How To Grow Lettuce For Free!

by Marcie
green leafy lettuce

Lettuce is super easy to grow and you can grow it for free with the core of any type of lettuce: romaine, green leaf, iceberg. All you do is cut off the core and stick it in the ground! Water it and voila! Lettuce ready to cut and eat!

3 romaine lettuces on the table next to a knife
Here’s a 3 pack of organic romaine lettuce I bought at the store. I’m ready to cut off the cores, cut up the hearts and put them in a bag for my family to have ready for salads.
cutting 3 romaine lettuces
Cut off the cores
This is the lettuce core you will plant. If you’re in the middle of making a salad for dinner and can’t go plant it outside right away, you can put it in a bowl of water until you’re ready to plant.
bowl of water with 4 lettuce cores in it ready for planting.
The one on the left I had in a bowl of water for a few days already.
lettuce core ready for planting
After 1-2 days you’ll notice new lettuce starting to grow out of the middle.
romaine lettuce core sprouting new lettuce leaves
This is the one in the left of the bowl that was in the bowl a few days before the others. It was also falling over so the lettuce grew straight up from its falling over position.
digging a hole and planting a romaine lettuce core
Take your cores out to your garden and dig a hole as deep as the core. You can also plant these in planters or inside your house.
a romaine lettuce core in a hole for planting
Put it in the hole and cover it up.
4 romaine lettuce cores planted in the garden box
If you are planting the day you cut them, cover the entire core. If the core has already started sprouting, let the new growth poke through the soil.
lettuce and garlic planted in a raised garden bed
The row of romaine lettuce cores goes through the middle of my lettuce box. Last year I planted them first and planted lots. But this year I forgot. I already planted seeds throughout this box so the only place I knew was free was a small row between the lettuce, spinach and kale seeds. To the far right are garlic. I’ll add some more cores there too as as the season goes on. Can’t wait to have a fresh salad every day!

That’s how you grow lettuce for free!

That’s all there is to it!
  1. Cut off the core.
  2. Plant the core
  3. Cover it up
  4. Water it
  5. Watch it grow!

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6 comments

Charlene March 2, 2023 - 2:49 pm

No way! I never thought you could grow lettuce like this! I just may have to try it. We do plan on spending some time in the garden this weekend. So cool! I love your step by step instructions with photos!❤️

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Julie March 2, 2023 - 7:35 pm

That’s pretty awesome! I’m going to have to do this… I’m about to fill my green stalks and would love to grow lettuce this year.

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Lindsay March 2, 2023 - 7:42 pm

I’ve grown lettuce from seed, but I’ve never tried this! Great idea.

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Tessa March 3, 2023 - 5:55 pm

I’ve always put my lettuce in water and watched it grow but it never amounted to much. I didn’t realize I was missing the critical step of putting it in the ground! I’m definitely going to try it this spring!

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Madeline March 4, 2023 - 3:41 pm

This is such a cool tip! Does it need to be organic lettuce? And specifically romaine or is that just your preference?

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Marcie March 7, 2023 - 9:57 am

I’m so glad you asked! No, it doesn’t have to be organic and any type of lettuce. I’m trying to make my posts shorter and not ramble so much but I can’t believe I didn’t mention those things.
No it doesn’t matter if it’s organic or not. Some people are really into organic seeds so maybe they’d want the lettuce heads to be organic too so that’s why I said that. And it can be any type of lettuce. I actually prefer green leaf cause it grows bigger and is a bit sweeter. So I’m really glad you said something. I’m going to change it in my post right now! Thanks so much!

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