Re-grown Lettuce

My wife Jan brought home what seemed to be an over-packaged head of lettuce, one of these large heads of Colorado-grown Bibb Lettuce, complete with it's root ball (hydroponic?), in a large plastic bubble package. Don't always trust your first reaction. This may be treasure in disguise!

Indeed, when we finished eating the lettuce, I placed the root ball in a wide-mouthed glass of water, and left it to sit on the counter by the window. Three days later, voila! The plant is growing new leaves. I planted it in the garden after a week, but it was set back by a couple of hungry, marauding slugs. I had forgotten to fill the slug pool with some Bud, distracting them by opening the neighborhood pub. No matter, the head started growing again immediately when I did get the slug-distracting pool of beer installed.

The second head of lettuce like this we ate, I'm leaving it in the window for a week or two longer, let it get a good headstart on the pill bugs and slugs.

Now, what to do with the large plastic bubble?! It is recycle-class #1, so I could just toss it in the recycling bin, and know it will be headed back into clothing, new packaging, or whatever.

Or, I could save a few of these bubbles for autumn, when I harvest the lettuce again. Then I'll plant the root ball again, only this time back in the bubble, to protect it from the cool nights, while I see if we can harvest a round #3 from each head of early summer lettuce.