Sunday Funday: Grow Your Romaine Lettuce from Scraps
You don’t need to have a green thumb to try out this activity from home! Any kind of lettuce with the base intact will do for this activity. I used romaine, but did some research, and apparently Boston leaf, red leaf and radicchio work well too. This fun project is easy for kids to get involved with and is rewarding for them as they watch the lettuce grow. The best part? The lettuce will be ready to harvest in a few weeks and makes a healthy salad to enjoy!
The lettuce base will regrow a new head of lettuce from the middle. Here is a head of lettuce about one week after being placed in the bowl of water.
Eat the top portion of the lettuce you have purchased, cutting the leaves at about 1 to 2 inch from the bottom. The bottom portion is what you will keep to grow your new lettuce.
Place the remaining stem in a bowl or dish and fill with about 1/2 to 1 inch of water.
Place the bowl on a window sill to soak up the sun!
Change the water in the bowl every 1 to 2 days. I found in the first few days, the lettuce sucked up the water each day, and I had to refill the bowl.
The fun part is to watch the lettuce grow! The new shoot will start to grow almost immediately. I felt like every time I checked back, it had grown a little more. Some lettuce bases will grow faster than others, and some may not grow at all. I suggest purchasing the 3 pack of romaine lettuce you can get at the store and try out all three bases so at least one will grow. You may also notice that roots will start to grow on the bottom. If roots begin to grow on the bottom, you can plant your lettuce in a pot with soil.
After 10-14 days, your lettuce will be full grown. Do not expect it to be the size of the original head of lettuce. Trim your lettuce and use it in a salad or on a sandwich. Yum!
A lettuce head after 2 weeks planted in soil. this will be the largest the lettuce head will get before it will become bitter or go to seed.
