Heirloom · Open-Pollinated · 45–50 days from direct seeding
cool-season · timing varies by zone
Grows well in
Raised Bed ✓
In-Ground ✓
Container/Pot ✓
Grow Bag ✓
Meet This Plant
Black Seeded Simpson is one of the fastest, most reliable lettuces you can grow. Light green, lightly crinkled leaves with a mild, juicy flavor that shows up in about six weeks and keeps coming as long as the weather cooperates. It handles more heat than most lettuces but it's still a cool-season crop at heart. Plant it early, plant it often, and it'll earn its space every single time.
What it tastes like: Mild, tender, and just a little sweet. No bitterness, no bite. The kind of lettuce that makes you realize how good fresh really tastes.
How to Grow It
Sun
Full sun in cool weather. Partial shade in warm climates helps slow bolting and keeps leaves tender longer.
Water
Keep soil consistently moist. Shallow roots dry out fast. Uneven moisture makes leaves bitter and speeds up bolting.
Sowing Details
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Depth⅛ inch. Barely cover with soil. Lettuce germinates best when planted shallowly.
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Spacing6–8 inches for full leaves, closer for baby greens
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Row Spacing12–18 inches
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Thinning6–8 inches. Eat the thinnings.
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Germination7–10 days. Stalls above 75°F.
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Days to Maturity45–50 days from direct seeding
When to Plant
For spring, direct sow as soon as the soil can be worked, even 2–3 weeks before your last frost when daytime temperatures are consistently in the 40s to 50s°F. Lettuce handles light frost without trouble.
For fall, direct sow 6–8 weeks before your first fall frost or once daytime temperatures begin dropping below about 75°F.
Succession plant every 2 weeks in both seasons for a continuous harvest.
Zones 7–8
Direct sow in early spring before temperatures climb and again in late summer once the heat breaks. Succession plant every 2 weeks. Skip midsummer planting. Soil above 75°F causes germination to stall.
Zones 9–11
Fall through winter is your best season for lettuce. Direct sow once the heat breaks and keep succession sowing through winter.
Grow Friend Tips
Succession plant or you'll have a feast and then nothing
Black Seeded Simpson matures fast and bolts fast. Harvesting outer leaves cut-and-come-again style stretches a single planting to 6–8 weeks, but once it bolts that's it. Sow a small row every 10–14 days through spring and again in late summer to keep a continuous supply going.
Harvest in the morning
Black Seeded Simpson wilts faster than most lettuces. Cut in the morning when leaves are cool and crisp, bring them inside quickly, and rinse in cold water. Evening-harvested leaves don't hold nearly as well.
Watch the center stem
Once the center stem starts to elongate and push upward, bolting is coming fast. Harvest everything you can at that point. The leaves turn bitter quickly once the plant decides it's done producing and wants to flower.
Shade cloth buys you time in warm climates
If you're in a warmer zone and want to stretch the harvest, putting a shade cloth over your lettuce bed during the hottest part of the day slows bolting noticeably. It's not a permanent fix, but it gets you a few extra weeks.
It grows well in containers
A pot at least 6 inches deep works fine. Good for balconies, patios, or keeping lettuce close to the kitchen. Just water more frequently than you would in ground. Containers dry out fast.
Companion plants
Carrots
Radishes
Strawberries
Chives
Garlic
Nasturtium
Harvest & What to Do With It
When it's ready
Outer leaves are ready to pick at 4–5 inches long. Full-size plants are ready at 45–50 days when they're 6–8 inches across with dense, frilly leaves. Don't wait too long. Once the center starts to elongate, flavor drops fast.
How to harvest
For cut-and-come-again, cut outer leaves about an inch above the soil line and leave the center intact. For the whole plant, cut at soil level. One clean cut and you're done.
Yield
One planting gives you a short harvest window, maybe a couple of weeks before it bolts and runs its course. Sow another row every 10–14 days and you'll always have something coming in.
Short-term storage
Rinse, spin dry, wrap in a dry paper towel, and refrigerate in a bag. Keeps 7–10 days. Lettuce this fresh doesn't last long and doesn't need to.
Long-term storage
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Freezing: Lettuce is mostly water. Freezing destroys the texture completely. Not worth it.
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Dehydrating: Technically possible as a powder but not practical or useful for most home cooks.
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Pressure canning: Not safe and not appropriate for lettuce.
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Water bath canning: Lettuce is not a canning crop.
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Pickling: Doesn't hold up. Not recommended.
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Root cellaring: Doesn't apply.
What to cook
Raw is the whole point. Salads, sandwiches, wraps, grain bowls. The mild, sweet flavor and tender texture are what make Black Seeded Simpson worth growing.
Seed Storage & Saving
| Variety |
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce |
| Type |
Heirloom · Open-Pollinated |
| Seeds per packet |
~500 seeds |
Storing unused seeds: Keep somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Viable up to 4 years.
Seed saving: Lettuce is self-pollinating, which makes it one of the easier crops to save seed from. Let a few plants bolt and flower. Once the seed heads dry and turn yellowish-tan, cut the stalks, shake seeds into a bag, remove the chaff, and store in a cool and dark place. Collect from the slowest-bolting plants to select for that trait over time.
