The summer heat kicks in, your veg patch is thriving and then, suddenly, you're surrounded by beds of bolting lettuce.
Few things disappoint gardeners more than discovering their once-perfect lettuce has shot up a tall flower stalk. But is it really time to say goodbye? Before you pull it out, the plant still has work to do.
Why does lettuce bolt?
July can be a productive month in the vegetable garden, but it’s also when lettuce is more likely to bolt in hot weather.
“July is an excellent time to sow some additional vegetables, as well as plant out crops you’ve sown earlier in the year,” Emma O’Neill, head gardener at Garden Organic, previously told Country Living. “You can continue to sow lettuce but be aware of bolting if the temperatures stay very high.”
Hot, dry weather and changes in day length can trigger lettuce to stop producing leaves and send up a flower stalk.
The RHS says “hot, dry weather can trigger premature flowering, which turns the leaves bitter”, while its guidance on bolting explains that “adverse weather or changes in day length can cause bolting” in vegetables including lettuce. To delay it, keep lettuce well-watered and lightly shaded in summer, and sow regularly.
But if your lettuce has already started flowering, don’t rush to pull it out. The plant may no longer be perfect for salad, but it still has work to do.
1. Leave it to flower for insects
Don’t rush to pull up all your bolted lettuce. If you can spare the space, leave one or two plants to flower. The RHS says adult hoverflies eat “flower nectar and pollen,” and BBC Gardeners’ World says more flowers in bloom means more “food for pollinators.” So, even though your lettuce is no longer great for salad, its flowers may still help useful insects before you save the seeds or add the plant to the compost.
2. Save the seeds
If you'd like more lettuce next year, leave one healthy plant to flower and produce seeds. Once the flower heads turn dry and fluffy, you can collect the seeds and store them somewhere cool and dry. Or, in a relaxed garden, you can let some seeds fall naturally and see whether new seedlings appear. Garden Organic, a UK charity that promotes organic gardening, says open-pollinated seeds “breed ‘true to type’ from one generation to the next,” which makes them useful for home seed saving.
3. Compost the plant after flowering
Once your bolted lettuce has flowered and set seed, it can still help your garden. If the plant looks healthy and disease-free, chop it up and add it to your compost heap. The RHS says composting turns garden waste into a “valuable soil improver and mulch,” so even an old lettuce plant can go back into feeding the soil for future crops.
4. Cook with it
The RHS advises that once lettuces flower, "the leaves turn bitter and inedible." That said, some cooks still make use of bolted lettuce in cooked dishes, where its bitterness can be balanced with other ingredients. Writing for The Guardian, chef Tom Hunt says "both wilted and bolted lettuce are great to cook with", using it in place of other leafy greens in dishes such as gratins or simply sautéed with peas and spring onions. If you're keen to avoid waste, it may still be worth trying.
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