk.

Seed Care and Storage

Lettuce seeds are dormant when you harvest them. After a couple of months they can be planted. Lettuce seed is sensitive to temperature at all stages of handling. If the seed is exposed to temperatures above 77F, whether in storage or in the ground, a second dormancy will be induced. Cold is needed to break this dormancy. (The Complete Guide to Seed Saving)

This temperature induced dormancy, mimics nature's seasons and protects the seed from germinating immediately after harvest only to experience winter kill. It allows the seed to be dormant through winter or a cold season and then germinate in the spring.

Light is also necessary for germinating lettuce seed. The seeds are usually pressed into the soil surface or only lightly covered with soil.

The pvc pipes and row cover were used in early spring to protect the lettuce seedlings to allow early transplanting and then as the weather warmed us I used it as a shade in late afternoon.

Storing Seeds

Store the seeds in paper envelopes in a cool, dry, dark room. Lettuce seed stores up to 6 years.

Recommended Heirloom & OP Lettuce

So now I get to share with you some of my favorite lettuce cultivars. Some are heirloom with fun histories but all are open pollinated so I can save seed. Every year I plant a growing list of favorites and try a few new intriguing cultivars.

Rossimo a loose leaf frilly lettuce

Lunix a red burgundy oak leaf that can be harvested with the cut and come again method or simply harvest the outer leaves.

Grandpa's Admiral a butterhead with a fun history.

In 1977, 90 year old Chloe Lowry gave this family heirloom to Seed Savers Exchange. It is named after her grandfather, George Admire, who was a Civil War veteran. (Seed Saver's Exchange)

Mascara gorgeous curly frilled oak leaf shaped leaves! Beautiful
maroon leaves.

Merlot my personal favorite. A beautiful loose leaf lettuce easy to grow, slow to bolt, and high anti-oxidant levels.

Bunte Forellenschluss which can be either a romaine or butterhead type. "Bunte" means colorful in Germon. The leaves are splashed with maroon. (Seed Savers Exchange)

A French heirloom describe in Vilmorin's The Vegetable Garden 1885. (Seed Savers Exchange) Merveille Des Quatre Saisons is a French heirloom butterhead.