Can You Transplant Lettuce?

Reasons to Transplant

• Lettuce seeds germinate quickly in garden beds, but transplanting from indoor-started seedlings provides some benefits over direct seeding in the garden. You can start spring lettuce earlier indoors so the plants are large enough to begin producing earlier in the year. Lettuce prefers the cool temperatures of spring and fall, so fall crops can only be set outdoors after the soil begins to cool in late summer. Starting the seeds indoors protects the young plants from summer heat and ensures you have sprouted lettuce ready for the garden as soon as it cools down outside.
  
  

Transplanting Times

• Optimum planting transplanting temperatures in the outdoor bed are between 60 and 70 F. Higher temperatures can result in bolting and seed set, rendering the plants useless. Start transplants indoors four weeks before you plan to transplant the lettuce. Starting the plants sooner results in overgrown plants that are more prone to root damage during transplanting. Lettuce can survive light frosts, but high temperatures cause plants to decline quickly.
  
  

Starting Transplants

• The seeds germinate most readily at temperatures between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Starting transplants indoors, especially in spring, ensures more lettuce plants sprout successfully. Start the transplants in plantable peat pots so you don't have to disturb the roots during transplanting. These plants decompose in the garden bed after planting, so there is no need to remove the pots when you transplant the lettuce. Sow lettuce seeds on the soil surface in the pot and cover them with a 1/8-inch layer of soil. Most lettuce seeds sprout, so sow no more than two or three seeds per pot.
  
  

Transplanting Method

• Transplant the lettuce seedlings outdoors once the soil reaches the preferred temperature of 60 F. In spring plantings, a late season light frosts won't damage the transplants. Harden-off the lettuce before transplanting it so the seedlings become accustomed to outdoor climate conditions. Keep the pots outdoors in a protected area for a week, bringing them indoors only when frost threatens. Hardening-off prevents some shock to the plants once they are in their permanent bed. Plant the peat pots deep enough so the top rim sits just beneath the soil surface, otherwise the pot wicks moisture from the soil and into the air, causing the roots of the lettuce transplant to dry out.