Lettuce, Augustus (Organic)
Lactuca sativa. Green Romaine. 60 days.
With its dense, bright green heads, Augustus is a classic big green romaine lettuce through and through. Plants are nice and tall and produce lots of crisp and tasty leaves, perfect for piling onto sandwiches. Legend has it the Roman Emperor Augustus was gravely ill and he was put on a diet of lettuce, which he credited with saving his life. True? Maybe we’ll never know. A workhorse farm-appropriate variety that is lettuce mosaic virus and corky root rot tolerant, and is resistant to many strains of downy mildew. A former Petoseed PVP variety that was dropped when the PVP expired. Or maybe it was dropped when Seminis bought and “simplified” the Petoseed catalog? Another great lettuce rescued from the USDA GRIN genebank, and brought back to in situ stewardship.
Sow indoors in flats with good potting soil year-round. Transplant into the garden 3-4 weeks after sprouting at 3″ spacing for leaf, 12″ for heads. Alternatively, direct sow March through September. In our area, lettuce can go through winter if protected. Succession sow for continual harvest.
Seed Saving
Collect seeds when flowers are downy like dandelions. Cut seed heads and place upside down in a bag to dry for a few days. Knock seed heads against side of bucket or tote, rub downy fluff off seeds. Winnow and screen to clean.
Joseph –
Where did you grow this variety? Washington
Planted – 04/02/16
Emergence – 04/08/16
Thinned – 04/14/16
Lettuce is currently at 38 days post-planting and it looks like it will finish earlier than the 60 day expectation (in an El Nino year, of course…). Great-looking, crisp, thick, dark-green Romaine. I’ve another crop 30 days behind the first, and it looks as vigorous as the first. My 5 year old daughter asks to pull leaves to eat while I am working the row – it’s that yummy!
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Joseph –
Where did you grow this variety? Washington
Just a short follow-up… I’ve been harvesting for about two weeks now ad needed in the kitchen. Excellent Romaine!!!
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