I was surprised to see a new lettuce bolted. I brought it in, and found that it was not really the newly planted lettuce seed which had bolted, but rather it was an offshoot of an earlier harvested plant put into the ground last fall. You can see the tall bolted lettuce is an offshoot of a cut off plant. Right next to it is a shorter, more condensed, normal, newly seeded lettuce plant. It is not an offshoot of the cut off plant.
This clearly showed that the older lettuce, which had been exposed to cold bolted. In another set of harvested lettuces (not shown), it was clear that last fall’s plants which survived and are growing in early April, are bitter, whereas the fresh, spring planted lettuce that is now growing, is not bitter. THe truly new, spring planted lettuce has not bolted yet. It was new shoots from last fall’s lettuce which bolted!
Growing any garden utilizes energy from the sun. Homegrown saves trips to the store, if not money. It is good to learn what one can do with one’s seeds, soil, water, and sunshine!
