Lettuce | Mesclun Salad Mix

Grow a vibrant, tender, and colourful mix of gourmet salad greens in your home garden. Mesclun salad mix is a quintessential salad favourite, featuring curly endive, lettuces, chervil, arugula, chicory, and other greens. It is prized for its delicate textures, diverse flavours, and wonderful variety in fresh salads, gourmet sandwiches, and light summer dishes.

These reliable plants produce a continuous harvest of young, succulent greens throughout the cool growing season, making them a refreshing and rewarding addition to any vegetable patch. Start seeds indoors before the last spring frost or direct sow early for Canada's shorter, cooler growing seasons.

Why Grow Mesclun Salad Mix?

• Tender, colourful, and flavourful gourmet salad greens
• Abundant and reliable cool-weather cut-and-come-again yields
• Exceptional variety of textures and tastes for fresh salads
• Open-pollinated variety
• Approximately 45–55 days to maturity
• Grows best in full sun to part shade
• Approximately 500 seeds per packet

How to Grow Mesclun Salad Mix from Seed

Start mesclun mix seeds indoors approximately 4 weeks before your last expected spring frost, or direct sow outdoors as soon as the soil can be worked in early spring. Sow seeds about 3 mm (⅛ inch) deep in fertile, well-drained soil and keep cool and consistently moist until germination.

Provide seedlings with plenty of bright light if started indoors. Before planting outdoor transplants, gradually harden off the seedlings. Choose a location with full sun to partial shade and rich, amended soil.

Broadcast seeds evenly for a dense patch or sow in shallow rows spaced about 15–20 cm (6–8 inches) apart. Greens prefer cooler temperatures and may bolt or turn bitter in intense summer heat.

Water consistently and evenly, ensuring the shallow root system stays moist, especially during active leaf growth.

Growing Mesclun Salad Mix in Canada

Mesclun mix thrives in the cool spring and fall weather characteristic of Canadian climates. Canadian gardeners benefit from starting seeds early indoors or using succession planting every few weeks to extend the harvest before intense summer temperatures arrive.

Use shade cloths during unexpectedly hot summer afternoons to protect sensitive plants from bolting, or time crops for a robust autumn harvest.

For detailed instructions covering seed starting, transplanting, spacing, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, and pest management, read our Complete Guide to Growing Lettuce in Canada.

Mesclun Mix Growing Information

Feature	Detail
Botanical Name	Lactuca sativa et al.
Common Name	Mesclun Salad Mix
Plant Type	Annual cool-season vegetable
Sun Requirements	Full sun to part shade
Days to Maturity	Approximately 45–55 days
Seed Count	Approximately 500 seeds
Pollination Type	Open-pollinated
Best Uses	Gourmet salads, fresh mixes, and sandwiches

Grow Your Own Mesclun Salad Mix

There is nothing quite like harvesting a bowl of crisp, colourful gourmet greens straight from your own garden patch. With its vibrant mix of flavors and rapid cut-and-come-again yields, mesclun mix is a rewarding and essential addition to any Canadian vegetable garden.

Start your mesclun from seed this season and enjoy watching it grow into a bountiful harvest of fresh greens.