Lettuce Trees?

[tankgirl73]

Has anyone seen this before in their lettuce?

I'm growing two types of lettuce. Bath cos romaine (heirloom variety) and buttercrunch leaf lettuce (organic seed but otherwise a standard 'modern' type).

Most of the plants have grown the way I'd expect. New leaves in the center, outer leaves getting larger, etc. Neither is a 'head' lettuce type, just loose leaves. I've been harvesting just outer leaves for the most part, occasionally taking a whole plant when it got to a good size (planted 5 per square foot, four in the corners and one in the middle, so occasionally you're supposed to pluck out one of the corner plants as they grow, and leave the center one to get full-sized).

Now a few of the plants have done something odd -- they've grown UP. Rather than the new baby leaves simply popping from the center, it's shot up a thick stalk and the new leaves grow off that.

It's not bolting -- I don't think, anyway. There's no sign of any flowering or seeds, it's all perfectly normal leaves. They're just growing UP now... each new set of leaves is ABOVE the previous set rather than INSIDE it. They're several feet high now! This is happening with both the romaine and the buttercrunch -- but not every plant. Some are still 'normal'.

Here's some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovecat/3792999355/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovecat/3793813864/

Anyone see this before? What on earth does it mean?

[natural_mama89]

That is called bolting. They are going to seed. It is too hot for them

[notwonamesalike]

Originally Posted by natural_mama89

That is called bolting. They are going to seed. It is too hot for them

Yep.

[reducereuserecycle]

if you leave it and let it continue to bolt you might be able to collect some seeds from it and then plant them now to grow a fall crop of lettuce (or freeze the seeds for next spring)

[GardenStream]

I always let one or two of mine bolt and collect the seeds to use for the following year.

[birthgreeter]

Depending on how may plants you have, you can allow some to continue to 'make seeds', the others, cut back and dig up, then replant them. That shock to the plant sometimes allows them to regrow very well, -by first putting more effort into the roots, then growing lettuce leaves again, more towards the fall time.
I plant my lettuce in a shady area, and that helps too, or replant it under your cucs, melons, zucchini or other big bushy plant so it receives shade. My spinach is also under stuff and has not begun to bolt yet! Still getting a great harvest!

[tankgirl73]

Well I guess it is bolting. I had thought it wasn't bolting because a) there's no sign of any flowers or seed heads, etc, and it's been growing 'up' for quite some time, and b) the leaves aren't bitter. I'm super-extra-sensitive to bitter greens so I'd have noticed lol...

I was going to pull them all soon and plant new seeds for a second crop anyway. I'll just make sure I get them right away before they do get bitter. I'll also check my seed stock and see if I need to get some more for next year -- I certainly do save seed whenever possible, I've got two spinach plants going to seed (on purpose) right now while I picked and will re-seed the rest.

Thanks!

[lmonter]

Yup, they're bolting. If you let 'em keep growing, you'll see them do the flowering/seed thing at some point soon.

[reducereuserecycle]

yeah, mine are more bolted than yours and the yellow flowers are beginning to open now

[tankgirl73]

I think the other thing that threw me off, is just my experience with other bolting plants. I'm used to ones that threw up a tall central stalk but didn't have the same leaves all the way up... like my spinach, the leaves on the bolting stalk are very obviously different than the "regular" leaves at the bottom.

This lettuce is regular leaves, growing normally, all the way up... down the the little cluster of tasty little leaves at the very top of the romaine (instead of down in the middle lol). We ate two plants for supper tonight, they were yummy!

I'm not surprised at lettuce bolting, I'm just surprised at what it looks like. A 'lettuce tree' is really the right description. I was expecting a 'lettuce bush' with an obviously SEPARATE stalk coming out of it, rather than the whole thing turning into a giant thick stalk.

You can probably tell I haven't grown lettuce before lol...

Well, you learn something new all the time. Today I also learned that potato plants can set FRUIT. Potatoes is one thing I've grown many, many times, and I never saw this before. It's fascinating!

[SAHMinHawaii]

My lettuce took a while to go to seed. It was bolted for a good month before any flowers were there. I have been collecting seeds like crazy. I'm tired of gathering lettuce seeds now. I have freecycling most of them.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

Well I guess it is bolting. I had thought it wasn't bolting because a) there's no sign of any flowers or seed heads, etc, and it's been growing 'up' for quite some time, and b) the leaves aren't bitter. I'm super-extra-sensitive to bitter greens so I'd have noticed lol...

Whether they go bitter or not really depends on the weather you're having.

I'm pretty used to my lettuce bolting the first week of June, immediately resulting in bitter greens. This usually is the time of our first hot stretch.

But this year, we had an unusual pattern: one hot day followed by a stretch of cool days, until late June. My green varieties of lettuce bolted about the second week of June, but didn't become bitter for several more weeks, until we had stretches of hot days. We ate fresh lettuce for a lot longer than usual.