Romaine Lettuce: Stocking Up On Vitamin Greens For The Winter

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

In August, they begin to transplant seedlings of Roman lettuce, also known as romaine, from the nursery to the open ground. Unlike its leafy cousins, which have a short shelf life, romaine is grown for consumption in the fall and winter. It owes its high keeping quality to some extent to the interesting elongated-oval shape, which is formed by a loose head of cabbage from wide leaves

Preparing seedlings for planting in the beds

Seedlings are planted in open ground beds when they reach the age of 25-30 days. But 7-10 days before this procedure, you need to harden the plants. When seedlings are grown in greenhouses or nurseries under glass, protecting them from temperature extremes, cold winds and the scorching sun, when planted in open ground, they will be too pampered and may die from excessive insolation or the fall of the thermometer below the usual values. Therefore, you need to remove the shelter for a longer time than for airing, or take the container outside for a short time. Another trick that helps make the seedlings more resistant is to slightly limit watering. However, immediately before planting on the beds, a few hours before digging out of the ground, the soil under the plants must be abundantly moistened. The fact that the plants have undergone a high-quality hardening is evidenced by the following external signs:

• leaves of seedlings are elastic, hard;

• plants are squat, not elongated;

• the color of the leaves takes on a darker shade.

In August, in a film greenhouse, you can still sow Roman lettuce for winter consumption. If the air temperature in the fall drops significantly, plantings in the greenhouse are additionally protected with a covering material.

Seeds are planted in an ordinary way. The distance between the rows is about 40 cm. For 1 sq. M. area will need about 2 g of seeds. Then the seedlings are thinned out so that there is a distance of about 25 cm between them.

Preparing the soil for planting seedlings

The place for the romaine is chosen in a well-lit area. The soil on the site must be sufficiently moist and fertile. It is good if this site was filled with manure or mineral fertilizers last fall this spring. On poor soils for planting seedlings of romaine lettuce, make the following preparation:

• lime-ammonium nitrate - 0.2 kg;

• superphosphate - 0.2 kg;

• 40% potassium salt - 0.2 kg.

These fertilizer doses are calculated per 10 square meters. the area of the beds. After planting seedlings in the ground, it is useful to feed the plants with nitrogen compounds.

Planting seedlings and caring for Roman salad

The size of the beds is calculated so that the salad can be planted according to the scheme 40x30 cm or 50x25 cm. It is recommended to land on a cloudy day. If such weather is not expected in the near future, and there is heat behind the eye, then the work is carried out in the late afternoon, when the sun is not beaming.

Planting maintenance includes loosening the soil and weeding the beds. Two weeks before harvesting from the beds, it is necessary to help the plants create and bleach the head of cabbage. To do this, the leaves of the rosette are manually closed and tied. This also gives the leaves a more pleasant taste. They become softer and juicier, the bitterness disappears. It is important that the leaves are dry at this point.

Harvested in October-November. The salad that has not yet gained the required mass is left in the beds and insulated with straw. You can move the romaine to grow in the basement. For this, plants are added dropwise in the room.

Store Roman salad at a temperature of about + 4 … + 5 ° C. In such conditions, it will hold out for 2-3 months. It is necessary to ensure that the thermometer does not drop below, otherwise the leaves will freeze and the romaine will quickly deteriorate.