Salad - Growing And Care

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Growing lettuce is a process that even a beginner in the world of gardening can do. Such a culture feels great both in greenhouse conditions and in outdoor beds. Many summer residents also plant lettuce on balconies in containers for home growing

The popularity of such a plant, first of all, is due to the fact that its cultivation can occur from the early onset of spring to the first frost in the autumn period of the year. In this case, only the right choice of salad variety is important. You can plant crops with early, medium and late ripeness in turn. You can sow seeds either directly into the open ground, or grow seedlings for a start.

How to grow lettuce seedlings?

In order to please yourself with fresh fragrant greens in May, the seedlings of the culture need to be prepared since March. Fertile soil with nutritious components must be placed in the selected container in the form of boxes or plastic cups. Before planting, the soil should be well moistened with warm water. Then planting material is laid out on the surface of the soil, which will then need to be covered with a one-centimeter layer of peat or plain earth. The container will need to be covered until the first shoots are formed.

In a permanent place in a greenhouse or in the open air, after the first shoots have sprouted, lettuce should be planted after twenty days. But during the procedure, care must be taken, as there is a risk of damage to the root system. In general, this plant does not tolerate transplantation very well. The first crop that can be harvested is in March. Late leafy salads are formed by November, but here the condition in the form of heating in the greenhouse must be met.

How to properly grow lettuce in a greenhouse?

Some lettuce varieties thrive in greenhouses and greenhouses. Due to this, they give a good and rich harvest extremely quickly. Among these varieties, summer residents often opt for the New Year, emerald, Moscow greenhouse. However, it is very difficult to maintain a high-quality regime in relation to a certain humidity and temperature inside the greenhouse structure. Heating in the greenhouse should be present already a few days before the seedlings are planted in it.

Growing lettuce seedlings

In the first week after planting seedlings on open ground or in a greenhouse, the temperature regime should vary from eight to twelve degrees. Further, the seedlings will need air, warmed up in the daytime to fifteen to twenty degrees. At night, twelve to fifteen degrees is enough for leaf lettuce. The optimum air humidity is seventy percent. Watering the crop is rarely necessary. At the same time, the space between the rows is watered, otherwise there is a risk of rot formation.

Sometimes lettuce is planted in greenhouses without heating. However, in this case, you need to wait for the moment when the structure, or rather, the air inside it, warms up to the required temperature. Usually, seedlings in such a situation are used as a compacting material for some crops - for example, tomatoes or peppers.

How to grow early leaf lettuce in an open bed?

When planting lettuce outdoors, particular attention should be paid to site selection. Strongly or even semi-shaded areas of the site should be avoided. In such an area, greenery develops slowly and weakly. Best of all, the culture feels itself in a warm and bright place, where the sun's rays easily and simply fall. If you plan to plant the salad early, then you need to start preparing the soil from the autumn season. The plant feels good in areas where tomatoes, beans or cucumbers used to grow. Lettuce can be grown in one place for two years. Then the zone needs to be changed. Organic matter should be added to the soil in the form of wood ash or humus. Also, the soil needs to be dug up. You should be careful with fertilizers, since the surplus will not have a beneficial effect on the development of vegetable crops. In their leaves, greens accumulate substances in the form of nitrates, and they are harmful to human health.