Magenta Lettuce is a red Summer Crisp variety that brings both beauty and resilience to your garden. Ready to harvest in just 48 days from transplants, this compact lettuce grows to a tidy 10 inches tall and wide, making it perfect for small spaces and succession planting. Its red-tinged leaves with frilly outer edges and dense, succulent inner core deliver good flavor while holding up remarkably well in summer heat, resisting the bitterness and bolting that plague many lettuce varieties when temperatures climb.
Full Sun
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10in H x 10in W
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Moderate
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This red Summer Crisp refuses to be a fair-weather crop. Unlike delicate lettuces that turn bitter and bolt at the first hint of warmth, Magenta Lettuce has genuine heat tolerance, staying sweet and tender through late spring and summer harvests. The combination of red coloring, frilly exterior, and dense ribbed interior creates both visual appeal and textural interest on the plate, while the rapid 48-day maturity means you can keep succession plantings coming throughout the growing season.
Magenta Lettuce shines as a main ingredient in summer salads, where its red-tinged leaves and crisp texture add both visual contrast and satisfying crunch. The frilly outer leaves catch dressing beautifully while the dense, ribbed inner core provides substance and structure to composed salads or salad mixes.
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Start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last spring frost. Sow in trays or cells and maintain germination temperatures between 60 and 70°F, with cooler conditions favored (below 70°F is ideal). Keep soil moist until seedlings emerge.
Transplant seedlings outdoors once they have developed true leaves, hardening them off by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days. Plant them in the garden as soon as soil can be worked in spring. Space transplants 8 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart, with full sun exposure.
Direct sow seeds beginning about 4 weeks before your last spring frost, and continue sowing every 2 to 3 weeks through summer for continuous harvest. Resume sowings in late summer, stopping about 2 weeks before your first fall frost. Sow seeds directly into prepared garden soil.
Harvest Magenta Lettuce promptly when plants reach maturity around 48 days from transplanting, especially from late spring and summer sowings, to beat bolting before hot weather sets in. Cut the entire head at soil level when it feels firm and the outer leaves have developed their characteristic red tinging and frilly appearance. For continuous harvest, you can also remove outer leaves individually while allowing the plant to continue growing, though heading varieties like this are best harvested as complete heads.
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