Juicy yellowish-green lettuce leaves with bright veins, corrugated, curly and crunchy twigs delight the eye and benefit the body. Lack of experience is not a reason to abandon the idea of eating greens grown with your own hands.
Green salad is a very healthy food addition. Vitamins and minerals are found not only in the leaves, but also in the petioles of the plant. Greens contain a minimum of calories and are suitable for those who care about their health and weight.
Even an inexperienced gardener is able to grow lettuce - it is enough to understand the characteristics of the variety and some of the intricacies of care. Seeds can be sown both in a greenhouse and in open ground. Planting is also used by seedlings.
This is an unpretentious culture, however, it requires compliance with a number of agrotechnical rules. To get strong and healthy plants, you need to know how to grow lettuce and provide it with good care.We show what you can also plant indoors You can plant lettuce quickly and easily in your home indoor with this A-Z Seed & Planting, Care,Harvesting
Sowing lettuce for seedlings
You can plant salad for seedlings at any time of the year, from January to May. In the spring, the container is placed on a lighted window sill, and in winter it is necessary to provide additional lighting with phytolamps. For cultivation, a substrate is taken, which contains coconut fibers and vermicompost.
Planting lettuce is done in several stages:
- A drainage layer is laid out in the container.
- The box is filled with moistened soil.
- The seeds are planted to a depth of 1 cm.
- The pot is covered with glass or foil, and then removed to a dark place.
When the first seedlings appear, you can remove the cover and put the box in a bright place.
When to sow salad for seedlings
To figure out when to plant lettuce outdoors, many turn to the lunar calendar, according to which favorable days for planting in 2021:
- in January - 1st, 17th, 28th and 29th;
- in February - 6-7 and 24-25.
- From 4 to 6 March until lunchtime, as well as 17, 18, 22 and 23.
- April 1-2 and 13-19.
- 11, 12, 15 and 16 May, as well as 25 and 26;
- in June - 7th and 8th, 12th and 13th, 22nd and 23rd.
Choosing varieties of lettuce for home growing
Growing lettuce from seeds
High-quality seed preparation for planting will help to achieve a rich harvest. First of all, you need to choose the right seed. It is worth checking the expiration date and tightness of the package.
Growing lettuce leaves begins with seed treatment:
- The seed should be sorted out and the damaged seeds should be thrown away.
- Then the seeds must be placed in a saline solution. Hollow instances will pop up. They need to be thrown away.
- For disinfection, the seed is placed in a weak solution of manganese for 30 minutes.
- After that, the seeds must be soaked in a growth stimulant solution.
After completing all these activities, we plant the seed in pre-prepared soil.
The first steps
Growing lettuce indoors is easy with basic care. Choosing the right crockery, soil and seed preparation is the path to success in home gardening.
Choosing a container for growing
The plant has small roots, so shallow containers up to 10-15 cm high are just right for it. It is best to choose plastic bowls, containers, clay or ceramic containers. You also need to follow the conditions:
- containers for cultivation must have holes so that excess water flows into them during watering, so a pallet is required;
- on the bottom of the selected container, the first layer must be laid out drainage(expanded clay, pebbles, small pebbles);
- when using an old pot, it must be washed with soap or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This is done to prevfeatures
- remaining bacteria and pest eggs from the previous plant from settling on the root system.
You can refuse containers and containers by planting lettuce seeds in the ground in a plastic bag, cutting it to the desired height and making perforations.
What soil is suitable
For salad it is best to choose “Universal” or “Vegetable” substrate purchased in a specialized store. Do not sow material in saline and saline soil with an acidic reaction, as well as use heavy and clayey soil. The presence of humus will give a positive result in cultivation.
You can prepare the substrate yourself. To do this, take and mix thoroughly:
- Sand, peat and humus in a ratio of 1: 1: 2.
- Biohumus and coconut fiber, garden soil (1: 2: 1).
- Peat mixed with complex fertilizer.
The land taken from its own garden plot, before mixing with other components, is subject to preliminary disinfection with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
What type of soil to use for growing lettuce?
If you store lettuce leaves in containers all year long, you will need a well-draining potting mix that provides the right amount of nutrients, such as the Miracle-Gro Potting Mix.
If you are going to plant lettuce in your garden, you need to add nutritious garden potting soil to the ground.such as Miracle-Gro Expand N Gro
Seed preparation
Self-harvested seeds require preliminary preparation. To do this, immerse them in a light pink solution of potassium permanganate and leave for 1 hour for etching (disinfection).
Granular seeds from the store do not need pre-sowing preparation. When buying, you need to pay attention to their expiration date and the integrity of the packaging.
How to plant correctly
Growing lettuce at home can be done all year round. Sowing is done in stages:
- drainage is placed on the bottom of the container;
- fill up the soil;
- place lettuce seeds in moist soil and sprinkle with a handful of soil 0.5-1 cm;
- gently watered so as not to wash out the seed. It is better to do this with a spray bottle. Cover with foil and place in a dark place with a temperature of 20-22 ° C;
- when the first shoots appear (3-4 days), the polyethylene is removed, and the crops are transferred to a well-lit space with a temperature of 16-20 ° C. Higher temperatures will cause flower arrows to appear prematurely.
You can eat salad when 5-10 full-fledged sheets are formed.
What to provide conditions for growth
The correct development of a culture depends on caring for it. Agrotechnical methods for growing lettuce leaves on a windowsill include four main factors: light, temperature, moisture and watering. Important techniques are feeding and thinning, if necessary.
Lighting
Lettuce needs 10-12 hours of light for healthy growth. In winter, you will have to organize additional lighting using a fluorescent lamp or phytolamp to extend the access of light by 3 hours. Such manipulations will accelerate the development of seedlings. However, they need protection from direct sunlight.
For uniform illumination, it is recommended to turn the container with lettuce seedlings 1-2 times a week by 180 degrees.
Temperature
The salad belongs to cold-resistant plants. The most favorable temperature regime is + 16 ... + 20 degrees. For greenery, an elevated temperature is considered more dangerous than cool and dry air. It promotes the formation of flower arrows and gives the leaves a bitter taste.
Humidity
The salad needs regular moisture during the growing season. Moisture is especially important in hot weather. If the leaves are drooping, they do not have enough water. They become coarse and lose their beneficial properties. At the same time, waterlogging of the soil should not be allowed, this can lead to plant disease.
Lettuce seedling care: watering thinning feeding,
supplementary lighting With the appearance of green shoots, we remove the polyethylene from the containers and put them on a light windowsill.
The south, southeast or southwest sides are, of course, preferable, but in fact we put where there is a place. Now the main care of the seedlings will be regular watering and backlighting. Salads do not like dry soil and dry air, so they will have to be watered often (every other day or two).
At low air humidity in the room, it is necessary to spray the leaves from time to time. Young seedlings can be sprayed more often at first than watered at the root.
The frequency and amount of watering depends on the weather, the location of the containers and the temperature at the window.
It is clear that lettuce growing on the southern windowsill will need more moisture. And on sunny days, water evaporates faster, etc. For irrigation and “shower” from the sprayer, we use settled tap water at room temperature.
The optimal light day for a salad is 12-14 hours. This means that in the fall and winter from 2 to 5 hours we need to compensate with additional lighting. We place the fluorescent lamps at a height of 60 centimeters above the drawers.
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Thin the salad twice. The first time - after 7 days from the appearance of the first shoots. We pull out the extra seedlings so that there are 1-2 centimeters between the neighbors.
The second time (with the appearance of two or three true leaves) we leave a distance of 4-5 centimeters between the plants. The thickening in the boxes is harmful: it provokes the stems to stretch, and little greenery is formed at the same time.
By the way, the removed plants can be planted in separate cups and grown to a full-fledged outlet. It is necessary to feed salad crops only if we are not sure about the fertility of the soil.
Have you brought the land from the nearest clubs? Then we will feed it once with Humate or a universal fertilizer for indoor plants. Have you sown lettuce in purchased soil or added vermicompost to the box? There is no need to feed additionally.
How to grow lettuce indoors
There is nothing more satisfying than growing your own fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately, during the winter months, it is not always possible. Fortunately, there are some vegetables that you can successfully grow indoors for a wonderful winter harvest! Today we will teach you how to grow lettuce indoors so that you can enjoy the benefits of this green leafy vegetable all year round!
Before you start planting, it is important to choose the correct variety of lettuce. Because you will be growing it indoors, you need to choose a smaller variety of lettuce, also known as mini lettuce. Varieties like buttery lettuce and loose leaf lettuce are great for growing in containers and indoors.
They ripen faster than other regular lettuce varieties and don't take up much space. Mini lettuce varieties should mature in a matter of 40-45 days. You can find these varieties of lettuce at your local nursery or online.
SOWING LETTUCE INDOORS:
- Choose a pot with good drainage holes so that excess water has a way out.
- The pot should be at least 4 inches tall since mini lettuces have long roots.
- Use a sterilized organic potting soil mix for best results.
- Make sure you have a place with lots of light and use artificial lights.
- Especially during the first stages, it is important to give your mini lettuce plant as much light as possible.
- Sow the lettuce seed about an inch deep and place the pot under sunlight or lights.
- Fertilize your mini lettuce with nitrogen and minerals for rapid growth. Liquid seaweed fertilizer, worm castings, or compost tea works well too!
Now that you know how to grow lettuce indoors, it's time to roll up your sleeves and start planting!
Growing lettuce outdoors
In a summer cottage or personal plot, lettuce greens can be grown in two ways - using seedlings or direct sowing.
Planting lettuce in the ground
For growing lettuce outdoors, choose a well-lit and open area. The culture thrives on chernozem, calcareous, loamy silt, sandy soil.
You need to prepare the ground in advance. During digging, compost or manure is introduced. Before planting, the soil is fertilized with superphosphate and potassium sulfate. The depth of the furrows should be from 0.5 to 1 cm, and the width between the rows should be from 15 to 20 cm. After emergence, the seedlings should be thinned out.
How to grow lettuce in soil
The salad does not tolerate transplanting, therefore, when choosing a method of growing through seedlings, the best solution would be to use peat cubes or pots. In this case, the seedlings are planted in the ground no later than 14 days after sowing the seeds.
If you want to know how to plant lettuce in open ground with seeds, it is important to consider that this option is only suitable for winter sowing. Soil preparation is preliminary carried out: for 1 sq.m. beds you need to add 1 kg of ash, 3 tsp. urea, 3 tbsp. nitrophosphate and compost bucket. At the end of October, after the formation of the beds, seeds are sown at a distance of 30–40 cm.
What type of soil to use for growing lettuce?
If you store lettuce leaves in containers all year long, you will need a well-draining potting mix that provides the right amount of nutrients, such as the Miracle-Gro Potting Mix.
If you are going to plant lettuce in your garden, you need to add nutritious garden potting
Salad dressing
The plant is not demanding for feeding. The soil fertilized since autumn, as a rule, contains all the components necessary for the growth of the culture. But with slow growth, complex fertilizers can be applied. A humate-based composition would be a good option.
What to plant after salad
In the next season, it is recommended to plant peppers and tomatoes at the place where the salad was grown. Cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes and cabbage will be good precursors for culture.
Growing salad at home
Moisten the soil before planting. For growing lettuce, the planting scheme is important - you need to sow not a lot. The seeds are evenly spread over the surface, and then sprinkled with a centimeter layer of soil.
Let's talk about how lettuce leaves are grown, depending on the phase of development. Sprouts appear on days 7-14. From that moment on, they must be watered every day, preventing the soil from drying out, and the young leaves must be moistened from a spray bottle. It is important not to allow the seedlings to bloom, then the crop can be harvested for 4 months.
How to grow homemade salad
When growing lettuce indoors, it is important to follow the basic planting and grooming conditions. The plant has small roots, so shallow containers are suitable for planting. The container must have holes for water to drain. Drainage is laid out at the bottom of the container.
A store-bought substrate for vegetables is suitable for growing lettuce. The advantage will be the presence of humus in the composition. You can also make the mixture yourself. Here are some recipes:
- Peat, humus and sand in proportions 1: 2: 1.
- Vermicompost, ordinary earth and coconut fiber in proportions 1: 1: 2.
- Peat mixed with fertilizers.
Watering the salad
If lettuce grows on a windowsill, it should be watered every 2-3 days. Do not allow the soil to dry out, as this leads to the formation of flower arrows and the appearance of a bitter taste in the greenery. If the humidity in the room is low, additional humidification with a sprayer is required.
Salad dressing
For active growth, the plant needs to be fed. Liquid fertilizer is applied to the soil once a week. Mullein solution is suitable as a top dressing. The culture consumes nitrogen and other nutrients from the finished soil mixture. Ash infusion is used to strengthen the root system.
Harvesting
When to harvest
The harvesting of lettuce leaves, depending on the ripening time, can be started 20-40 days after the sowing. Marking the desired date on the calendar will be a timely reminder of the upcoming procedure. 4 Main rules:
- home greens grow constantly, so after breaking off the leaves for the first time, you can continue to harvest from time to time;
- it is advisable to pluck the leaves in the morning an hour after watering, when they are most saturated with moisture;
- it is better to cut off first only those that are located on the outside of the bushes (3-4 pieces each), without touching the core;
- re-collection is done 14 days after the plant is restored, but only before the flower arrows appear.
You can store plucked lettuce in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The product will not lose texture and taste even when frozen.
What Type of Fertilizer Should I Use for My Lettuce?
The best type of fertilizer for lettuce is compost.And if you don’t have the time or ability to create compost then I recommend buying Miracle-Gro Plant Food for your lettuce.
Watch Full lettuce indoors Growing Video
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