What follows covers planting lettuce seeds in the order you would actually need it, rather than the order it appears in the game.

Details that seem cosmetic occasionally are not, which is why the order is specified. Doing this without understanding it works fine until something changes, which it will. If the first attempt fails cleanly, that is more useful than one that half-works. The version you are running matters more than the platform you are running it on.

The summary

Do the straightforward version first; it solves this for most people, and the detailed section exists for when it does not.

The straightforward version

The step people skip is almost always the one that makes the rest reliable. Checking the result immediately costs seconds and saves the most common kind of wasted time. The steps are boring on purpose; the interesting version is the one that fails half the time. The useful answer is usually one sentence long, and everything else is the reasoning behind it.

A change that works but that you cannot repeat has not really solved anything. Most of the disagreement online here comes from people describing different versions.

If your situation is slightly different

Keep the first attempt simple and add refinements only after it works. Doing this properly once is faster than doing it approximately three times. Most of the frustration here is avoidable, and almost none of it is about reflexes. Interfaces move between versions; the underlying logic almost never does.

Two answers to planting lettuce seeds circulate online, and both were correct at some point. The result is consistent once the inputs are, which is less obvious than it sounds.

Doing it faster once you know the method

If the result looks wrong immediately, stop rather than continuing and hoping. The optimal approach and the reliable approach diverge more than people expect. The step people skip in planting lettuce seeds is the one that makes everything after it reliable.

Where two methods both work, prefer the one with fewer places to go wrong. Where a guide and the game disagree, the game is right and the guide is old.

Related things worth knowing

The version number is the single most useful thing to note before following instructions. Most guides are written once and never revisited, which is worth remembering when one does not match. Consistency beats optimisation until you are comfortable, and often after that too.

Written notes beat memory when you come back to this in a month. It is worth knowing which part of this the game actually enforces and which part is convention.

  • Confirm the result immediately rather than later.
  • Stop once you have a working result rather than optimising forever.
  • Prefer the reversible option whenever two routes give the same result.
  • Note your version number before starting.
  • Prefer the approach with fewer steps that can fail.
  • Read the whole sequence once before starting any of it.

Mistakes worth avoiding

  • Following a guide written for an older version and assuming nothing moved.
  • Assuming a step took effect without checking.
  • Reading only the summary and missing the condition it depended on.
  • Optimising before the basic version has worked once.
  • Spending an hour on preparation for a step that takes two minutes.

Other things people ask

How do I know it worked?

There is normally a visible confirmation, and where there is not, the check described above settles it in a few seconds.

Is any of this reversible?

Nearly all of it. Anything that is not is flagged in the steps, and there is normally a safer alternative worth considering first.

Does this still work after the latest update?

It did at the time of writing. If a step no longer matches, the underlying idea normally still applies even when a menu has moved.

Can I do this with a friend?

Yes, and it is often easier. Agree on who does what before starting, because improvising halfway is where co-op attempts fall apart.

Is the longer method worth it?

Only if the short one has already failed for you. Starting with the complicated version is how simple problems become long evenings.

Try it, note where it diverged, and the second run will take a fraction of the time.