How To Choose the Best Lettuce Varieties for Your Needs

Lettuce has something for every grower. It's versatile, loved by nearly everyone and always in demand, making it a valuable market crop and a home garden staple. It's fairly easy, quick to mature and adapts to many conditions, seasons and growing methods.

With so much variety, just deciding what to grow can take some work.

Hensley’s runs an extensive lettuce trialing program to be sure the varieties we offer each year are the best available. Here is our guide to the basic types of lettuces, so you can decide which varieties are right for you, plus some of the fundamentals of lettuce growing success.

Shown above: red and green lollo head lettuces and baby leaf mixes grown at Fishbowl Farm in Bowdoinham, Maine.

Whether you're picking a few varieties for the garden or planning a full market lettuce program, keep these general points in mind.

• Turnaround time. Lettuce, baby leaf in particular, matures quickly, so succession planting (sowing every so often) is essential for a steady supply all season. For details, see our vegetable succession planting chart.
• Temperature. Lettuce likes mild temperatures and does best in spring and fall; in heat it turns bitter and bolts (sends up a flower stalk and goes to seed). Some varieties handle temperature extremes better than others, so matching varieties to the season is key.
• End-product. You can grow lettuce for one or more end products, including full-head, mini-head to baby leaf mixes, and certain varieties suit each use better. Know what you want to produce before choosing varieties and planning plantings.

Skyphos is a red butterhead.

Head Lettuce: Full-Size Heads & Mini Heads

Most lettuces can be grown as full-size head lettuce, cut at the base and sold by the head.

Mini-head lettuces are either regular head varieties planted close and picked early, before full size, or varieties that naturally mature small and compact. Either way you get a single-serving head.

For market growers, mini heads can earn more than full-size heads; for a comparison of costs and returns, see mini vs. full-size head lettuce.

Head Lettuce Types:

• Butterhead. Usually grown to full size, butterheads have loose, ruffled leaves, a pale heart and a tender, sweet, buttery taste. "Boston" types are a kind of butterhead with lighter green, soft, smooth leaves and large heads. Other butterheads are darker green, a bit more compact and savoyed (blistered), or red.

Newham is a bibb lettuce for mini heads.

• Bibb. Bibbs look, feel and taste much like butterheads but are smaller, and are usually grown as mini heads.

• Crunchleaf. Newer lettuces with distinctive leaf and head shapes that blend traits of iceberg, romaine and other classic types, all with an appealing extra-crunchy bite.

• Iceberg. Also called crisphead, iceberg makes a tight, cabbage-like head with crisp texture and a mild, sweet flavor.

• Lollo. Lollo types make loose heads of very frilly leaves, often used as a garnish or for baby leaf. Their broad leaves also work as wraps.

• Oakleaf. Oakleaf types make attractive, fairly dense rosettes of crisp, wavy leaves with deep lobes like oak leaves. They're mostly grown for baby leaf, though some also make good full heads.

Shown above: an "open-heart" romaine with a different leaf shape, size and form from classic romaines.

• Romaine (Cos). Romaine is known for its compact hearts of long, broad leaves, with outer leaves that double as wraps. It's sweet and crisp. Some romaines grow more open rather than forming tall, blanched hearts; these blanch somewhat over time but can't be sold purely as hearts. Romaine needs more fertility than loose-leaf types.

• Summer Crisp / Batavia. True to its name, summer crisp is the go-to for summer lettuce. It handles heat fairly well and can be grown for baby leaf or full heads, which are heavy and compact. Like romaine, it does best with a bit more fertility than leaf types. You'll also see it called French crisp or Batavia.

• Green Leaf / Red Leaf. Examples include 'New Red Fire' and 'Tropicana'. These are the familiar grocery-store lettuces sold bunched with a twist tie, used for salads, sandwiches and wraps.

Baby Leaf Lettuce and Cut-and-Come Again (CCA)

The best varieties for baby-leaf have 1) fast, even growth, 2) thick leaves, and 3) an upright habit. All of them work for cut-and-come-again.

Practically any lettuce can be grown as baby leaf by sowing thickly and picking leaves young. The varieties suggested for baby leaf are especially good because they grow fast and evenly, have thick leaves, and stand upright, which makes harvest easier and cleaner. Grown to maturity, they make poor full heads that are loose and light.

Baby leaf is usually ready about 3–4 weeks after sowing, though some varieties take 5–6 weeks, even in spring and certainly in fall. Harvest by cutting 1–2" above the soil with a knife, shears, or a mechanical harvester.

Every variety suggested for baby leaf production also works in cut-and-come-again (CCA) systems: the plants regrow after cutting as long as the growing point at the base isn't damaged. The second cut is usually smaller and of lower quality than the first.

Sow weekly for a steady supply of baby leaf all season.

Baby leaf varieties primarily include romaine, summer crisp, and oakleaf types. Hensley’s also carries several lettuce mixes made up of varieties that mature at about the same pace, for an attractive blend of colors, textures and loft. Some growers mix in herbs, edible flowers, baby brassicas, specialty greens, sprouts or shoots to create a signature salad mix.

• Browse baby-leaf lettuce varieties
• Baby leaf greens and lettuce production guide

These beautiful Salanova 'Red Butter' were grown at Left Field Farm, in Bowdoinham, Maine.

One-Cut Lettuce

One-cut is a trade term for head lettuce grown to full size whose leaves fall apart into individual pieces when the head is cut at the base, giving a product much like baby leaf. Some one-cut varieties are harvested once; others are grown cut-and-come-again.

Salanova is the best-known one-cut type for baby leaf and performs well in many settings, from open field to winter tunnels and hydroponics. Its breeder reports higher yields, better flavor and texture, and longer shelf life than traditional baby leaf.

You'll also find mini-head one-cut lettuce varieties, a good choice for mixed packs, displays and salad mixes.

• Browse one-cut lettuce varieties
• Salanova production guide

Summer lettuce trials

After narrowing down the types you want, choose specific varieties. You'll probably want several for each season you plan to grow (spring, summer, fall and winter), depending on your latitude, microclimate and growing methods.

Spring Lettuce

Nearly all lettuces do well in spring, when lengthening days speed growth and mild temperatures make for ideal conditions.

Summer Lettuce

Good summer lettuces resist bolting and tipburn and keep acceptable flavor under heat. Even heat-tolerant varieties have their limits, though. In the South, the Southwest and other hot regions, most growers skip outdoor lettuce during the hottest months.

• Browse heat-tolerant lettuce
• Lettuce and greens for Southern growers • webinar

Winter lettuce trials

Fall/Winter Lettuce

On the other hand, some varieties are very frost-tolerant and great for fall harvest or tunnels. Cold-season varieties are also chosen for resistance to bottom rot (soils stay wetter in cool weather) and for keeping their shape and color in low light.

• Browse lettuce for overwintering
• Browse lettuce for winter harvest
• Browse lettuce to plant in summer for fall harvest

Lettuce For Hydroponics

Good hydroponic lettuces are usually compact and upright to make the most of greenhouse space, and resist tipburn (a common problem in fast-growing greens), bolting, and diseases such as downy mildew that thrive indoors.

Hensley’s has lettuce varieties suggested for hydroponics, chosen for their compact habit, tipburn and bolt resistance, and disease resistance.

• Browse our Hydroponic lettuce selection

Hensley’s offers different types of lettuce seed to accommodate the year-round needs and preferences of our customers. For lettuce, we offer over a hundred different varieties, in the following seed types. All our seed is non-GMO.

Lettuce seed is tiny, spindle-shaped and ribbed, which makes raw seed hard to handle. Sowing is much easier and more accurate, by hand or by machine, with pelleted seed.

• Certified-Organic Lettuce Seed. Seed from plants grown without any inputs prohibited by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), packed in a certified-organic handling facility.
• Certified-Organic Lettuce Seeds with NOP-Compliant Pelleting. Pelleted seed is coated in an inert material that makes it easier to see, handle and run through precision seeders. Here, the coating uses only materials allowed in certified-organic production under the USDA NOP.
• Conventional seed. Grown and handled conventionally.
• Conventional seed, NOP-compliant pellet.

See our Lettuce quick-reference chart lists our lettuce varieties by type and color, notes whether each comes as organic, conventional or pelleted seed, and shows which suit baby leaf, mini heads or full heads. You can also filter our lettuce product pages by the features you want.

Pelleted Lettuce Seed

Since lettuce seed is so small, many varieties are available in pelleted versions. Pellets make seed easier to handle and sow accurately by hand or machine. Pelleted seed has a shorter shelf life, though, so store it cool and dry and use it within a year of purchase.

Pelleted lettuce can also germinate better. Lettuce seed can go into thermal dormancy in high heat and won't sprout when it's too warm. Many pelleted seeds are also primed, which widens the temperature range for germination and helps overcome some of this dormancy.

• Lettuce can be direct-sown, but for an earlier harvest or better use of bed space, start transplants in flats 3–4 weeks ahead.
• Germination suffers when it's too hot, so start seeds somewhere cool and shade flats in warm, sunny weather.
• Water well; lettuce likes even moisture, and drought-stressed plants turn bitter. With pelleted seed, steady moisture is needed to dissolve the coating so the seed can germinate.

Additional Growing Resources

• Lettuce growing information
• Baby leaf lettuce and salad mix production • tech sheet (PDF)
• Salanova production guide • tech sheet (PDF)

Baby leaf mixes are typically washed and dried well before packing and storage.

A nonprofit urban farm grows affordable fresh produce, like this baby leaf lettuce, for neighborhoods with limited access to fresh food.

• Harvest by hand or with a knife or a mechanical harvester before plants turn bitter and bolt.
• Cool lettuce as quickly as possible after harvest to remove field heat. Head lettuce can be hydrocooled and, except for romaine, iced, either in the package or by top-icing the load.
• Baby leaf mixes are usually washed and dried before going into bags or clamshells; drying the leaves thoroughly extends shelf life. Keep refrigerated in plastic bags or tubs.
• Shelf life varies, but at around 32°F (0°C) and 95–100% relative humidity, lettuce keeps roughly 1 to 3 weeks.

• Full-size head lettuce succession program
• Salanova marketing ideas • PDF
• Hensley’s Hydroponic Head Lettuce • catalog
• Comparison Charts
• Lettuce quick-reference • chart (PDF)
• Baby leaf lettuce • chart (PDF)
• Full-size leaf lettuce • chart (PDF)
• Romaine (cos) lettuce • chart (PDF)
• Salanova lettuce • chart (PDF)