Red Sails lettuce transforms your garden bed into a tapestry of mahogany purple and bronze-red foliage, ready to harvest in just 50 days. This tender leaf lettuce thrives across zones 2-10, forming delicately ruffled rosettes that reach 5-10 inches tall with deeply lobed leaves that practically glow in cool weather. With six times the vitamin A and three times the vitamin C of supermarket lettuce, this variety delivers both stunning visual impact and exceptional nutrition to your table.
8
Full Sun
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2-10
10in H x ?in W
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Moderate
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Red Sails stands out with its radiant bronze-red leaves that form full, beautifully ruffled rosettes with deep lobing that catches the light. The flavor is bold and fresh with a mild, bitter-free taste that holds its salad quality remarkably long, making it slow to bolt even as seasons change. Most spectacular in cool weather, this variety adapts beautifully to spring, summer, and fall growing, offering baby leaf harvests at just 21 days and maintaining its tender texture throughout the season.
Red Sails excels in mixed green salads where its mahogany purple leaves create striking visual contrast alongside lighter greens. The bold, fresh flavor pairs beautifully with light fruity vinaigrettes that complement its natural sweetness, while its tender texture also holds up well under creamy dressings. As a cut-and-come-again lettuce, it provides continuous harvests for fresh salads, and its baby leaves add elegant color and mild flavor to mesclun mixes.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before your average last frost date, and during summer when soil temperatures exceed 80°F and are too warm for direct sowing outdoors.
Transplant seedlings outdoors 4-6 weeks before your average last frost date when soil temperature is at least 40°F, or during summer when outdoor soil temperatures are too warm for direct sowing.
Sow directly outdoors 2-4 weeks before your average last frost date when soil temperature reaches at least 40°F, ideally 60-70°F. In mild climates, sow in fall and winter for cool season harvests.
Begin harvesting baby leaves at 21 days for tender, mild greens perfect for delicate salads. For full-sized heads, harvest at 50 days when rosettes are fully formed and leaves are deeply lobed and ruffled. Cut individual outer leaves as needed for continuous harvest, or cut the entire head at soil level. The leaves maintain their salad quality for an extended period and are slow to bolt, giving you a longer harvest window.
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