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Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia)
Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia)
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A succulent green with fresh spade-shaped leaves that tolerate cold. Slow to germinate; be patient! We grow miner’s lettuce through the winter outdoors and in cold frames and add to our winter salad mix. Seed March to September, in rows or blocks, around 1 seed/cm. Harvest with scissors, just above the crown of the plant, so that it can grow back. 40 days to maturity.
Latin: Claytonia perfoliata
Certified organic in British Columbia. IOPA # 1606, 1105, 1920.
How to Save Claytonia (Miner’s Lettuce) Seed
Fast Facts
Latin: Claytonia perfoliata
Cross Pollination: WIll cross with other miner’s lettuce plants
Seeding and Care
Grow claytonia as you usually would when growing for seed. Seed plants 6-10” apart, or plant densely and thin to the desired spacing. Care for plants as usual and rogue out small, deformed, sickly or fast-bolting plants. Claytonia is drought resistant once established, so reducing water once plants are well established and throughout the seed development process will help to preserve this characteristic over generations of seed saving.
Seed Maturity
Once plants have flowered, keep an eye on seed development. The tiny, black, oily-looking seeds will drop almost immediately upon maturing, so once you see the first seeds beginning to drop, carefully harvest the entire plants, being careful not to jostle the flowering stalks too much and dislodge more seeds. Allow the plants to dry down in a warm place on a tarp. Be sure there are absolutely no holes in your tarp and that it is free from dirt as the tiny seeds are easily lost and cannot be separated from small pieces of soil.
Seed Cleaning
Shake out the dry plant material and screen the tiny seeds to separate from the chaff. Winnowing is nearly impossible due to the size of the seeds, so using screens of various sizes to remove plant material that is larger and smaller than the seeds is the recommended approach.
