How I Grow Lettuce “Houseplants” For Fresh Salad All Year Round

If you’re tired of flavorless mesclun mixes that spoil the day after you bring them home from the store, you’ll want to keep reading. Even if, like me, you’re a gardener who regularly grows lettuce each spring and fall, you’ll want to hear this. I’ve figured out how to eat delicious, crunchy salads all year.

Why Lettuce Makes the Perfect Year-round Crop…Indoors

One of the first things I plant in my garden each spring is lettuce. I’m a huge fan of butterhead lettuces and the miniature romaine-type lettuces. They’re like the personal pan pizza of lettuces; only you can eat the whole thing with zero guilt.

Growing lettuce is pretty easy, too. It’s a great vegetable for new gardeners. 

But by late June, lettuce bolts and turns bitter under the scorching summer sun. You can get in a few extra heads in the fall, but once the snow starts to fly, you’re on a homegrown lettuce reprieve until next spring. 

Unless you take my approach, which is a bit unorthodox. But…

You get the bonus of eating lettuce in February without having to worry about yet another government food safety recall. And can we all agree that “spring mixes” taste terrible even when fresh? They’re flimsy little leaves with no flavor and no crunch that wilt the second you mention salad dressing.

It’s hard to beat mature lettuce in terms of flavor, texture and crunch.

As a gardener, I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but I prefer my indoor lettuce, as there are no slugs or bugs to contend with. It really is the perfect way to grow it. So, let’s take a look at how.

What If I Don’t Have Space?

When it comes to growing vegetables indoors, many people imagine elaborate hydroponic setups. But that’s not necessary with lettuce.

Here’s the thing: I spent quite a few years living in a second-story apartment with no access to a lawn or garden. I got really good at growing things on my balcony and tucked in among the houseplants in my apartment.

I started treating lettuce as a houseplant.

When asked by friends about my weird penchant for growing “outdoor” plants indoors, my response was, “Why not?”

Look at the way lettuce grows; it’s a rosette of bright green or rusty red. It’s beautiful.

And yes, it looks just as nice as my African violets growing on my windowsill. I promise, no garden police will come and take away your garden tools and seeds if you decide to treat lettuce as a temporary houseplant you can eat.

Start looking around and you’ll see you’ve got plenty of room for a few lettuce plants:

• On a windowsill? You bet.
• On your counter. Definitely.
• In a grow tent in your basement? Go for it.
• In a fancy macrame plant holder in your window. Now we’re talking!

Light – Natural or Electric?

The most important consideration when growing lettuce indoors is light. Like most vegetables, lettuce requires around 6-8 hours of full sunlight a day.

“But Tracey, I don’t have any windows in my house that receive that kind of light?”

I know, I only have one that gets a full 6-8 hours a day, and it’s tiny.

So, I cheat.

I have a collection of high-quality, inexpensive grow lights. I’m a huge fan of Barrina grow lights. They have a brilliant selection no matter what your needs. Are you looking to set up a permanent indoor grow tent? They’ve got you covered. Do you need a lamp for that Monstera in the dark corner of your living room? Done.

However, my favorite grow lights are their foot-long T5s. They’re small but mighty.

I like that their design is inconspicuous, allowing them to be used around the home. You can also connect them to make them longer if needed. And if you don’t want your house to look like a hydroponics lab, they come in bright white and warm white to make them more décor friendly while still giving your plants what they need. (No more weird pink glow in the evenings.)

It’s these grow lights that I set up under my kitchen cupboards to illuminate my dark counters and allow me to grow fresh herbs, lettuce and more African violets than I can count. (You can read about that setup here. Easy peasy and renter-friendly.)

But I must warn you, if you put grow lights under your counter, you’ll start looking around your home, wondering where else you can sneak them for plants. (I’m already clearing one of the shelves on my built-in bookshelves in the living room.)

Of course, if you do have a space that receives 6-8 hours of natural full sun a day, well, I’m terribly jealous. But you’re all set to grow lettuce, you lucky duck. And hanging plant holders work great for potted lettuce plants.

Grow Lettuce, But Make it Stylish

As I’ve already said, lettuce is a good-looking plant. Just because you’re growing lettuce indoors doesn’t mean it can’t look good and blend in, too.

I like to grow my lettuces in nursery pots tucked into pretty planters. It’s much easier to switch them out when it’s time to yank up your lettuce, eat it and replace it with a new one. Additionally, I can start more lettuce in the nursery pots elsewhere and then swap it out when another one is ready to harvest.

How to Do It

1. Fill a small 4-5” nursery pot with damp potting soil, leaving an inch to a half inch of space from the top.
2. Gently press 2 to 3 lettuce seeds into the top of the damp soil, then sprinkle more potting soil to a depth of 1/8”. Pat the soil down lightly.
3. Cover with a clear plastic dome or plastic cling wrap.
4. Place the pot in your sunny window or under a grow light.
5. Once the seeds germinate, remove the cling wrap and keep the soil moist, but not soaked.
6. At around two weeks, thin to the largest, healthiest seedling.
7. Feed with a high-nitrogen fertilizer every two weeks.
8. Harvest the full head when mature, or use the cut-and-come-again method for leaf lettuces.

Helpful Tips:

• To keep yourself in lettuce, it’s a good idea to plant new seeds every week or every other week. It might take a bit to get the ball rolling, but after a month or two, you’ll have lettuce ready to pick nearly every week.
• If you’re using small planters, like I do, water your lettuce often. They dry out fast, and lettuce needs moist soil to thrive.
• If lettuce becomes leggy, it’s not receiving enough light, and you’ll need to move it to a location that receives adequate light or consider using grow lights.

The Utilitarian Side

Yes, you can grow lettuce in a houseplant-like fashion if you’re short on space. But if you have a little extra room, you can make growing lettuce indoors really easy without complicated hydroponic setups. You don’t even need a ton of room to do it.

I use these 5-gallon storage totes with a couple of grow lights overhead. They’re great for growing up to six heads of lettuce at a time (or planted in succession), and they’re also my go-to for growing radishes and white turnips in the winter.

They’re small enough not to be inconvenient, yet big enough to grow a decent portion of fresh veg during the winter if you keep replanting them after each harvest. Drill a couple of drainage holes in the bottom, and you’re ready to go.

If you want to get really crazy, set up two of them and plant them two weeks apart for a continuous cycle of lettuce.

Growing lettuce indoors may seem fussy at first, but give it a try. Once you have your first salad made from lettuce that grew on your windowsill, you’ll wonder why you ever settled for tasteless, supermarket salad greens during the winter. Then you’ll start looking around your home and wondering, “Hmm, could a miniature tomato plant fit over there next to my pothos?” Yes. Yes, it can.

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