Lettuce · Umraniye, Istanbul, Turkey
When to plant lettuce in Umraniye
Main outdoor window
30 Jan - 13 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
20 February
In Umraniye, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16-31 Mar
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Umraniye
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
9-23 Jan
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
20 Sep - 11 Oct
Counting back 74 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
30 Jan - 13 Feb
Three weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
6-20 Feb
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
16-31 Mar
Lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Umraniye
Why these dates
Sow every ten days from six weeks before last frost. Pause through midsummer, then resume for an autumn crop - late sowings are often the best of the year.
Tolerates -3C and a light frost actually sweetens the leaf. Seed germinates poorly above 25C, which is the more common problem.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Lettuce are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Umraniye.
The median frost-free season here is 307 days, against 45 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Umraniye
Other vegetables to time
Growing lettuce in Umraniye
When should I plant lettuce in Umraniye?
Aim for 30 Jan - 13 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Feb - 11 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lettuce be ready to harvest in Umraniye?
Expect to start picking around 16-31 Mar, based on 45 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lettuce tolerate?
Tolerates -3C and a light frost actually sweetens the leaf. Seed germinates poorly above 25C, which is the more common problem.