possible to source too (check with
Growing Lettuce in
Warmer Conditions
Growing lettuce in cool temperate conditions
is pretty easy, but when you are in warm
humid conditions like Goa, this king of salad
leafs needs some extra care
Heat is the primary concern for growing
lettuce, and can affect your efforts from the
germination stage through the harvest.
Ideally, temperatures of about 18-22˚C is
when lettuce grows well in the western
coast of India, but with a little care you can
compensate for conditions of approximately
25-30 ˚C which are predominant in the
winter along India’s western coast.
Figure 1: Lettuce can grow very well in Goa
CHOOSE RIGHT VARIETIES
First, select the right varieties of lettuce
to grow – heading lettuces like iceberg are a
very long shot. Instead focus your attention
on the leaf lettuces and romaine lettuces.
Some varieties are more heat tolerant than
others and you will need to check that their
seeds are easily available in India too.
We’ve found the following varieties more
productive in Goa’s conditions and seeds
Annadana Seed Savers, Bangalore)…
1) Salad bowl (green)
2) Red salad bowl
3) Grenoble red (Rouge grenoblaise)
4) Deer tongue
5) Marvel of 4 seasons
To begin with, you should germinate your
lettuce in semi shade conditions, so that
germination is not badly affected by the hot
sunlight. The optimum temperature for
lettuce is less than 20 ˚C, so you should
expect germination to be in the 60% range if
you are planting early at about 25 ˚C (before
the cooler weather occurs).
CAREFUL WITH NURSERIES
You need to take care that the soil in your
nursery beds or pots is really well
prepared – soft loamy soil, well drained by
using sand or coco soil and old compost that
is well decomposed should be used. Do not
cover with too much soil, just 2-3mm is fine
and do not overwater. A fine layer of moss
on the soil means that overwatering is
occurring, and cracks in the soil surface
mean that it’s probably too clayey.
Usually the lettuce seeds take 3-5 days to
germinate and will have light green leaves.
Once the germination happens, the
lettuce saplings need more sunlight for at
least 3-4 hours in the morning. If they
don’t get this, they will tend to become
lanky and will tend to be weaker and
susceptible to excessive shock while
transplanting. Evening sunlight is usually
harsher so try and plant in a way that your
beds are protected then.
Regulate the sunlight availability for the
saplings by either moving your pot nursery
or by removing the shade net from beds
(making your shade net flaps easily
removable is a great idea. Purchase the 50%
variant of shade net for use your lettuce bed
nurseries and for when the final
transplanting will happen in beds.
plant is looking healthy). The kind of
structure that you choose to use will depend
on the direction of the sun. As you can see in
the pictures in Figure 3, the saplings have
recovered nicely after the transplanting
about 3 days earlier.

Figure 2: Lettuce saplings ready for transplant

PREPARE FOR TRANSPLANT

Prepare the saplings for transplanting by
reducing the watering by 20% from day 15
onwards, and then don’t water for 48 hours
before the transplant. Just 30 mins before
you pull them out; water them very well so
that they can stock up on water.
Transplanting should always be done
about 21-25 days from sowing, at the 4-5
leaf stage and when the sun is low in the
evenings (after 4 PM). This substantially
increases the chances of the lettuce
surviving the heat of the day without going
limp. It’s a good idea to mulch your well
manured raised beds with dry straw Figure 3: Shade net can help protect newly
before transplanting, but make sure that transplanted saplings from heat
you create a gap in the straw to prevent
Once this stage has been passed the lettuce
contact with the transplanted sapling.
plants will usually grow well unless it gets
Scoop out a shallow basin of soil in the unusually warm.
beds, and put in a handful of manure before
In case you have a problem with caterpillars
you transplant the sapling in. This allows
or grasshoppers you can spray either a neem
water to be soaked in better into the roots
oil or cow urine spray (5% diluted solution
without soaking the leaves excessively.
in water). Make sure that this is done at
Provide shade with a shade net for the least a week before you are harvesting.
first 5-6 days until the transplanted Prepared for Growing Vegetables
saplings have recovered from the shock Organically 2013 Edition by Miguel Braganza
(leaves aren’t looking limp anymore and the and Green Essentials.