Last Tom Thumb lettuce

So, as with the Little gem lettuce, they have been disappearing fast.  This is the last one.

Tom Thumb lettuce

Of the two types, this has been my personal favourite, as I think it has the slightly better taste, and has given more of a predictable crop.

This will be the last of the Tom Thumb lettuce posts, as there will be no more to eat by the end of this week.

Tom Thumb lettuces disappearing quickly

There may not be too many more photos or posts of these lettuces as there isn't too much more to add.  They look to have grown to their full size, and are being steadily eaten.

Tom Thumb lettuce after 10 weeks

Remember to click on the "tom Thumb lettuce" link on the right of this page or directly at the bottom of this post to see week by week how the lettuce has grown from seed to the date of harvest.

Think I may have planted too many!

The Tom Thumb lettuces are now being eaten regularly, and very nice they are too.  Problem is, we seem to be eating lettuce or some form of salad every day now.  It is probably all entirely in my head, but fresh homegrown lettuce does taste a lot better than those bought in a shop.

So here we are at 9 weeks from sowing.

Tom Thumb lettuce 9 weeks after sowing

I don't know if we'll be able to eat all the remaining lettuces before they go to seed.  I'm not even sure when they will go to seed or become inedible.  I'll keep you posted.

Tom Thumb lettuce

I'm not sure how much bigger these lettuces will grow.  They were described as a mini variety on the packet, yet they are growing fairly big already.  I've been picking them as I need them for salads, generally taking the plants that look most crowded, and leaving the bigger plants to continue to grow.

8 week old Tom Thumb lettuce

The other issue we now have is ants.  Thousands of the little sods.  There are little holes in the soil, and ants crawling all over the place.  You can see one on the lettuce above if you look carefully enough!

I don't want to put ant poison down in a veg patch as i don't know the effect it will have on the vegetables, so I'm stuck with them for now.  They don't seem to do any harm (yet), but as soon as they do, I'll need to work out a way to get them to move on.

Tom Thumb Lettuce and Little Gem Lettuce

I wanted to grow a type of lettuce as they seemed fast and easy to grow, which appealed as it gives less scope for messing it up.

Little gem and Tom Thumb lettuce was chosen as I could squeeze a few more in in my small plot, and the packets said even kids could grow them, which gave me a little confidence.

Originally planted on 12th March, the first seedlings came through on 25th March.  At 7 weeks, the two lettuces are below.  I'm not sure how big they should get, but have already had a couple of the tom thumb lettuces as they looked a bit overcrowded, but each lettuce was only just about enough for a garnish in a sandwich.  I'm hoping they can continue to grow a bit more.

tom thumb lettuce (left) and little gem lettuce (right)

I was expecting the little gem lettuce to be tightly packed leaves, like how you get them in the supermarket, but so far the leaves are all fairly open.  Perhaps as they grow they will form more of a head?

The Tom Thumb lettuces are very tasty, but still very small.  Hopefully I'll be able to resist picking them all until they get a little bigger.

Tom Thumb lettuce at 7 weeks