Red American Lettuce Seeds 10 Seeds

Red American is a loose-leaf lettuce that stands out for its ruby to bronze-red leaf tips fading to green hearts, giving salads and garnish plates a vivid splash of colour. The leaves are crisp yet tender with a mild, sweet flavour, and because it is a loose-leaf type you can pick a few outer leaves at a time without taking the whole plant. Like all lettuce it is a cool-season green, at its sweetest when grown and harvested in cool weather before the heat sets in.

Planting

Lettuce is a cool-season crop, so timing it for cool weather is everything. In Egypt the Nile Delta's natural window runs from roughly late September through February, with successive sowings every two to three weeks for a continuous supply; the December-January core gives the most reliable results because temperatures sit near the ideal cool range. In hotter Upper Egypt, shift to a shorter window of about November through January and favour faster loose-leaf types like this one. Sow directly outdoors and very shallowly, only about 0.3 to 1 cm deep, covering the seed only lightly because lettuce seed needs light to germinate. Seeds sprout best at around 16 to 20°C; germination is poor below 10°C or above roughly 24 to 27°C, so avoid sowing in the May-to-September summer heat, when high soil temperatures cause the seed to go dormant. During warm shoulder weeks, sow in the evening, water with cold water and shade the bed to cool the soil.

Fertilizing

Lettuce has a medium-to-high appetite for nutrients. Work compost or organic matter into the bed before planting to give the seedlings a strong start. Where you want a boost, a complete balanced fertilizer can be applied before planting, followed by a nitrogen side-dressing once the plants reach about 10 cm tall. If you are growing in fertile ground, extra feeding is often unnecessary; for lettuce in containers, a general-purpose liquid feed every two weeks through the warmer part of the season is enough to keep the leaves coming.

Care

Keep the soil consistently moist to drive fast, tender growth and to discourage bolting, aiming for roughly 2.5 cm of water per week and more on sandy soils. Water lightly and often rather than heavily, and water overhead in the morning so the leaves dry through the day; avoid overwatering, which encourages root and leaf disease. Containers may need daily watering in warm spells. The crop grows well in full sun in the cooler months but tolerates partial shade of four to six hours of direct light, and light afternoon shade during warm spells helps prevent bolting. Thin seedlings while they are still small to about 10 to 20 cm apart, clipping unwanted seedlings with shears rather than pulling. Watch for aphids, cutworms, slugs and snails, flea beetles and leafhoppers, along with downy mildew and grey mould in cool damp conditions; floating row covers help keep pests out, and avoiding late-day overhead watering reduces disease. Harvest young by picking outer leaves once they reach usable size, or cut the whole plant at the soil line at around 13 to 15 cm tall; loose-leaf types reach full size at about 50 to 60 days. Pick in cool weather and on the early side, since heat and over-maturity turn the leaves bitter and trigger bolting.