Northern summer resident - news, catalogue, consultations. When can lettuce be planted outdoors?

AT field conditions lettuce is one of the easiest crops to care for and grow. Because of so short period during the growing season it practically does not meet any pests or diseases. Unless it is worth using the Trichodermin biological product against possible root rot.

The difficulties in growing lettuce include only the rather laborious sowing with small seeds, as well as the need for thinning or picking from cassettes in the seedling method of growing.

Another small difficulty that you will probably have to face when growing lettuce in open ground is the need to first remove the agrofibre from the beds in the morning and cover them again at night. Planting lettuce is covered in spring, in late March - early April.

Choosing a type of lettuce

AT recent times lettuce, due to its increased popularity, has become a culture of intensive selection. Its varieties are very diverse - leafy, semi-headed, headed, with straight, slightly and strongly curly leaves, of varying degrees of dissection, color, slightly sharp or neutral taste. For window sill crops, you can choose greenhouse-recommended, bolting-resistant varieties and hybrids from the world's leading breeders.

In addition, there are also very popular varieties of lettuce of domestic selection: from head ones - "Kucheryavets Odessa", "Lvovsky 85", "Stone Head", from leafy - "Ballet" (resistant to flowering and lack of light), "Tornado" (stable to flowering), "Oakwood", "Fun", "Emerald" (resistant to flowering), from semi-headed - "Azart", "Gribovsky Curly" (resistant to flowering).

sowing lettuce

You can sow lettuce in several periods with an interval of 10-12 days. But keep in mind that starting from the second half of May, the plant is likely to bloom and give bitter leaves because of this. The same problem occurs when sowing in dry soil, so only varieties that are resistant to bolting are sown between July and August. Although lettuce is a cold-resistant crop, at the earliest possible time (as soon as the snow melts) it is better to sow it under a film or under agrofibre.

The distance between seeds during sowing should be as follows: 4-5 cm for leafy (with a row spacing of 20 cm), 8-10 cm for semi-headed and 10-12 cm for head forms (with a row spacing of 30-35 cm). Seed planting depth - 1.5-2 cm.

lettuce care

Lettuce sprouts quite quickly - in about 8-10 days. In the future, for its cultivation, it is necessary to maintain the soil in a loose state, water it, combining this with weeding. The disadvantage of direct sowing of lettuce in the ground is the need to thin out in the phase of 3-4 true leaves. However, such plants are already suitable for food purposes. An attempt to do without thinning, immediately sowing the seeds at the required distance, will not work because of the unreliable germination of lettuce. After thinning, the plants are left at a distance of 15-20 cm for leafy and semi-headed forms and 30-35 cm for headed varieties.

Growing seedlings

If you grow lettuce seedlings, you can get greens even earlier and do without time-consuming thinning. In late February - early March, sow one seed per cell in cassettes. After germination, it is important to take the cassettes to a cold and bright place, creating a temperature of + 12-15 ° C during the day and + 8-10 ° C at night. In the phase of 1-2 true leaves, transplant the seedlings under the agrofibre with the indicated density, discarding the weak and not sprouted ones.

Transplanting

For salad, cassette or potted seedlings are best suited (possible in peat cubes). Seedlings do not tolerate damage to the root system. Lettuce should be planted very shallowly - so that the peat cube does not completely sink into the ground and rises 0.5-1 cm above the soil level. With a deep planting, the lower leaves are affected by fungal diseases and rot. If fertilizers have not been applied since autumn for recompilation, you can apply them to the beds during planting.

Greetings to everyone who opened this page of my blog. Let's continue our acquaintance with crops that can be grown on our site. Lettuce (lettuce) belongs to vegetable plants that are not popular enough with us, but for Europeans it is a culture familiar to the dinner table. Some countries grow it in industrial scale. To grow this healthy vegetable in your garden, you must, first of all, know how to plant lettuce in open ground seeds.

Its main purpose is a food product for humans, its use in poultry farming and pharmaceuticals is limited. There are two types of this vegetable:

• leaf - forms a rosette of edible leaves;
• head of cabbage - a loose head of cabbage is formed from the leaves.

Each species has many varieties, the difference between which is in ripening time, taste, shape, color palette of leaves. The most common and fruitful leafy salads:

• Yeralash - mid-early;
• Abracadabra - mid-season;
• Fun - mid-season;
• Odessa kucheryavets - medium-late.

Among head salads, mid-season varieties Yakhont and Roger are popular with vegetable growers.

Site and soil requirements

Unpretentiousness to growing conditions allows you to cultivate a vegetable almost everywhere. makes it a leader among vegetable crops. It contains vitamins A, C, K, KK, B, P, trace elements: iron, copper, cobalt, iodine, zinc, manganese, boron. Lettuce is indispensable for medicinal and diet food and just as healthy and wholesome food.

The green culture is quite photophilous, shaded areas have a bad effect on the development and nutritional properties of lettuce. There is an accumulation of nitrates, the ejection of the flower arrow, the yield drops. The site is constantly changing, returning to the same place after three years.

It is recommended to grow lettuce after tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, beans. It is good to place a vegetable near the onion, which will repel aphids. But planting lettuce next to plants that are tall or form thick tops should not be. The shadow created by them will adversely affect the development of lettuce, and nitrates will accumulate.

The soil is dug up in the fall, fertilizing with humus and ash. Add mineral fertilizers: ammonium sulfate, superphosphate, potassium salt. Acidic soil is lime, otherwise the lettuce will grow very poorly. In the spring, the earth is carefully loosened so that the slightest lumps do not remain, since the seeds are very small. To speed up the germination time, the soil for heating is covered with a black film.

Seeding lettuce

Buy seeds good quality: clean and with good germination here. Seedlings will be strong and healthy, plants will develop rapidly.

Salad does not respond much to duration daylight hours, resistant to low temperatures. Such qualities make it possible to sow lettuce in different dates: the first sowing is carried out in early spring(mid-April), and the last - before winter (October). In order to constantly have nutritious healthy greens, a lettuce planting conveyor is being set up. Early varieties are sown in April-May, middle ones - from spring to the end of June.

Its undemanding nature allows you to sow seeds in open ground even in July, when other vegetables are not going through the worst. auspicious time. True, the dry and hot air of this time of year will cause rapid shooting, but you will get a small harvest of fresh greens. For sowing at this time, choose shoot-resistant varieties.

For a good fall harvest, plant romaine lettuce in July. So called lettuce with heads of oval shape. Varieties of this species are very resistant to cold, suitable for forcing in winter.

Seeds are sown in rows in two ways: solid and in holes. Sowing several grains in the wells saves seeds, but takes more time. But seedlings, in comparison with continuous sowing, appear earlier. For sowing furrows, they are cut through 20 cm from each other, seeds are sown densely to a depth of half a centimeter, then sprinkled with earth. Crops made in early spring are covered with a film from the cold. So shoots will appear faster.

On the day, the film is removed so that excess moisture does not collect, which contributes to the formation of rot. When seedlings appear in early spring, arches are installed to cover the plants at night to protect them from frost.

Sprouted seedlings must be thinned out. This operation is carried out several times to maintain the optimal distance between the bushes. The bushes that are removed are used for food. The head variety is well formed when the distance between the bushes is 20-30 centimeters. Leaf lettuce to form a large rosette requires smaller gaps between plants: 15 centimeters.

Lettuce responds well to watering. Watering in dry weather should be plentiful: two buckets of water per square meter. Headed varieties require top dressing two weeks before tying a head. Apply complex fertilizer: 30 g per 1 m 2. Instead of nitrogen fertilizers, herbal infusions are used.

It is best to cook them from nettles, although any weed can be used. Greens are crushed into a non-metallic container, poured with water. Everything ferments from one to two weeks, every day the slurry should be mixed. When it ferments, dilute with water 1:10, water the plants. The use of organic fertilizer instead of nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizers will protect against the accumulation of nitrates.

(lettuce)(lat. Lactuca sativa) is an annual, rather cold-resistant, but light-loving and moisture-loving plant of the Aster family.

Due to its biochemical composition, leaf lettuce occupies a special place among vegetables. Its leaves contain almost all known vitamins (mainly C, B1, B2, E, K, PP, folic acid and carotene), as well as organic acids and minerals (potassium, calcium, iron, manganese, cobalt, copper, iodine , zinc, molybdenum, boron).

The presence of organic acids (citric, etc.) has an encouraging effect on the body, soothes nervous system improves sleep.

Soil for growing lettuce

Lettuce Growing - Lettuce Growing

Leaf lettuce needs neutral, fertile soils to grow quickly (acidic soils are not suitable for planting lettuce crops). The best forerunners of lettuce are cabbage and potatoes, which were used in the previous season. organic fertilizers. Growing lettuce in the same place is possible no earlier than in 2-3 years.

Since lettuce seeds are very small and they are planted to a shallow depth (1-1.5 cm), the soil must be carefully prepared, removing all large lumps. The best component for the soil when growing lettuce is rotted manure or humus, which is applied before planting at a rate of approximately 5 kg / m².

Planting leaf lettuce

For successful growth, this crop needs a lot of light, but it must be remembered that leaf lettuce does not like heat and drought. Therefore, shady places are chosen for summer crops (which will reduce the shooting of plants).

When planting leaf lettuce in spring, seeds are sown from mid-April to mid-August (and later in the southern regions). At the same time, remember that these plants are quite tender and transplanting greatly weakens them, so it is better to grow leaf lettuce not through seedlings, but to sow the seeds directly into the ground.

Lettuce seeds are small, so for ease of planting they can be pre-mixed with. Lettuce seeds are sown in open ground in furrows with row spacing of 10-15 cm to a depth of 1-1.5 cm. Lettuce is sown in a greenhouse in the same way, but the distance between rows is left at least 30 cm. compactor between slow-growing crops and on the sides of the beds.

After sowing, the seeds are covered with earth, which is slightly crushed. Watering the ridge is carried out by spraying (small drops). At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that a hardened crust does not form on the surface of the soil, which can interfere with seedlings.

After sowing, the seeds germinate already at + 5 ° C, and at a temperature of + 20 ° C and above, lettuce seeds germinate worse.

After the emergence of seedlings, the plants are thinned for the first time so that there is at least 5 cm between them. As they grow, several more thinnings are made, while the plucked plants are used for food.

Thinning is carried out in such a way that when growing early-ripening varieties, the distance between plants is at least 10 cm, for mid-ripening varieties - at least 15 cm, for late-ripening varieties - 20 cm.

Leaf lettuce care

Cultivation of leaf lettuce - Leaf lettuce

Lettuce care consists in loosening and weeding the beds. Optimum temperature for successful growth and development of the plant + 10- + 12 ° С - during the day, and + 5- + 8 ° С - at night. Some gardeners recommend increased watering of plants and spraying them with cool water when the temperature rises above + 25 ° C (otherwise the leaves become lethargic), however, lettuce grown in a polycarbonate greenhouse felt great at a temperature of + 25-30 ° C, subject to abundant watering once in Week.

With the possibility of constant care, watering is needed moderate, but without drying out the earthy coma. However, waterlogging can lead to fungal diseases.

Leaf lettuce is harvested 30-40 days after germination (when the young foliage reaches a length of about 8 cm). The final cleaning is carried out before the start of shooting when 7-9 leaves are formed in the outlet, as a rule, in the morning (the plants are pulled out by the roots, shake off the ground and remove the rotten leaves .. If the lettuce outgrows, then it starts to taste bitter, so this should not be allowed when growing cutting off the overgrown leaves in a timely manner.

If you want to constantly use lettuce for food, it is recommended to sow the crop in small areas every 10-15 days during the entire growing period. This way you will always be with the lettuce crop. Especially such overseeding concerns leaf types of lettuce.

Suitable for growing lettuce climatic conditions. It is important that the place for sowing lettuce be sunny (otherwise, nitrates will accumulate in the leaves_ and the soil will be loosened to a great depth. When grown in early spring, only early varieties of lettuce should be used, with a later one, respectively, summer ones.

Salad varieties with photos and descriptions, reviews

Iceberg lettuce, characteristic

A new high-yielding variety of crispy head lettuce. From the moment of germination to technical ripeness, 75-90 days pass. This variety is intended for growing in spring and summer. Shooting resistant.

Heads of lettuce are large, dense, weighing 300-600 grams. The leaves are corrugated, with wavy edges, juicy, bubbly, crispy, keep fresh for a long time. The palatability of the variety is high.

Lettuce Sandwich

Great variety of lettuce early term maturation. Grown in open and protected ground. Lettuce leaves are light green, tender, crispy, with a high content of vitamins and mineral salts.

Leaf lettuce Sandwich is ideal for fresh consumption, making sandwiches, salads, decorating dishes.

Salad Eurydice

Mid-season, half-headed lettuce variety. It is grown up in an open ground and film greenhouses.

Rosette of leaves of medium size, semi-raised, compact, about 35 cm high, about 33 cm in diameter. The leaf is large, dark green, bubbly, with a wavy edge, crispy texture. It has excellent taste qualities.

The mass (average weight) of an adult plant is 450 grams.

Leaf lettuce Zhar bird

An early ripe variety of lettuce, the harvest of which can be harvested after 45-50 days from the moment of germination. The plant forms large rosettes of intense ruby ​​red color, with delicate, crisp leaves. Lettuce Leaves Fire Bird Contain increased amount vitamins and mineral salts.

This variety of lettuce is suitable for year-round cultivation in open and protected ground throughout Russia.

Variety advantages: flower resistance, fast growth at any day length, excellent taste qualities.

Salad Odessa kucheryavets

Mid-season (68-75 days from germination to harvest) variety of semi-headed type. The plant forms a loose rosette medium size, with a diameter of 24-32 cm, weighing up to 200 grams. The leaf is fan-shaped with a corrugated edge, crispy texture, with excellent taste.

Odessa kucheryavets is grown in open ground and film shelters. For continuous harvesting from June to autumn, sowing in open ground is carried out from April to August. Seeding depth 1-2 cm.

For seedlings, lettuce seeds are sown in March-April, planting is carried out in May-June.

lettuce yield: 2.7-5.0 kg/sq.m. The variety is resistant to flowering.

Leaf lettuce Grand

An early ripening lettuce variety. It takes 45 days from germination to harvest. The plant forms a large, juicy leaf of light green color with a pronounced curl.

The Grand variety is distinguished by a high evenness of rosettes.

Variety advantages: resistant to coloring, marginal burns and necrosis.

Salad Crunchy Vitamin

Mid-early variety of leaf lettuce. It takes 38-45 days from germination to ripeness. The plant is compact, about 15-18 cm in diameter, with green, crisp leaves (openwork along the edge).

Lettuce variety Crispy vitamin contains many vitamins and beneficial acids. It is recommended to sow several times during the season. Variety advantages: high yield, crunchy texture of leaves, long shelf life, resistance to stemming and low light.

Leaf lettuce Kitezh

An early ripe lettuce variety. Forms an upright rosette 20-25 cm high and about 25 cm in diameter. The leaves are medium in size, oblong, reddish with a strong anthocyanin color, slightly bubbling, wavy along the edge, with incisions in the apical part. The texture of the leaves is oily. The taste is excellent.

yield lettuce Kitezh - 2.5 kg / sq.m.

Leaf lettuce Royal

High-yielding early ripe variety of lettuce. Forms large rosettes of corrugated leaves, light in the center and dark green at the edges.

It is characterized by a long term of consumer suitability, it does not shoot, it is very decorative. It is recommended to grow in open and protected ground.

Salad Lakomka

An early ripening lettuce variety. The period from germination to harvest is 40-45 days. The leaves are yellow-green, slightly wrinkled, with a wavy edge. Average weight one plant up to 200 grams.

Lettuce variety Lakomka is intended for cultivation in open and protected ground. In open ground, sowing from late April to mid-July. In non-heated film greenhouses, sowing / planting in the 3rd decade of April - 1st decade of May.

Landing pattern: 20×20 cm.

Salad Lolo Biendo

An early ripe lettuce variety. From the moment of germination to technical ripeness, 40-45 days pass. The leaves are yellow-green in color, curly, fragrant, juicy and crispy. The socket is compact, rounded, weighing 200-300 grams. The leaves are curly, fragrant, juicy and crunchy, yellow-green in color, delicate in taste, form a compact round rosette.

The average weight of one outlet is 200-300 grams. The variety is suitable for year-round cultivation in open ground and greenhouses.

Salad Lollo San

Early ripe high-yielding variety of lettuce. The period from germination to ripeness is 40-45 days. The leaves are green, very decorative, corrugated. The socket-head is loose, with a diameter of 15-20 cm.

The variety is resistant to shooting.

Salad Lollo Rossa

The most popular variety of leaf lettuce. The period from germination to technical ripeness is 40-55 days. The plant is tall, erect, 15-20 cm in diameter. The leaves are delicate, wrinkled, curly, light green in color with a wide reddish-pink edge.

Variety advantages: good palatability, resistance to shooting, decorative. Lollo Rossa lettuce is often used to decorate flower beds.

Leaf lettuce Yeralash, characteristic

Mid-season high-yielding variety of lettuce. The average weight of one plant is 150-200 grams.

Variety advantages: resistance to marginal leaf burn, high palatability.

Moscow Greenhouse Salad

An early ripening lettuce variety. Only 35 days pass from germination to harvest. The leaves are pale green, tender, juicy, with a wonderful taste.

The Moscow Greenhouse salad variety is ideal for fresh consumption, making sandwiches, salads, and decorating dishes.

Head salad Gingerbread Man

A new late-ripening head lettuce variety. From germination to technical ripeness, it takes from 55 to 75 days.

It is grown up in an open ground and film shelters. Heads are large, weighing up to 600 g. The leaves are red with white veins, very juicy, with a spicy taste.

Fresh heads of cabbage are rich in vitamins and minerals and are recommended for salads.

Salad Obzhorka, photo and description

An early ripe variety of curly leaf lettuce. It takes 40-42 days from germination to technical ripeness.

The plant forms a raised rosette with a diameter of 25-28 cm, the leaves are reddish, large, strongly wrinkled, juicy and tender. Weight socket up to 160 grams.

Leaf lettuce Mischievous

An early ripe lettuce variety. The period from germination to technical ripeness is 39-43 days. Rosette of green, bubbly, strongly wavy leaves along the edges.

The average weight of one outlet is 150-160 grams. The texture of the leaves is crispy.

Robin leaf lettuce

A late-ripening lettuce variety. The ripening period is 50 days. Recommended for cultivation in various climatic zones, in open ground and winter greenhouses.

The variety is resistant to flowering.

Leaf lettuce Fairy tale

An early ripe lettuce variety. The ripening period is 46-49 days. The rosette of leaves is large, weighing up to 250 grams.

Variety advantages: resistant to shooting, fast growth at any length of the day.

Salad Typhoon

A new mid-season variety of leaf lettuce. The leaf is large, green, slightly bubbling, wavy along the edge, with a crisp tissue texture, juicy and delicate in taste.

Variety advantages: resistant to flowering, fast growth at any day length.

Truffle salad

Medium early lettuce. The leaves are delicate, crispy, corrugated, due to the reddish-burgundy edge they look very impressive and are indispensable for decorating dishes.

The Truffle lettuce variety is suitable for year-round cultivation in open ground and winter greenhouses.

Lettuce Season of Miracles

An excellent early ripening lettuce variety. The plant forms a large rosette, 25 cm high and 25-40 cm in diameter. The mass of one rosette is about 150 g.

Medium-sized leaf, dark red, wavy along the edge, juicy, curly, bubbly, crisp texture. Taste fresh leaves great, soft.

Salad Mix Multivitamin

A wonderful mix of fast growing lettuces, with a growing season of 40-45 days.

Plants form large rosettes of exclusively decorative leaves. The leaves are tender, crispy, juicy, with a good taste.

The mixture is suitable for year-round cultivation in open and protected ground.

What kind of lettuce do you think is the most delicious? What varieties of lettuce without bitterness, with tender leaves, would you advise our readers to plant?

Your feedback on leaf lettuce varieties and additions will help many gardeners choose for planting. the best varieties green, red, leaf and head lettuce.

If possible, attach a photo of the salad you have grown to the reviews. Thank you!

Leaf lettuce is not only an integral part of almost any vegetable dish, but also a storehouse of vitamins. You can delight yourself with tasty and healthy greens all year round by growing lettuce in spring, summer and autumn in the open field, and in winter on the windowsill. The technology, in this case, is quite simple, but it also needs to be done correctly in order to get a good harvest.

Due to the fact that lettuce is a cold-resistant plant, it can be grown in a greenhouse in early spring. And if the greenhouse is heated, then even planting in winter time. In general, spitting of lettuce seeds can be carried out at a temperature of 5-6 C, and seedlings can tolerate slight frosts down to minus 2 C. The optimum temperature for good growth of this crop is 20 C. In addition, you can additionally protect yourself from death or poor germination greens, choosing frost-resistant varieties of leaf lettuce.

Despite the unpretentiousness of the plant, it is necessary to prepare for its early spring plantings in the greenhouse. First of all, in the autumn they prepare the ground - they apply organic fertilizers to the soil, thereby leveling the soil to a slightly acidic or neutral acidity level. If the soil is acidic, then additional lime is added, which will normalize the acidity.

In addition to organic matter, the land in the greenhouse can be fed with potassium chloride (15 g per 1 sq.m. of land) and superphosphate (40 g per 1 sq.m. of land). In order for the applied fertilizers to get into the deeper layers of the soil, in the autumn they carefully dig the soil in the greenhouse, level the soil and leave it alone until early spring.

Video about growing lettuce from seeds in a greenhouse

Once weather will allow (the temperature inside the greenhouse does not fall below zero even at night), you can plant lettuce. As a rule, in mid-late March, landings can already be made. Leaf lettuce, unlike rock lettuce, which is planted in seedlings, is immediately planted directly into the ground.

Greenery is planted in a greenhouse in well-loosened soil, making each next row every 10 cm. Seeds are planted to a depth of 1-2 cm. About a month is allotted for growing lettuce with proper care. If you would like to receive fresh salad regularly, then the planting of green seeds is carried out every 2 weeks.

As you know, the weather in spring is very changeable, so if a friend resumes severe cold and the temperature starts to drop well below zero, you should mulch the landing sites with fine humus.

Greenery is planted in a greenhouse in well-loosened soil, making each next row every 10 cm

Leaf lettuce care in a greenhouse should be as follows:

• abundant watering. It is necessary to water the greens infrequently - once or twice a week, but plentifully enough. Use not warm water, as many novice gardeners mistakenly believe, but cool. When watering, make sure that water does not fall on the leaves.
• fertilization. Top dressing for good growth of this culture is necessary. Fertilizers - a mixture of ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride are applied 2 times during the vegetative development of the plant.
• loosening. In order for the soil not to be waterlogged, which leads to the appearance of fungi, the soil in the aisles is regularly loosened;
• weeding. Weeds are removed as needed.

In summer, along with other greens, such as, for example, leaf lettuce can be grown in open ground, periodically, about once every 14 days, a new sowing can be done in order to get fresh greens throughout the summer and early autumn. Be sure to pay attention to the varieties of lettuce. Today, early-ripening, mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties are on sale, which affects the planting time.

The best precursors to lettuce are tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and cabbage. This green gets along well next to cucumbers, cabbage, beans, radishes, radishes, onions, which, by the way, is useful in the sense that it will repel aphids, one of the main pests of leaf lettuce. Of the unfavorable neighbors - carrots, beets, and those plants that have wide and dense foliage. The fact is that the salad loves a slight darkening, but not a full shade.

The best precursors to lettuce are tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, cabbage.

Land preparation for planting should take place in the fall. Humus is introduced into the ground as a fertilizer and it is carefully dug up. As noted above, too acidic soil is limed to reduce the level of acidity. In addition, when digging, it will be useful to apply mineral fertilizers: potassium salt, superphosphate.

Planting seeds in open ground can be carried out in the second decade of spring, when frosts completely disappear. The prepared place must be carefully loosened so that the soil is soft without lumps and large lumps.

For leaf lettuce, grooves are made in the ground no more than 1 cm deep. The distance between rows is 15-20 cm, between seeds 1-1.5 cm. After sowing, the bed must be carefully watered. In order to prevent a hard crust from forming on the ground, the bed can be covered with a film for the first few days, which will speed up the germination of the crop.

Lettuce care in the open field is similar to greenhouse care. Those. requires watering, loosening, top dressing and timely removal of weeds. By following these simple recommendations you can enjoy delicious lettuce and get vitamins throughout the spring-summer period.

If there is an opportunity, a little time and desire, then in winter you can arrange and grow greenery even when there are very coldy. In fact, growing lettuce at home on the windowsill is quite simple and a novice gardener can handle it, and even someone who is far from gardening. So, let's take a closer look at how to grow leaf lettuce at home:

Video about growing lettuce on the windowsill

1. Choosing containers for sowing. Deep containers up to 35 cm deep are ideal for growing leaf lettuce. If you want to delight yourself with greenery throughout the winter, then several containers are needed.
2. Soil preparation. Soil mixture for planting can be purchased at a specialized store or, if possible, prepare the soil yourself. Ideally, you need to take ordinary land from the site, compost soil, peat, rotted manure - all components in equal parts. If the finished soil mixture is “heavy” enough, then it must be diluted with sand. It is also recommended to fertilize the soil before planting by adding urea and nitrophoska.
3. Drainage. So that moisture does not stagnate in the soil, care must be taken to create drainage. You can take the usual expanded clay or small pebbles, split shells from walnuts.
4. Landings. Seeds close up in wet soil. Planting requirements are the same as when growing greens in open ground. Those. the distance between rows is not less than 15 cm, the depth of the grooves is not more than 1.5 cm.
5. Seedling care. If the shoots turned out to be too thick, then they need to be thinned out, which will allow the remaining plants to develop better. Otherwise, caring for leaf lettuce is quite simple: timely, but not frequent watering, fertilizing the soil, additional illumination, loosening (loosening must be started strictly from the fourth week after the first shoots appear, otherwise it is easy to damage the root system of young plants.)
6. Illumination. In winter, the daylight hours are quite short, so it is recommended to illuminate the garden on the windowsill, extending the daylight hours to at least 12 hours.
7. Spraying and watering. Salad loves high humidity therefore, experienced gardeners recommend spraying plants daily. Watering must be done twice a week, but plentifully. As a container for watering, a watering can with a long narrow spout will be optimal.

Lettuce loves high humidity, so experienced gardeners recommend spraying plants daily.

Having created green Garden on your windowsill, you will provide yourself and your loved ones with natural vitamins all year round.