On a whim I planted a few heads of butter crunch lettuce this spring. I have never had this particular kind of lettuce, and I was wondering if anyone out there knows anyting about it. First off–how do I know when it’s ready? It looked like lettuce to me from the moment I put the plant in the ground.
I have tried a few of the leaves --they taste like leaves, not like lettuce. I read on several web sites about the “delicious, buttery” or “sweet taste” of this stuff–is it just not ready yet? My lettuce is quite green and healthy-looking but it is not crispy like lettuce. It tasted–and felt–just like eating leaves off of a tree.
Is something wrong with my lettuce, or is it just not ready yet? Or is it supposed to be like this?
I planted the same kind. Mine didn’t seem to grow into a ‘head’ of lettuce, rather it just sort of spread and branched out along the ground. It doesn’t taste very good either in my opinion, also it’s covered with these little slugs for some reason. Sorry.
It’s probably a non-heading, or semi-heading type. Has your soil the proper pH for lettuce, sometimes soil alkalinity/acidity can affect taste]lettuce likes a pH of between 6 and 7, almost neutral]Too much heat during the growing season may cause the plant to bolt,or not head at all, and also change it’s flavor/sweetness. Keep it watered well, and try a LIGHT sprinkling of powdered limestone down the row.
Lettuce is ready to eat anytime you want to pick it. We grow ours from seeds, and start picking it as soon as the leaves are big enough to make into a salad. Non-heading lettuces you can pick leaf by leaf and they will continue to grow and make new leaves until they go to seed.
So, no, it is not that your lettuce is not ready.
It is also likely that it is supposed to be like that. Think of the names of plants as a marketting thing rather than a statement of fact. Butter crunch lettuce is not buttery and, in most cases, will not crunch. Most of the non-heading lettuce I grow is firm and nice, but does not have the crunch that you associate with iceberg lettuce. It often comes out more of a spinach texture. Unless you let the lettuce leaves grow real big. Then the spines of the leaf will get crunchy and tasteless like iceberg lettuce.
When it grows the way you want it to (it’s got the right conditions and all is well), it makes a head, but a couple of inches smaller than iceberg lettuce when I’ve grown it.
It’s ready to pick when the first one begins to bolt, that is, the leaves in the center start to elongate. They intend to shoot up a stalk and make seeds on it. The shape stops looking like a somewhat flattened ball and looks more like a horizontal nipple, }, than a dome, ).
Pick any that do that the day you see it, and start picking the rest freely.
Oh, actually it’s ready before it starts to bolt, but bolting is the sign to stop being so self-disciplined and go for it.
Thanks for the info…I guess this kind of lettuce just isn’t for me. Pity, since it appears to be growing quite well but I’ve tried it a few times now, and I really don’t care for the taste. Anyone live in New Jersey and want some free Butter Crunch lettuce ? 
I grew butter crunch for the second year and this time it grew 3 feet high with lots of leaves, no little heads, then it started to flower.
I would like to know if the plant can be cut down and if it will continue to grow again and produce more leaves or if it is done for the year ?
Cut it down; once it’s bolted, it’s done for the year.
Ooo, I get a lame joke!
Plants vs. Zombies!
Thanx for the reply. I guess its the same for most leaf lettuce, huh?
My “Leaf” lettuce is bolting also.
The main significance of “bolting” is that the resulting leaves/stalks taste bitter.