I love gardening, so I don’t mind that some plants demand more of my attention than others.I’m not mad when I have to grab the pruners to
13.07.2023 - 05:35 / gardenerspath.com / Kristine Lofgren
How to Prevent Lettuce from BoltingLettuce is one of those plants that you can usually count on to give you a hefty harvest with minimal fuss.
You probably won’t have to beg, coddle, and pamper those leaves in order to get what you want from them.
But now and then, lettuce can disappoint us, such as when it starts flowering prematurely.
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Also known as bolting, early flowering is a sign that the plant is ending its individual life cycle and sending out seeds to continue the circle of life.
While eventual flowering is inevitable, there are many steps you can take to prevent it from occurring too soon, and there are things you can do once it does happen.
That’s what we’re going to discuss in this guide! Here’s what you can expect:
Lettuce is supposed to go to seed. That’s how it reproduces. So when it’s forming flowers, it’s doing something totally normal.
But we don’t want it to go to seed prematurely, because the plant stops forming leaves, and any existing leaves become bitter.
We call this bolting, and we want to avoid it so that we can enjoy the harvest.
Why Do Lettuce Plants Form Flowers?All lettuce plants will eventually form flowers, these will eventually form seeds, and those seeds will fall to the ground.
This takes a lot of energy, as you can probably imagine, and moving on to the reproductive phase of life means the plant has to conserve energy from elsewhere.
As a result, it stops putting energy into producing the parts we want to eat. The existing leaves also develop a bitter taste.
Particularly when it happens early in the season, we call this bolting, and we want to avoid it so we can enjoy our plants.
Lettuc
I love gardening, so I don’t mind that some plants demand more of my attention than others.I’m not mad when I have to grab the pruners to
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