Lettuce growing. - Page 6

 


You need good soil with heaps of rotted manure for leafy vegetables.
Unimproved soil will see them just sit and stagnate, at best, before
dying or going to seed. Nitrogen-rich soil is an absolute necessity.

In summer, hold off planting out seedlings until the weather forecast
is for a couple of cool, showery days.  Plant in the cool near evening,
and provide each seedling with a couple of sprigs of fern (or twigs off
any shrub with small shady leaves), to protect the seedlings when the
sun comes out. If they at any stage lie flat on the ground, you have
lost them. Water well immediately, and 4 or 5 times daily after that
while they get established. If they at any time wilt, you have lost
out. Try and plant out so each carries its own cube of potting mix, to
avoid disturbing the roots. Obviously, it's the roots that are
responsible for the uptake of water.

In summer, the hearting lettuce easily get sunburnt where part turns
white or brown. The small, quick-growing leafy varieties are to be
recommended for home gardeners.

Watering once a day is way too infrequent; three times in hot weather
at least, with sprinklers during the hottest part of the day. If they
at any time wilt, you have lost out: they will never reach their best.

My father used to grow and sell the big hearting type, Great Lakes I
think they were. They take too long to mature for my liking.

I only ever grew Buttercrunch. They were SUPPOSED to be a cool weather
variety, but they seemed to love summer provided I kept the water up
to them. Can't say I've seen those in the seed merchants for a long
time. They don't heart, so I could pick a few outside leaves off as
desired.

No one has mentioned birds. Sparrows love lettuce, and will devour them
right to ground level. Fashion a piece of shade cloth right and it
should serve the two functions: sun block and bird protection. Indian
Mynahs are also on my list of suspects.

And need I draw attention to slugs and snails? (Just don't kill the
giant leopard slugs; these guys are carnivorous and eat the pesky
ones.)


That's not "plenty". You'll be lucky if they even hang on to life at
that infrequent rate. Three times, or you're not serious. The
evaporation from lettuce leaves is extreme.


Sure is. And it causes them to bolt to seed.

Can you try growing them in pots, so that you can move them around
to be in shade during midday and afternoon?

For "always fresh" leaves you can buy a hydroponic lettuce from the
supermarket, then sit it in a bowl of water near a bright window and
pick off 3 or 4 leaves each day. Could even try planting it in wet
soil to see whether it won't grow a bit more while you're harvesting.
--
John Savage                (my news address is not valid for email)

 

John Savage wrote


The first two batches of cos and mignonettes did fine, planted in spring.


Yeah, I have always done that.


Yeah, I have changed to twice now.


I'm currently finding that twice a day keeps the soil moist.


You can get them from some of the online seed operations.


Yeah, thats what I want most of the lettuce for, I mostly use those
on open sandwitches, the dome of the fresh loaf of bread that I do
every 4 days and eat with salami, relish and some lettuce leaves on.

I prefer the iceberg style lettuce for cutting a wedge
of the heart when eating pizza and quiche etc.


Yeah, thats what happened with the only batch of iceberg seeds
that germinated, because I didnt keep the soil wet enough.

I've since gone for bird netting because the blackbirds were
getting half the strawberrys. I do get lots of sparrows.


Just trying the shade cloth now on the Lettuce Combo's.


The fella who flogged strawberrys at the sunday market
said that the blackbirds loved his strawberrys and thats
what the net says too. I certainly have some of those.

Havent noticed any Indian Mynahs.


I havent seen any slugs at all yet. Have seen just two
snails which  I just picked up and chucked away.


Havent seen any of those.


Yeah, realised that latter.


None of them have died, just dont do anything.

The second batch of mignonettes have now gone to seed without providing
any edible leaves, no more than 200mm tall and not that much leaf.

The iceberbs have gone to seed now too. They never did that well.


Why more than two if the dirt stays visibly moist on the surface ?

I didnt mention previously that when I water them I do end up with standing
water on the surface, which soaks in pretty quick once I turn the tap off.


Yeah, half of them have gone to seed now.


Yes, and I will try that now.


Didnt think of that, I'll try that. None of them in my supermarkets
have any roots tho, they are always cut off flush with the icebergs.

Havent been buying the non icebergs, have to have a closer look at those.

 


EXposed to scorching heat, the roots can't draw sufficient water to over-
come losses.  So the only way you can reduce the plant's stress is to
keep the leaves moist by periodic sprinkling from noon till 2, or
something like that, in addition to morning and evening watering.


There is no lettuce sweeter or better tasting, than the iceberg.


I've never lived where where there were blackbirds. It would be 12 or
so years since I've last seen a sparrow here in Sydney, probably a
combination of Indian Mynahs shouldering in and taking over their
nesting spots and the proliferation of urban currawongs predating
on nestling sparrows.


Probably your best bet. I see them in the gourmet or organic section.
No firm heart, partly wrapped in cellophane to keep the roots moist
I think.

Alternative greens include nasturtium and water-cress (both a bit
peppery), mustard and cress (but attractive to aphids), celery (eat the
tender leaves of young plants), various sprouts you can grow in a
bottle. Maybe the native warrigal greens, but I haven't tried. Pig weed
is edible. None of these can compare with lettuce, though.


None are as sweet as a good iceberg. When you buy young lettuce
without a heart, you can eat the lot; whereas with the hearted ones
I seem to end up discarding half the plant by throwing away the bitter
'outside' leaves.
--
John Savage                (my news address is not valid for email)

 

John Savage wrote

The best of the tomatoes and potatoes seen to do fine without that mid day
sprinkling.

Stawberrys too.


Yeah, main problem is that they are much harder in the stinking hot weather.

Havent tried growing them inside under the cooler yet tho.


I dont see many of either. Quite a few pewees and another
backbird sized bird with speckled feathers and nothing
special beak color wise, dunno what this one is.

I have had a couple of the later inside the bird netting.
Damned near wrang their necks but decided that I'd see
if the fright would see them stay out of the nets in future.


I've since found that the more exotic lettuces in woolys do have decent roots.


Yeah, thats what these are.


Yeah, noticed Woolys was flogging bags of 'beetroot shred' as 'aussie lettuce'


Yeah dont mind that for the open salami sandwitches from the dome
of the newly baked bread tho. The mignonettes and cos were fine.


I dont mind bitter myself. In fact with the beer I brew a mate of mine
often comments that a particular brew is quite bitter and I do notice
that when he points that out, but still find it very drinkable.


The first punnet of Lettuce Combo that I stupidly let wilt very badly,
two days running, have come good, with lush new leaves. Not quite
as well developed as the second punnet a week later that I didnt let wilt,
but it looks like they will work fine. I havent been able to use any leaves
within a week yet like the woman at the nursery claimed, but it looks like
I might be able to next loaf of bread, 3 more days till then.

The second punnet is mostly under shadecloth and the first punnet isnt,
basically because I didnt by enough shade cloth to shade them both.

On the other hand it hasnt been quite as hot lately, hasnt been
over 40C for a while and its sposed to be in the low 30s max
in days. Its been mostly in the mid to higher 30s.

The pototoes are really bounding out of the ground, looks like I
will end up with a hell of a glut because I basically planted half
of the sprouted tubers I had instead of chucking them out.
The latest lot had green shoots in 5 days and the first lot
are quite decent plants now, 15 days from planting.

 


Have you noticed how strawberries have maximum flavour if they have
not recently been wet?  i.e., pick and just brush off any soil before
eating, rather than washing.  And after wet weather, wait a day or two
if possible, before picking.


starling


I've never heard of that.


Oops.  Just read that warrigal greens *must* be cooked before eating, to
remove their oxalic acid and another nasty.


Yes, potatoes are like that, and are an excellent crop for a new garden
bed.  Keep an eye on them, for if you didn't plant sufficiently deep the
tops of some spuds will show through and grow green.  If you see this,
mound up the soil and cover with mulch.  You can spread  plenty of
straw and mulch over the whole bed, in any case.  There is no need to
wait until all the plants have matured and died down, you can start
scratching around under the plants and collect small spuds as soon
as they reach suitable size.  With butter and salt and pepper you will
be amazed at the flavour of home-grown potatoes.  So long as the
soil drains well, you should have no problems. The only pest I've had
is a plague of ladybirds; they eat the green off the leaves and leave
them looking like lace.  But I'd caution against killing any ladybird on
sight, as those with a certain number of spots are good guys, Wait
until you see them congregating on ruined leaves before you squash
them.

If you plant sprouted spuds in early spring, you can get two crops during
summer.  Cover with a heap of loose straw to protect from late frosts,
but even if the emerging shoots do get frosted new ones will soon
emerge, so it's not all that much of a setback.
--
John Savage                (my news address is not valid for email)