Photo by Rick Gush
Lettuce is much easier to grow than you think .
I frequently pick up from readers that theirlettuceis too sulfurous , or that it is growing too grandiloquent , or that they have difficulty getting iceberg lettuce to make big nous . It ’s not surprising that multitude often take about lettuce , since it is the second most popular vegetable for household garden — aftertomatoes .
The Romans and Egyptians produce a lot of lettuce ; George Washington devoted almost a third of his huge Mt. Vernon garden to lettuce ; and just about every ultra - modernistic urban rooftop nursery or fancy hydroponic operation raise lettuce . Even the experiment in growing plant in outer blank stations use lettuce as a cornerstone crop .
The key to acquire neat lettuce is to make it grow really speedily . vernal gelt plants that have grown rapidly savor the best , while honest-to-goodness lettuce that has struggled a bit tastes bitter and often grow grandiloquent and starts to flower . Rapid growth is also the key to growing gracious iceberg shekels . When I grow lettuce and if , for some reason , the plants are n’t growing quickly , I find it ’s best to just throw them off and set out over ; waiting for struggle plants to turn around never seems to puzzle out out well . The same goes for plants move bypests . If a problem develops , I never handle in hope of saving a crop ; I just commence over .
Lettuce grows best in nerveless conditions , so most folks get lettuce in the spring and nightfall . Daytime temperatures below 75 point Fahrenheit with night more than 40 degree are ideal . This can be pushed a bit by begin the young flora inside before planting outside during spring and nightfall . Using other harvest , such as maize , to shade the growing field can also benefit summertime crops . One of my favorite tricks for fall crops is to cover the planting soil with thick mulch for the few weeks prior to planting in late summer ; this can lower the soil temperature considerably . Of course , cold frame , hoop tunnel and shadiness fabric can also be used to stretch the growing time of year .
In general , I like to start kale seed in a freestanding starting area , like my coldframe , and then transpose the little plant when they are a few inch eminent . If I do buy little plants at the baby’s room , I always look for the youngest and smallest plant , not the well looking and larger one , because I reckon the bigger nursery works are often stunt in the plastic containers . The scrawny little guys seem to have better momentum when imbed in the garden .
dough plants are fairly labored feeder , so I attempt to enrich the soil with a lot of manure or other constituent stuff before planting , and then I also feed ofttimes , unremarkably once a calendar week with a fluent fertiliser , such as manure tea ( or a commercial production if I ’m lazy ) . The idea is to push for maximal potential nutrient availability for the young plants .
Because gelt is such a scant - terminal figure crop , I often imbed it in between tenacious - term crops . I plant lettuce in between all the outpouring plantings of corn and squash and the crepuscule plantings of broccoli and chou , and the lettuce is in and out before the main crop grow large . This cagey arrangement is call snap - cropping , and it ’s a dandy way to get more clobber originate in a pocket-sized garden infinite .
