Where and how to plant lettuce?
Grow Lettuce In Urban Gardens? There are many options we have to grow lettuce, from pots, planters, cultivation tables or sow in the garden or plot that we have.
To begin with, we will bury the seed to a depth of twice its diameter. This “norm” has its raison d’être, if we bury the seed very close to the surface, we run the risk of it drying out and not germinating, and if we bury it very deeply, it will be very difficult to get its leaves out to the surface. For the seeds to germinate it is necessary that the soil is humid, so we will make sure that they are in the ideal environment. We are interested in putting more than one seed, it is possible that some of them do not germinate, and we want lettuces, right?
If we have an orchard we will plant the seeds on ridges, with a distance of 30 centimeters between ridges. Inside each ridge we will leave a distance of about 25 centimeters between plant and plant. But if the growing medium is going to be a pot, planter or a cultivation table and we choose to go consuming its leaves as they grow, we can reduce their separation to 10 or 15 centimeters.
When to plant lettuces
You will be happy to know that there are many varieties of lettuce that can be planted throughout the year, as long as you live in a temperate climate. The lettuces resist better the high temperatures that the low ones, still, are able to resist the frosts. This is the thing to Grow Lettuce In Urban Gardens.
Varieties of lettuce
Here we put some varieties of lettuces that you can use, there are many more, choose the ones you like the most.
Queen of May: easily recognized by having light green leaves and slightly wavy. One of the richest and simplest to cultivate.
Little Gem: they are sweet and crunchy, hence they are called small gems!
Romania: without a doubt it is the most famous lettuce, the one that we find wherever we go, its leaves are always longer than wide. This is another thing to Grow Lettuce In Urban Gardens.
Tips for the cultivation of lettuces
Type of floor
A soil with good drainage and rich in nutrients is what we will need to have a lettuce garden. We will achieve these conditions with humus, which is very rich in nutrients and all the crops in our garden will like it. Another of the qualities of humus is its ability to retain water without excess and get good drainage.
Lettuces like to be fresh; they have no problem growing in shaded environments and places, especially in summer when it is hottest. During the months of autumn, winter and early spring there will be no problems in lettuce are in places where the sun has a greater presence.
Lettuces love wet soils do not support droughts, try to have the soil always wet, you’ll see how grateful they are!. If you can install a drip irrigation system or a much better exudation system, this will ensure that the lettuces are in their sauce. This is another thing Grow Lettuce In Urban Gardens.
The lettuces can be collected from small; do not need to reach a certain size to be collected. A small trick to enjoy salads continuously, until the lettuce cannot do more than itself, is to cut the outer leaves in a staggered way.
When the head is formed, it is convenient to tie the lettuce with raffia or with what we have on hand until we collect them, although it may not seem like it, tying them up makes sense, otherwise the lettuce leaves would have a bitter taste, we will also get that when it rains the inside of the lettuce does not puddle, avoiding the appearance of mildew and putrefaction of the plant.
Attention !: Careful that the lettuce does not mature in excess, because these espigan and become bitter. This is the another thing Grow Lettuce In Urban Gardens.
The main pests of lettuce crops are:
Aphids: these aphids will attack if they have occasion, our lettuce mainly when the plant is young and is in full growth and development and when the harvest is approaching. To get rid of them in an ecological way we will use potassium soap, neem oil or neem seed cake
Slugs and snails: beware of those who will eat the lettuce before us. To avoid bingeing and leave us without lettuce we can use ground eggshell around the plant, this will make them prick and not want to move forward, or we can use olfactory traps.
Mildew: This fungus appears on the leaves of the lettuce in the form of brownish spots. Its presence is greater in seasons where humidity in the environment is prolonged (autumn and spring).. These all are the things ofGrow Lettuce In Urban Gardens.