Thinning Lettuce Seedlings Frugally

Thinning vegetable crops is not my favourite garden chore. Like many gardeners, I hate to waste. It breaks my heart to think of pulling out half the seedlings I have carefully nurtured, even though I understand the need to thin plants in order to help them grow better.

Thinning allows better air circulation around plants and reduces competition for water, soil nutrients and sunlight. While it allows a larger space for each individual plant to grow to full size, it also reduces stress and helps plants resist infestations and disease. So it's a good thing, even if it seems wasteful to cull even healthy plants.

There is a frugal solution - actually, there are two. The first is to simply delay thinning until your lettuce seedlings are big enough to harvest as baby greens. Select the plants you want to keep in your lettuce patch, and use scissor to thin the rest. Snip them off just above the ground and take your thinnings into the kitchen for supper! This method also works for root vegetables like carrots and beets. You can even eat pea shoots, so don't be shy!

Your second option requires that you set aside a separate vegetable bed. When lettuce seedlings have 2-3 sets of true leaves gently scoop out the largest and healthiest of your seedlings, being careful not to damage the roots. These lettuce plants can now be relocated to another spot in your garden and allowed to grow on. A key benefit to this method is that slower growing plants will replace earlier maturing lettuces that have been harvested or bolted. While it may not completely replace succession planting, for vegetables like lettuce that grow from smaller seeds it is a handy trick. You can broadcast seed rather than fussing about rows and spacing. And sowing thickly is beneficial if conditions may result in reduced germination rates - using older seed or starting seeds in colder weather, for example.

Planting Lettuce

Lettuce can be direct seeded in your garden two weeks before your last frost date. Continue successive plantings at two to three week intervals throughout spring, for continuous supply. For a fall crop, start seeds about 8 weeks before first frost. Try broadcasting the seed fairly thickly over your lettuce patch. This makes planting easier and can help compensate for lower germination rates.

Frugal Lettuce Thinning Options

Option One: Eat Your Thinnings

Thin your lettuce bed once seedlings are big enough to be harvested as baby greens. Snip the plants off near ground level rather than pulling them up, to avoid disturbing roots of the lettuce you want to keep.

Option Two: Transplant Lettuce Seedlings

When lettuce seedlings have two to three sets of true leaves, select the largest and healthiest for transplant. Scoop them out with a spoon or small trowel, and move them to another patch in your garden. Space lettuce 6-12" apart, depending on mature size.

Lettuce graphic, courtesy of Wikipedia user Geographer, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license