Many people love this. If summer is too hot, the entire plant may die, but in cooler temperatures, it may resprout and continue to produce. Cut the Bolting Plants Down. And when you harvest your lettuce, do it properly. While bolting lettuce is bitter, if you are used to mixing some of the stronger greens – such as kale, dandelion or cabbage – into your smoothies, bitter lettuce is actually much milder when blended with fruit and nuts or any kind of milk, sweet or fermented. Keep your plants as cool as you can—some shade helps keep lettuce healthy and slows down bolting. Lettuce Plants will bolt for a variety of reasons. Once it bolts, it's done. Your lettuce is more likely to have bolted from the heat and longer days than from not being harvested. Trimming off the flowering stalk as soon as it appears helps to slow the process down. Bolting lettuce plants become bitter and sharp in taste as they shoot towards the sky. Lettuce bolt will occur when daytime temperatures go above 75 F. (24 C.) and nighttime temperatures above 60 F. (16 C.). Lettuce grown indoors is surprisingly tender. Other crops that are sensitive to bolting include Chinese cabbage and mustard greens. An easy way to put more bite in your lettuce is to aim a small fan at the lettuce while it is growing. When I've grown lettuces - leaf ones, not head lettuces - I'll make cuttings and there will be some regrowth but once it goes to seed the growing year is over. Here's what I'd do: Save the seeds from it. My choice would be to remove the bolted romaine lettuce plants from the garden, add them to the compost pile, and to try planting again for fall, or better yet early next spring. Try growing some of the Batavia lettuces such as Nevada or Loma which are better able to produce during the heat of summer. Lettuce plants will naturally begin to flower when the temperature gets too warm. Add some fertilizer and see if the crop returns. A: Bolted lettuce, when cut down to its base will regrow under the right conditions. Whenever possible, choose varieties of lettuce that are slow to bolt. 2. Lettuce is finicky and prone to bolt due to the heat. When you see this, you can attempt to cut the plants back to only three inches in height. Bolted lettuce can still be harvested and eaten, although the leaves will taste unpalatable and bitter if they are left on the plant too long, so it is best to pick the leaves as soon as possible after bolting and remove the plant entirely once all the edible leaves are removed. Understanding what triggers the plant to flower aids us in keeping it in a vegetative state for longer. Some people miss that extra crunch. There are some plants which will begin to produce flowers when the temperatures rise. They can be planted. Temperature. 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