Lettuce Seed
Lettuce Seed
Production
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) can be
grown easily as a vegetable crop in
a cool climate. As a seed crop, it is
a quantitative long-day plant,
especially for headed types. It is
advisable for seed savers to produce
only leaf lettuce seeds. They require
warm temperatures (26 C or higher)
to bolt and set seed.
Isolation
Lettuce produces perfect, selfpollinating flowers. But a small
amount of natural cross-pollination
can occurfrom 16% when two
varieties are grown side by side. A
separation of 23 m or the
establishment of a tall crop such as
maize between different varieties is
sufficient to reduce outcrossing.
Selection
Select the best plants at the edible
stage when you normally harvest for
consumption and mark them by
Harvesting
When two-thirds of the flowers of the
stalk are turning fluffy white, about
23 weeks after flowering, the seed
can be harvested from single plants
by shaking their heads into a
canvas bag. This can be done every
23 days, or you can put the whole
plant on a mat under shading. The
seed will continue to ripen and
shatter.
Processing
After completely dried with white
pappis, seed heads are rubbed with
hands to remove seeds. If
necessary, separate seeds from
chaff by winnowing.
Storage
Lettuce seed loses its viability
quicker than most vegetable crops.
Under ideal cool and dry conditions,
seeds may maintain their viability for
up to 3 years. Place seeds in jars,
manila envelopes, cloth or mesh
bags, plastic containers, or foil
envelopes. The best containers are
air-tight, such as a sealed glass jar,
metal can, or foil envelope. Protect
seed from sunlight.
Store seeds in a cool (below
15 C is ideal), dry location. Place
the seeds in a refrigerator for longterm storage. For short-term storage, keep the seeds in a cool, shady
and dry place.
References
Kelly, A.F. and R.A.T. George. 1998.
Encyclopaedia of seed production of
world crops. New York: John Wiley &
Sons.
Rashid, M.A. and D.P. Singh. 2000. A manual
of seed production in Bangladesh.
AVRDC-USAID-Bangladesh Project.
Joydebpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh.
Sukprakarn, S. 1993. Lettuce seed production. In: Vegetable seed production.
Department of Agricultural Extension,
Thailand.
Excerpt from Saving your own vegetable seedsa guide for farmers. This fact sheet was written by Sutevee Sukprakarn, Sunanta
Juntakool and Rukui Huang of Katsesart University and Tom Kalb of AVRDC. Photos by Ming-che Chen. AVRDC Publication No. 06-662.
Published by AVRDCThe World Vegetable Center; P.O. Box 42, Shanhua; Taiwan 74151; ROC. April 2006.
tel: (886-6) 583-7801; fax: (886-6) 583-0009; email: avrdcbox@avrdc.org; web: www.avrdc.org