I’m trying out a bunch of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.I have a packet of the Tennis Ball Lettuce and then a packet of Lettuce mix. It’s been raining so much that I couldn’t direct sow — I worried the seeds will wash away before they can take hold. Friday I set them in self-watering transplant pots. Two days later, they are coming out!
I’m excited about trying them out. Here are the descriptions of the two packets.
Introduced to gardeners in the 1850s and listed by 116 seedsmen in 1904. Small tight rosettes of light green leaves. The plants measure only 7″ in diameter and form loose heads. According to Heirloom Vegetable Gardening by SSE member William Woys Weaver, tennis ball lettuces were often pickled in salt brine in the 17th and 18th centuries. Butterhead, 50 days.
I’m hoping the small size of the “baby” lettuce will interest toddler in lettuce again.
For me, I got the mix.
A well balanced cutting mixture of lettuces containing equal amounts of the following eight varieties: Amish Deer Tongue, Australian Yellowleaf, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Lollo Rossa, Pablo, Red Velvet and Reine des Glaces. Start eating in 40-45 days.
Somewhere around mid-November we will taste test.
