Lettuce Rejoice

The Farmers Guide to Growing Organic Lettuce: How to Grow Lettuce in Challenging Environments by Ray Tyler

Last month in this space I monologued for a few hundred words on the relative paucity of practical books on how to grow crops or raise livestock — as compared to the numerous volumes published every year on farming-adjacent themes.

I bring this up only in order to point out how this month’s selection so perfectly fits the bill. Ray Tyler’s The Farmers Guide to Growing Organic Lettuce is … a guide for farmers on how to grow organic lettuce — and an excellent one.

Tyler grows lettuce year-round in the mid-South. This is no small feat. He’s developed techniques that have allowed Rose Creek Farms to grow and sell lettuce, in Tennessee, 52 weeks a year, since 2015. 

The book covers the basic topics in order: variety selection, propagation, soil fertility, protected growing, irrigation, direct seeding and transplanting, disease and pest protection, and finally harvesting, packing and marketing. But it does so in much more detail than a typical market gardening book. Tyler provides the details professional growers are looking for in every aspect of the operation. He even includes Standard Operating Procedures that his crew uses — an invaluable aid for new and experienced growers alike.

To touch on just one specific topic, as an example of the depth of information in this book, Tyler goes into detail on biofumigation — the process of using the naturally occurring chemicals in some plants (primarily mustard) to help reduce harmful nematodes and other soilborne pathogens. In addition to solarization and soil steaming, Tyler discusses how he uses either grass clippings or a crop of mustard to reset beds that have been afflicted with disease. By mowing and chopping the grass/mustard, incorporating them into the soil, watering them and then tarping with clear plastic, Tyler is able to trap chemicals — glucosinolates — that react with water to create other chemicals — isothiocyanates, thiocyanates and nitriles — that act as fungicides/pesticides. Conventional farmers accomplish this with synthetic chemicals, but ecological growers can accomplish the same thing following Tyler’s instructions.

I do want to discuss this book’s price point — not by way of criticism, but merely to bring up the topic of value.

Tyler and his team at Small Farms Big Change self-published, and they charge $250 for the book. I’m not opposed this decision, because I think any serious commercial grower can easily justify the purchase. They will take Tyler’s recommendations and maybe apply just one or two of them and easily recoup that much money in a single season. And the book is just a component of Tyler’s $1,000 online lettuce masterclass; purchasers of the book receive $250 off the price of the class, which means that the book is essentially a part of the class, and the same logic applies: professional growers will undoubtedly glean several tips that will net them over $1,000 in a season. 

Potential buyers should look at this not as a book purchase (it’s actually more of a workbook than how it’s marketed — as a textbook). It’s more a fee for a consultation. You’re paying to buy all of a fellow grower’s hard-earned lessons — to avoid having to learn those lessons yourself the hard way. 

The bottom line is that any professional grower who wants to grow lettuce should get ahold of this book. It’s a consultation fee that will help make you money. For the right audience, it’s a no-brainer.