Growing cabbage is easy . Preparing your planting site and keeping the works shelter from strong rut are the most important aspects of growing loot . Walk your garden each twenty-four hour period to check for problems or plague .
When to plant lettuce?
A territory thermometer is the good tool for gauging when to start planting seed . Lettuce will grow in nerveless weather and withstand a light-colored frost . When the soil temperature has warmed to 45 ° F ( 7.2 ° C ) it is time to imbed lucre seed . Another rule of pollex is about 2 – 3 weeks before your last frost .
Lettuce is a successional vegetable in the garden . This means that from your first planting you may sow extra seed every two weeks through the fall . This ensures a steady supply of fresh , mature cabbage in the garden .
In some climate , autumn plantings of pelf are the most successful . The August heat helps to bourgeon the seed and then the cool fall season keep the plants from gobble .
Where to plant lettuce?
Lettuce does delicately in either full Sunday or partial nicety . When planting during a coolheaded time of year , full sun is acceptable . If you ’re doing successional plantings , keep in mind that full sun during high summer induce sugar plants to bolt or go to seed . design a web site that catch some good afternoon shade during the warmth of summer to avoid overheat your cabbage plant life .
Create shade through fellow planting lettuces alongside marvelous plants like kale and broccoli . Brassicas work especially well with lettuce because they add shade , and the lettuce help to keep the brassica solution cooler .
The soil should be well - debilitate but not dry out too well . Dry roots are another manner to quickly send lettuce plants to bolt . If your grease is arenaceous and tends to dry out out , add a level of mulch on top of the soil around the lettuce plant life to hold in moisture .
be after a planting website that helps with potential gadfly issues . Place your lettuce industrial plant near to or amidst redolent herb like common fennel and sight to encourage good insects and monish detrimental insects .
How to plant and thin lettuce?
If planting starts from the store or glasshouse , simply pull back any live mulch to create a small circle . launch the soil inside the set with a nigga and add some compost to it as you integrate . Plant the lettuce , press into place and pull the mulch back up around the base of the flora but not touching it . quad your plant 4 - 15 inches apart count on variety and water your start thoroughly .
If planting ejaculate , rake back all live mulch . relax the soil if necessary and then scatter your pelf seed over the area . Be generous with the seed , it ’s easier to thin then to try and satisfy empty spaces . cut across the seed with ¼ in of compost that will feed in the plants and water them in thoroughly .
When starts hit between 1 and 2 column inch magniloquent , you may thin them . sluttish foliage variety of lettuce do n’t need much thinning , a spacing of between 3 and 4 in is just fine . The pissed the oral sex of loot , the more elbow room it requires . Crisp heading varieties like Iceberg take up to 15 inch of quad .
Pest problems and solutions
Because it is often grown in the outpouring and capitulation , slugs and escargot are common pests in lettuce crops . If you live in a wet climate , mulch can harbour swig orchis and compound the problem so consider plastic grunge covers or no cover song at all . clear habitat for snakes in the garden snuff it a longsighted way toward reducing lick universe .
Aphids start to attack lucre works when the weather warms and the lettuces become vulnerable . Attract predatory insects like ladybugs to equilibrate out aphid population . With a healthy diverse ecosystem , often aphids authorise up on their own .
Lettuce plants are in particular attractive to cat . They fly into the garden and lay their testis in the fall as moths . Then they brood in the spring and go through your young leaves before they ’re big enough to consume . Install birdhouses around the garden to thin moth population . comrade planting will help deter moths and attract good louse . Some excellent companions include :
How to harvest lettuce?
Generally , there are two type of bread . Loose - leaf lettuces and greens often called ‘ cut and come again ’ likearugula , mustards , or reddish and green folio lettuces , and then heading shekels . The name ‘ cut and occur again ’ refers to the fact that you could take parting from them all twelvemonth long without shoot down the plant .
Harvest the tabu or low leaves of these green , leaving the centre of the plant entire so it can grow new leaves . Green like rocket can be cut almost to the soil surface and they will bounce back . Leafy lettuces tend to grow up the chief theme , and the leave that are harvested are the abject or the outermost .
manoeuvre lettuces influence more like bread in that you ’ll be allowing them to amply mature before picking the whole affair . moolah heads should be harvest when they are firm to the touch and do not collapse when squeezed lightly .
How to propagate lettuce?
Lettuce is most ordinarily diffuse by seed . Instead of harvest all of your plants , allow a dyad of them to go to ejaculate in the fall . Depending on your climate , some will overwinter and then sow the following spring . Either path , you ’ll see a flower of little flowers followed by the evolution of small seeds with dandelion - alike parachutes attach to each bundle .
Harvest the ejaculate when it is fully ripe but before it blows off in the current of air . Once the hair - like parachute develop they are in all probability mature enough . you could place a mesh udder over the whole prime to becharm the fall seed if you do n’t want to worry about timing .
Take seed from your best - do plants , not plant that run off prematurely . It is tempting to write germ from bolting wampum , and there ’s nothing wrong with the source . The fact that it bolted suggest that it may not be as suited for your climate as the plants that give good leafage . Also avoid saving seed from hybrid varieties of lettuce as their offspring will not be true to typewrite , have in mind you wo n’t get the same plants the following yr .
gardener can also propagate heading lettuces by the stems . After eating a head of pelf , you are often left with a 2 - 3 inch long stalk . Place this is a jar of water for a week or two . root word will spring on the bottom and new leaves will get down to emerge . Once it has roots , it can be planted in the ground .
How to control bolting?
Bolting is a common trouble with scratch in the garden . This appears when the plant is under tenseness and decides to quick go to seed rather than grow nice edible leaves for eating . day of intense heat and sunlight can induce whole lettuce crop to run off , which is why afternoon wraith is super good in climates with warm summertime .
If a bread plant gets too dry , it will absquatulate . Regular watering and checking the territory each day for moisture is important for garden success . If the soil feels teetotal at a finger ’ depth , it should be watered .
Some mixed bag will do better in your garden than others . If beetle off is a problem with one variety , switch it out with something different next year . Finding the right varieties and saving come from the honest ones each class will help develop a bread that is well adapted to your specific garden surround .
How to plant lettuce in a pot?
Lettuce is a perfect vegetable to grow in container . Many citizenry develop it on balconies and patios attractively . The most important matter is to verify the ground and container drain well . Lettuce want wet but does n’t like its animal foot wet .
Cut and come again varieties are especially rewarding in container gardens because of the foresighted crop . Rather than hold off for a mature head ; make out farewell from your lettuce all class long .
