Lettuce 'Really Red Deer Tongue'

Plant in a location that enjoys partial sun and remember to water often. Keep in mind when planting that Really Red Deer Tongue is thought of as tender, so it is really important to plant out well after your last frost date. Planting Really Red Deer Tongue in loamy soil with a ph of between 5.8 and 6.8 is ideal for as it does best in weakly acidic soil.

Sow at a depth of approx. 0.49 inches (1.25 cm) and aim for a distance of at least 5.85 inches (15.0 cm) between Lettuce plants. Soil temperature should be kept higher than 5°C / 41°F to ensure good germination.

By our calculations, you should look at sowing Really Red Deer Tongue about 53 days before your last frost date.

As Really Red Deer Tongue is tender, ensure temperatures are mild enough to plant out - wait until after your last frost date to be on the safe side.

Really Red Deer Tongue is an heirloom known for its history and its classic leaf shape, but this no longer has the pallid color and tendency to succumb to disease of its ancestor ‘Red Deer Tongue’. It’s been improved by breeder Frank Morton.

Frank Morton sought to put real red into deer tongue lettuce. He combined the old-timer with his own creation, Hyper Red Rumple Waved, to develop a whole series of Really Red breeding lines. Morton has now re-selected his gene pool for the deep red color, pronounced white-green contrasting veins and characteristic pointed deer tongue leaves that attracted us initially. Now a more finished variety with much less variation, a stunning improvement over the original Red Deer Tongue.

Improved Red deer tongue