Salad going to seed: how to avoid it?

Sprouting is as much of a gardener's hassle as runaway seedlings. Everything looks promising and then, all of a sudden, the seeds arrive and blow away your hopes of a harvest. Most lettuces go to seed at the end of their cycle, between four and six months after sowing. If they go to seed too soon, the lettuce is no longer fit to eat. There are solutions to prevent lettuce or other salad varieties from going to seed in the vegetable garden.

What is lettuce going to seed?

When lettuce grows, leaves and roots sprout. To produce as much as possible, it conserves its nutrients. Next, the flowering stem develops with the appearance of flowers and then seeds. Going to seed is therefore part of a plant's normal cycle.

However, for flowering vegetables, including lettuces, going to seed signals the end of the life cycle. The leaves become thick and are no longer fit to eat. Going to seed early is a real problem. The leaves lose their taste and nutritional qualities, the flavour becomes bitter... In the garden, it is therefore necessary to stop this phase.

What are the causes?

There are several factors that can trigger going to seed:

• Lack of water
  This is often stress linked to a lack of water supply. When lettuce is too dry, it has to ensure it multiplies and forms seeds. A lack of water or watering that is too irregular is often the cause of going to seed.
• The temperature
  It can also be the sudden return of temperatures that are too cold or, on the contrary, a sudden excess of heat. This variation of a few degrees compared with seasonal normals, can trigger flowering.
• Days that are too long
  This is to be expected! When the days are longest, seed set is favoured. In late spring, especially if the weather is warm, salads will tend to flower.

How to prevent seeds from going to seed

A salad that goes to seed in the vegetable garden is not inevitable. It is possible to limit the risks and even avoid it:

• Salad does not like sudden rises in temperature. When sowing in the garden or greenhouse, remember to shade your plants.
• Respect sowing dates to avoid large temperature swings.
• Lettuce does not like drought. It is therefore advisable to water salads well, if possible with rainwater. As usual in the vegetable garden, watering is done early in the morning or in the evening at sunset.