What does it mean when my lettuce flowers? (summer, compost, eat)

[mossomo]

I just transplanted a mesclun mix less than a month ago and this guy is already flowering. That's called bolting right? Deadhead is cutting the flowers? Does bolting make the lettuce bitter? Should I deadhead the lettuce or eat what I can and toss the rest into the compost?



Any idea what kind of lettuce it is? It was a mesclun mix and did't list types. I think I want to avoid this type, I transplanted two and both are bolting while none of my other lettuces are. It actually looks like a spinach to me.

[bellalunatic]

Lettuce disease: treatments for bolting

[KarenBo]

Mine bolted last summer, and yes it did taste bitter. I wound up just putting it in the compost pile and starting over.

[mossomo]

It's flowering so it should go to seed. Anything I should know about gathering seeds from lettuce? How long before the seeds are ready for harvest?

[cap1717]

means it's too late to harvest. . . let seeds mature and save them if you want to.