Bolting is when a plant goes to seed and becomes bitter before it dies. This can often look like flowering or bulbs separating. It happens in almost every vegetable. In fact, you may have seen it with your lettuce, broccoli, or cauliflower these past seasons.

Bolting happens naturally at the end of the plant's life, and the reason bolting occurs is because that is how the plant spreads it's seed before it dies. Sometimes, bolting can be prematurely triggered by stressful growing conditions, such as lack of water, excess heat, or transplanting. It can also happen early when a plant is too close to other types of plants. For example, lettuce does not like to grow near brassicas like broccoli or califlower, and it can bolt early if it is planted too close to them.

LETTUCE

Some people may have noticed bolting in their lettuce before they had a chance to harvest it. In this case, the lettuce felt like it was in danger of dying and wanted a chance to spread it's seed before it died.

Many times, the reason for the lettuce sensing it's "impending death" is a lack of sun. It starts to grow upwards in search of the sun since plants know that the sun is in the sky above them. To avoid this bolting, plant lettuce in an area where they get direct sunlight for at least half the day. If it's in a place that is mostly shady, it won't produce leafy greens to eat and bolt prematurely.

Once lettuce does bolt, the lettuce leaves that comes from it turn bitter as a defense mechanism, so eat at your own risk!

BROCCOLI & CAULIFLOWER

Broccoli and cauliflower bulbs are a collection of flowers. Once they come to the end of their life, if not harvested, they begin to bolt and the bulbs begin to separate. It is important to harvest the bulbs as soon as you notice them starting to separate. If you wait, the flowers in the bulbs will start to bloom and you won't be able to harvest your cauliflower or broccoli.