microgreens to baby-leaf to full-size heads: mastering lettuce, with tom stearns

I DON’T WANT my salad delivered in a plastic box or to pay a ransom price per pound either, meaning I want to produce homegrown as many months of the year as I can. Today’s topic is how to plant for the best salad year ever with organic seedsman Tom Stearns to guide us, as I kick off my annual Seed Series on the radio program and podcast.

Tom Stearns is founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds in Vermont, with more than 20 years specializing in breeding, selecting and marketing of organic varieties. From microgreens indoors to baby-leaf to mini-heads and up to full-sized heads in the garden, we talked about timing, spacing and making lettuce happy—even which types hold up best in the heat (and ways to help all lettuce do better when summer arrives).

Read along as you listen to the Jan. 14, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

success with lettuce, with tom stearns

Q. Over the years on the show you and I have talked about tomato hygiene, as you taught me to think of it, and spinach growing, and cucurbits and all kind of things—things that have proven to be really popular how-to’s that people are using again and again each year and searching, people finding them by search on the web. So I’m excited to get your advice on this most important topic of filling a salad bowl.

A. Yes, sure.

Q. I’ve been gardening, I don’t know, 100 years or so. [Laughter.] Well, 30-something … I don’t know, how long have I been gardening? For 35 years; something like that. And I feel like things have changed. You know, I used to get a couple of varieties of lettuce, ‘Black-Seeded Simpson’ and one of the oakleaf types,

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