How to plant lettuces in the ground. When to plant lettuce outdoors

Start growing seedlings with preparing seeds for sowing seedlings

Sowing lettuce seeds

The seedling method most often grows early varieties of lettuce, among the later ones, head varieties of culture are suitable for growing in this way. The technology for growing seedlings is the same for all salads. The difference lies in the timing of sowing and planting in the ground. It is very important to choose the right time for sowing seeds, which depend on the timing of planting seedlings in a permanent place. Lettuce is an early ripening and fairly cold-resistant crop, so it can be planted in early spring, as well as before winter.

Sowing dates

Lettuce in a greenhouse or a heated greenhouse is best planted through seedlings. Seedlings grow within 25-30 days after germination. Therefore, if you want to get a lettuce crop in early spring, around the first half of April, it must be sown from the last week of January to mid-February.

If it is planned to grow salag in open ground, then the seeds of head and asparagus lettuce can be sown approximately in the third decade of March - the first decade of April, since the age of the seedlings should not exceed 30-35 days. Specific sowing dates depend on local and weather climatic conditions. In central Russia, seedlings of early head and asparagus lettuce are grown from the end of March to the beginning of April. Seedlings are planted in a permanent place in May.

Early-ripening varieties of lettuce are usually sown in open ground from mid-April, mid-ripening and late-ripening - from April to mid-June. Starting to sow the seeds of leaf lettuce from mid-April, if desired, to continue to harvest lettuce throughout the season, you can carry out stepped sowing every 10-14 days for the first three plantings. Planting can be continued until the end of August, performing summer crops with a reduced interval of one week. The last two plantings should be made with a break of two weeks, as in the beginning of the season.

lettuce seed sowing technique

Having decided on the timing of sowing seeds for seedlings, you need to choose a method for growing it. Lettuce seedlings are grown in a potless or pot method with seedlings picking or without picking, using bulk pots, peat or peat-humus cubes and cassettes, as well as other methods.

Growing lettuce seedlings in a potless way

When growing lettuce seedlings in a potless way, sowing seeds should be carried out directly on the beds of greenhouses or hotbeds, with and without further diving. For such planting, greenhouse (greenhouse) racks or seed boxes are used. The approximate consumption rate of lettuce seeds during sowing is 5-7 g per 1 m 2. If it is planned to use diving or transplanting plants in order to increase the feeding area, lettuce seeds are sown at a rate of 6-8 g per 1 m2 or 10-12 g per greenhouse frame.

❧ Lettuce is attractive because it can be grown almost all year round, using different varieties, sowing dates, growing methods, using repeated crops and much more. You can plant several different types of lettuce at once, getting a wide range of plants with different leaves in shape and color.

To effectively grow lettuce seedlings in a potless way, you first need to prepare the right container in the form of a wooden rectangular box. Such a box should not be too small, otherwise the soil in it will dry out very quickly. The optimal size of the container for sowing lettuce seeds is small boxes with side dimensions of 60 X 60 cm or 60 X 80 cm, their depth should be approximately 10-12 cm.

Before sowing, the boxes must be filled with the selected composition of the soil mixture, then lightly tamped so that there are no voids, and pour a little warm water, to which a very light solution of potassium permanganate is added. The thickness of the layer of soil mixture in the seed box should be from 12-16 cm or more. Shelves in a greenhouse should be covered with greenhouse soil of approximately the same thickness.

Seeds should be sown in furrows laid in the soil, at a distance of about 10-12 or 20-25 cm from one another. The row spacing depends on the variety of lettuce: for sprawling bushes, it should be larger. When sowing, a certain distance between seeds should be observed - 2-3 cm, since only in this case large and strong seedlings can appear. (Though at this stage it is possible to sow the seeds in a continuous band and then thin out the seedlings.)

For convenience, before starting sowing on the soil surface, you can mark the location of rows and grooves using a special marker. Immediately before sowing, the soil should be strongly moistened. After that, lettuce seeds are sown, they are planted to a depth of 1-1.5 cm and watered with water at room temperature (25 ° C). Then the seed boxes are transferred to a warm place and wait for the emergence of seedlings, maintaining the temperature at least 23 ° C.

Growing lettuce seedlings in pots

When growing lettuce seedlings in pots and then diving into pots, the seeds are usually planted in seed boxes of the same size as in the previous case. The box is filled with soil mixture so that the thickness of its layer is at least 12-16 cm. The approximate seeding rate is 2-4 g per 1 m 2. When grown without diving, the approximate seeding rate is 1 g per 1 m 2.

Seeds in a sowing box are planted in rows to a depth of 0.5-1 cm, maintaining a distance between rows of 3-6 cm. The soil is moistened before sowing. Lettuce seeds are small, so they can be mixed with some sand. After sowing, they are sprinkled with a thin layer of soil, and then additional watering is carried out using warm water (25 ° C).

Lettuce seedlings can be grown without diving, performing direct sowing in peat or peat-humus pots measuring 5x5cm and 6x6 cm, or bulk containers (cups) filled with compost or soil mixture, measuring 3 x 3 cm or 6 x 6 cm. With this method of sowing 2-3 seeds are placed in each pot and sprinkled with light humus soil or peat with a layer of 0.3-05 cm. After sowing, the seeds are watered abundantly. Then the cups are placed in a greenhouse or in a warm place in the living room.

The future yield of lettuce depends on the quality of the conditions created during seed germination. Until the first shoots appear, boxes or pots of seeds should be kept in a dark place.

Daytime air temperature should be maintained at 18-22°C, and at night - at 6-10°C. At this temperature, lettuce sprouts the fastest. (Although the optimal temperature for germination of lettuce seeds is considered to be 8-15°C.)

It is very important that the soil does not dry out when germinating the seeds. Therefore, they must be constantly watered with a weak stream, using a strainer. It is best to water the crops with warm water (25 ° C), covering the soil with gauze or cloth, being careful not to expose the seeds. You can water in the period before germination, spraying the soil with warm water from a spray bottle, this will speed up the process of seed germination.

Cassette method of growing lettuce

Now the cassette method of growing lettuce seedlings is becoming widespread, in which cassettes with a cell size of 2.5 x 2.5 cm, 3 x 3 cm, 4 x 4 cm or b x b cm are used.

This method using polymer cassettes provides for two options: first, diving seedlings into cassettes from school; secondly, direct sowing of seeds into cells. The advantage of cassette cultivation is the possibility of obtaining an early harvest, as well as the guarantee of the planned plant seed density, which allows you to get more seedlings from an equal area. For example, when growing seedlings in closed ground, you can get from 1 m2 to 300 plants. If, however, cassettes with 224 cells are used, then 800 plants can be obtained from such an area, since four such cassettes can be installed per 1 m2.

There are additional advantages of the cassette method of growing lettuce seedlings. The germination of seeds planted in cassettes is much higher than those that were sown in the greenhouse soil. When diving, part of the seedlings grown in the greenhouse is lost, while when grown in cassettes, all plants are preserved, which reduces the cost of seeds by half.

Cassettes with sown seeds are installed for germination in a room where it is possible to maintain the air temperature at the level of 21-22 ° C, and humidity - within 85-90%.

Seeds germinate in cassettes no later than 2-3 days. This technology of growing lettuce makes it possible to regulate the growth of plants. This property is especially important in those conditions when the seedlings are ready for planting, and the conditions in the open field do not yet meet their needs. Growing seedlings in cassettes, you can temporarily stop its growth and keep the plants in this state without harm to them for quite a long time, until the conditions of open ground return to normal.

Plants transplanted into open ground from cassettes develop evenly, grow rapidly, since their root system is preserved intact. The heads of such a salad have the same size and weight. The yield from seedlings from cassettes is usually 15-20% higher than from plants grown in other ways.

Sowing lettuce seeds in cassettes

Seeds for growing lettuce seedlings are sown directly in polymer cassettes, which are pre-filled with ready-made peat substrate with a suitable level of acidity and enriched with fertilizers. Very little substrate is needed. The cassettes are filled, watered abundantly with water, and one or several seeds are sown in each cup. Then the cassettes are covered with a film to prevent excess evaporation of moisture. After the seeds germinate, you can remove the film.

The very first crop, since it is very cold-resistant and withstands frosts down to -5 degrees, so sowing can be started as soon as the ground thaws. To quickly obtain the first greenery, you can plant through seedlings or grow it.

Features of planting watercress

This is the most precocious species, it can be eaten as early as 15-17 days after planting. Make a low bed, add fertilizer: wood ash, nitrophoska. Level the surface thoroughly and water generously. Make even rows at a distance of 12-15 cm from each other and a depth of about 1 cm. Sow watercress seeds, sprinkle them with earth. When planting early, the bed can be covered with covering material, for example, lutrasil - this will help the appearance of friendly seedlings.

It is best to grow all types of lettuce in areas where crops such as potatoes and cabbage were grown in the previous year, that is, after crops that were applied with organic fertilizers.

Sow the seedlings. There should be a distance of 4-5 cm between plants. A week after planting, feed (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water) or complex fertilizer. After 2 weeks, watercress is ready to eat, you can plant other types of lettuce in its place.

Features of planting leaf lettuce

A bed for leaf lettuce is prepared in the same way as for planting watercress. You can also add rotted manure or humus in the fall and dig up the bed. Leaf lettuce can be before winter and early spring. You do not need to thin out the leaf lettuce, pull out the bushes completely as they grow.

When growing head lettuce, thinning should be done, otherwise, the heads will not spin and ordinary leaf lettuce will grow.

Features of planting arugula

Arugula is a salad with a piquant taste, only young leaves are eaten, since the old ones are rather bitter. This feature should be taken into account when planting this salad. Sowing should be done every 1-2 weeks in small portions, then on your table there will always be young fragrant leaves with a nut-mustard taste.

Bury the arugula seeds into the soil by 1.5 cm, they will begin to germinate on the third day and quickly begin to grow. The optimum temperature for its cultivation is 20-25 degrees, so sow this salad in late May or early June.

Many housewives think about how to grow lettuce on the windowsill. And this is not surprising, because then there will be fresh greens on the table even in winter. It is added to various dishes, salads and decorate sandwiches. But before you start the process, you need to decide on the plant variety, as well as learn all the nuances of growing lettuce.

Salad on the windowsill. Cultivation and care

How to plant lettuce

Lettuce is easy to grow on a windowsill. It grows well throughout the year, especially with normal watering and good lighting. The plant is quite tolerant of low temperatures, but it does not tolerate heat well. It is best to plant lettuce in the spring, as there is no need for additional lighting. Leaf lettuce on the windowsill in winter needs to be illuminated with electric lamps for several hours.

To set up a mini-garden at home you will need:

• pots or other containers for planting lettuce;
• the required amount of soil;
• polyethylene to create a greenhouse;
• watering can and spray gun;
• fertilizer;
• lamps to create additional lighting.

All this is required for growing greens at home. But just purchasing the necessary equipment in the appropriate store is not enough; you should know the secrets of planting and caring for this useful plant.

How to grow lettuce on a windowsill:

It is necessary to responsibly approach the composition of the soil. An excellent substrate is obtained from 2 parts coconut fiber and 1 part biohumus. You can also plant lettuce in soil that consists of garden soil, peat, rotted manure, and compost soil. All components of the soil are taken in approximately the same amount. For the rapid cultivation of leaf lettuce, you can enrich the soil with ash, urea or nitrophoska. Many prefer special soil in the respective stores.

How to grow lettuce on a windowsill. Photo

As a container for planting, you must use large pots, at least 1-2 liters in volume. The fact is that the lettuce does not tolerate transplanting well, so it is better to immediately sow it in a suitable container. As for the material, you need to choose a plastic pot. The clay container tends to absorb moisture, which causes the soil to dry out faster.

If another plant has grown in the pot before, then it must be thoroughly cleaned. Otherwise, the remaining pest eggs and bacteria will destroy the lettuce over time. Therefore, the container should be washed with soapy water.

The next step is preparation drainage. This is necessary to avoid stagnant moisture and rotting of the roots of the plant. Expanded clay, silicone or synthetic winterizer are suitable as drainage for lettuce. A moisture-absorbing layer must be placed at the very bottom of the container in which the lettuce will grow. These materials quickly absorb all excess moisture and evaporate it, moistening the air.

The soil must be poured into the pot to the very top, leaving only about 2-3 cm.

Lettuce seeds must be soaked in water before planting. potassium permanganate for 1-2 hours. The soil in the pot must be slightly wetted and make small indentations. Lettuce does not need to be sown to a very great depth, 1 cm is enough. After that, cellophane is placed on top of the container, which is removed with the appearance of the first shoots.

Growing lettuce on a windowsill. Photo

It is important to ensure that temperature air did not exceed 20 °C. Therefore, during the heating season, it is better not to place close to the battery and other room-heating devices. Also, the plant should often water, especially in summer. Leaves from time to time should spray using a sprayer. Salad loves this "bathing" very much.

Lettuce in a pot can be eaten after 3-5 weeks. A week later, the plant becomes unusable, releasing arrows. In this case, it should be removed and sown with fresh lettuce.

FAQ

What to do if small lettuce sprouts begin to stretch, and then quickly wither? Abundant watering does not help, as well as additional lighting for 2 hours.

Watering leaf lettuce in a pot is necessary when the topsoil begins to dry out. In winter, there is very little light for the plant, because there is practically no sun. Therefore, additional light should be left for the whole day. For this, fluorescent lamps are most often used.

How many seeds are required for a 1.5 liter pot? And how thick should the sowing be?

This capacity will require 20-30 seeds. They need to be sown very thickly. When sprouts appear, lettuce is thinned out several times, removing weak and crooked ones. As a result, during the formation of rosettes, 5-6 full-fledged sprouts should remain. During thinning, you can transplant excess healthy sprouts into other containers.

Lettuce Growing Secrets

Growing lettuce on a windowsill is easy, but with a few tips, there will always be juicy greens. It is not enough just to sow the seeds and wait for the result. Only by creating the right conditions for lettuce can we hope that it will grow. So, for the rapid cultivation of lettuce, you need:

Lots of light. This culture will not grow in the shade. In addition, the lack of light provokes the formation of peduncles. Experienced gardeners choose certain varieties for growing this greenery on the windowsill. Therefore, for home breeding, it is recommended to purchase salad varieties Lollo Bionda, Emerald Lace or New Year's.

To make additional lighting and save money, you can use LED lamps. They practically do not emit heat and therefore do not dry out the plant. The distance between the light source and the salad should not exceed 6-8 cm.

To not allow excessive heat and drought soil. Otherwise, the salad will immediately begin to disappear - the leaves will become coarse and acquire a bitter aftertaste. Especially often it is necessary to water the salad during the period of active growth. To do this, you need a watering can with a thin spout. Water must be defended, especially if it is tap water. An excellent option would be spraying lettuce leaves. It should be carried out daily until the plant is fully strengthened.

Check soil condition under the film. The greenhouse effect is necessary for the plant to sprout. For salad it is usually 4-5 days. But from time to time you need to look into the greenhouse and water the soil. As soon as the first shoots appear, the cellophane can be removed and the salad placed in the sun.

Often thin out seedlings. It is best to do this several times. After 5-7 days after germination, they need to be thinned out, leaving a distance of 1-2 cm. The second time the lettuce is thinned out when several leaves appear. The distance between plants should not be less than 4-5 cm. If the lettuce is left in cramped conditions, it will grow upwards, and then weaken and disappear.

For the full growth of lettuce, it is necessary to fertilize. It must be a complex composition. Instead of chemistry, many also use ordinary mullein. It should be diluted with liquid in a ratio of 1:10. Water the salad with the resulting solution no more than 1 time per week.

Destroy harmful insects. Even at home, lettuce is attacked by various pests. Most often it is a lettuce aphid that eats the roots of a plant. From this, the lettuce quickly stops growing and subsequently withers. Therefore, if land from the garden is used when planting lettuce, it must be pre-treated. In case aphids have already started, then you should use an infusion of onion peel or dandelion leaves. It is better not to use chemicals.

Growing lettuce in heads is even more difficult than leaf lettuce. Therefore, it is better to gain experience first. Not many people manage to grow leaf lettuce to full size, but this is not necessary at home.

A torn lettuce does not keep for long, only about a week. But at room temperature, it does not store at all. In the refrigerator, salad can be put in a plastic bag. At the same time, it cannot be washed in advance, as the greens will wither even faster. So it is best to eat greens right away. And so that it is always available, you can plant a salad with an interval of 5-7 days. Then you won't have to wait long for the harvest.

The name lettuce unites a large number of plants of different appearance and belonging to different families. Among them there are cabbage-like ones, there are leaf ones - in which leaves are used for food, there are also those that are served on the table at the age of seedlings. They are also united by the fact that all of them, having a unique taste, are used in cooking more often without preliminary heat treatment and contain a large amount of vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances necessary for a person.

Types and varieties of salads

Watercress

Watercress, sometimes called bedbug. It has a pleasant taste and high nutritional properties. Eating it in food has a beneficial effect on the entire body as a whole. Its original leaves are used to decorate various dishes. The fragrant greens of this salad go well with many vegetables and dressings, help get rid of certain diseases, and increase the body's immunity.

Ready for harvest, lettuce is a fairly large, semi-spreading rosette of leaves. It has bright green leaves with a wavy edge. Varieties with a reddish rosette color have been bred.

Lettuce leaves are crispy, sweetish in taste. This species is the most common in the world. It is suitable for preparing salads, serves as a vitamin decoration for meat, fish and vegetable dishes.

Batavia leaves enrich the human diet with vitamins of group B, PP, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, magnesium, phosphorus. Eating this salad in food will help in the fight against anemia.

A salad copy of white cabbage with a cabbage crunch. It is also resistant to low temperatures, it is stored for a long time in the refrigerator. Slightly bitter taste allows it to be combined with a variety of products - meat, poultry, smoked meats, boiled eggs, seafood. The original taste of the salad is emphasized by sour cream sauce. Iceberg green leaves can be used as mini salad bowls for serving.

Iceberg leaves contain virtually no calories, but it is high in fiber, minerals and vitamins. Adding this salad to the diet will improve metabolism and help with weight loss.

L atuk leaf (coral lettuce)

The most famous varieties of lettuce are lollo rosso and lollo biondo. These lettuces have vibrant leaves that are dyed in combinations of green and burgundy. The edges of the leaves are charmingly curly.

Light bitter taste with nutty notes successfully combines it with vegetable salads and fried meat products.

Lollo salads are rich in potassium, magnesium and iron and are quickly absorbed by the digestive system. It is recommended in dietary nutrition for diseases of the endocrine system and high blood pressure.

The closest relative of dandelions. This lettuce has gray-green unusual openwork leaves on unusually thin stems.

Arugula is rich in vitamin C and iodine. Its use stimulates the digestive system and strengthens the immune system.

Fragrant spicy leaves with a nut-mustard taste have an invigorating effect. Salad perfectly complements the taste of products such as meat, tomatoes, cheeses, seafood, improves green salads, adds spice to pasta. Only tender leaves are used for food, the stem is more bitter and hard in cooking. As a natural aphrodisiac, it is useful for men, and women appreciate the salad for helping to maintain harmony.

Curly frisee, endive and exarial salads

The variety belongs to the medium-early ripening period. Harvest is ready for harvest 60-70 days after sowing. The salad has juicy, slightly crunchy greens with excellent taste. During growth, a rosette of light green, wavy leaves along the edges grows from the seed. Each such socket can reach 210g. The advantages of the variety include the ability to harvest at any time of the year, the absence of bitterness in the leaves, resistance to low temperatures and diseases, short ripening periods, high decorativeness of plants.

The salad consists of bright green, crispy leaves. They have a sweet-tart taste with a nutty tinge and a delicate aroma. Greens are rich in organic acids. The use is very wide from hamburgers to dressing salads. Romaine lettuce leaves are used in the original Caesar salad recipe. Pairs well with other salads.

For the similarity of lettuce leaves with oak leaves, this salad is sometimes called oak. In its commercial form, it is loose red or green heads of cabbage with a subtle nutty flavor. A tender head of cabbage does not last more than a day - it must be used as food as soon as possible.

The taste of oak lettuce complements the flavors of smoked salmon, mushrooms and avocado. The leaves are added to desserts. For dressing salads, light sauces are used that do not drown out the own taste of the leaves.

Regular supplementation of oaklif in the diet will help improve blood composition, increase the intake of B, P, PP, E, K vitamins, ascorbic acid, and organic acids.

Salad with a bitter-tart taste. The intibin contained in it improves digestion.

In ready-made dishes, use it fresh or stewed. The roots are used to make a coffee substitute.

How to grow lettuce

There are several ways to grow lettuce:

1. grow outdoors through seedlings;
2. grow lettuce by direct sowing in the ground;
3. grow lettuce on a windowsill.

Growing seedlings begins with variety selection and preparation. Salads such as asparagus or cabbage can be obtained by direct sowing in the ground, or through seedlings. Romaine lettuce, with a long growing period, is obtained only through seedlings.

The seedling method of growing lettuce allows you to get a crop almost a month earlier. With this method, the plants are more evenly leafy, moreover, the consumption of seeds is reduced by almost 10 times.

The components of good seedlings are seeds with good germination and loose nutritious soil.

Seed preparation

The germination rate of high-quality seeds should be at least 80%, and the age should not exceed 4 years. Full-weight seeds are selected using a solution of table salt with a concentration of 3-5%. Seeds are poured with this brine and kept in it for 15-20 minutes. Those seeds that float up are removed, those that fall to the bottom are washed in running water and used for sowing.

Seeds selected for sowing are disinfected in aloe juice, garlic juice or potassium permanganate solution for at least 15 and no more than 20 minutes. Subsequent rinsing is mandatory. The seeds freed from infections are soaked in growth stimulants according to the instructions attached to them, after which they are washed again.

soil for growing

In specialized and ordinary hardware stores, the choice of soil for growing seedlings is very large. They are also suitable for lettuce seedlings. In some of them, you can add baking powder in the form of river sand.

To make up the planting soil, they independently use humus, soddy soil, sand and peat in various proportions:

• humus, soddy soil and sand - 2:2:1;
• sod land, humus, sand - 1:2:1;
• peat, sod land, humus, sand - 3:1:3:1.

The resulting mixture is filled into individual cups, the mixture is spilled with a solution containing beneficial soil bacteria. The next day you can start sowing.

For sowing lettuce for seedlings, you can use peat - humus cubes or pots.

Sowing begins 30-35 days before planting seedlings in the ground. Several seeds are planted in each planting container to a depth of no more than 1 cm. If possible, containers with sown seeds are covered with a film to preserve moisture. Emerging shoots are thinned out. About 5 cm should remain in the sowing box between the rows. No more than 3 plants are left in individual pots. At the age of one month, seedlings are transferred to open ground.

All lettuces are quite hardy crops, their ability to withstand low temperatures allows them to be sown both in early spring and late autumn, before winter. In early spring, lettuce is sown with early-ripening varieties - in April-May, lettuce varieties of medium and late ripening are sown in April-June. Individual varieties can be sown repeatedly, every week and a half. The last date for sowing is mid-August.

For growing lettuce, open sunny places with loose nutrient soil are chosen. Improve heavy clay soil with organic fertilizer and sand. They try to get a slightly acidic or slightly alkaline reaction - from 6.0 to 7.0 pH. The best precursors for salad are early cabbage, potatoes, pumpkin.

Neighbors of salads can be various cruciferous crops - the cruciferous flea does not harm them. Best for salad neighborhood with onions that repel aphids. It is advisable to return the salad to its original place no earlier than after 2 years.

When preparing the beds for digging the soil, organic matter is introduced - humus or rotted manure. You can replace organics with complex mineral fertilizers, adding them according to the instructions attached to the fertilizer.

On a leveled surface, furrows up to 1 cm deep are cut 15-20 cm apart. Before sowing, the seeds are mixed with sand in the proportion of 1 hour of seeds to 2 parts of sand. The furrows are shed with water, filled with a mixture of seeds and sand to half the depth, again spilled with water and covered with earth. Crops should not be watered immediately after this - the surface of the soil should remain dry.

Lettuce seeds germinate best at moderately high temperatures - up to + 20 degrees. At higher values, seedlings appear worse. With the advent of mass shoots, thinning is carried out. 6-8 cm are left between adjacent leaf lettuces, 10-15 cm will be needed for headed varieties.

Grown seedlings are placed according to the scheme from 25 * 25 cm or 35 * 35 cm for head salads.

Lettuce planting care comes down to watering, loosening, protection from diseases and pests.

watering lettuce

Lettuce grown outdoors is watered at least once a week, preferably in the morning or evening. Leaf varieties are watered by sprinkling, head varieties - under the root. When heads begin to form, watering is limited, preventing an outbreak of putrefactive diseases. Leaf lettuces, in order to avoid leaf necrosis, are not watered in the heat, they are carried out in the evening when the heat subsides.

Lettuce is one of the crops that can be grown on the windowsill all year round. It is sown in boxes or flower pots with a volume of at least 1 liter. In spring and summer, boxes or pots are placed on the illuminated windowsills of the southern or southeastern window sills. In the autumn-winter period, crops will need to be illuminated and therefore they can be placed anywhere. It is better to illuminate the crops with fluorescent lamps or phytolamps.

The substrate for sowing is made up of biohumus and coconut fiber in a ratio of 2: 1. Seeds are sown, as well as in the open air - 5-10 mm deep. Crops are covered with polyethylene until shoots appear. A box with emerging sprouts is placed in the most illuminated place and watered as the soil dries. The crop is harvested when at least 5 leaves have developed on the plant.

A home lettuce plantation needs timely watering. A dry substrate stimulates the appearance of flowers and bitterness in the leaves. The best temperature for the development of lettuce is 16-20 degrees Celsius. The greatest danger to lettuce plants is the increased dryness of the air at elevated temperatures. Regular spraying of crops at room temperature will help to avoid this danger.

A noticeable harvest can be harvested at home only on well-fertilized soils. When adding additional nutrients, you need to remember that lettuce quickly accumulates nitrates. Nitrogen fertilizers should be applied infrequently and in small quantities.

Like all plants, salads get sick and pests settle on them. The peculiarities of dealing with these ailments on lettuce are complicated by the fact that it will not work to use chemicals on it with a long waiting period. Plants accumulate not only nitrates, but also means of protection against pests and diseases.

Of the diseases on lettuce, various rots, powdery mildew and mosaics are found. The development of these diseases is promoted by low temperatures with high humidity. Another factor increases the risk of diseases - dense plantings and poor ventilation of plantings.

Regular crop rotation, rapid removal of rotten and damaged leaves, timely thinning of crops, and moderate use of nitrogen fertilizers will help reduce the spread of diseases.

Of the pests, the lettuce fly, aphids, filly and slugs cause the greatest harm. Destruction of flying pests, you can use herbal decoctions or biological products with a short waiting time. As a preventive measure, it is necessary to promptly remove weeds from the site, on which pests breed. After harvesting, the plot is shed with a solution of Karbofos

To fight slugs, traps are used, into which mollusks crawl. You can sprinkle the soil around the crops with ash or superphosphate granules. And how to avoid dense plantings in the fight against diseases.

The benefits and harms of lettuce

All salads to varying degrees contain vitamins, mineral salts, organic substances.

Salads help improve digestion, strengthen immunity, help normalize blood pressure. Alkaloids, bitterness and resins contained in the leaves have an expectorant, sedative and diuretic effect. Red salads contribute to an increase in hemoglobin in the blood.

Magnesium in lettuce increases brain and muscle activity. Organic salts restore lung tissue cells and improve blood circulation.

Lettuce seeds in the form of water infusion increase lactation.

Fresh lettuce added to the diet will lower blood cholesterol, reduce the risk of obesity and atherosclerosis

Salad - contraindications

Even the most useful product should not be used without caution. It is especially careful to use this product in food for people suffering from urolithiasis, colitis, enteritis, gastritis, ulcers and oxaluria. A large amount of lettuce eaten will lead to increased gas formation.

Lettuce - growing from seeds: video

It has a large number of healing properties, contains vitamins B, A, PP, C, trace elements such as molybdenum, iodine, manganese, copper, boron, and iron. In most of the country, a vegetable can be grown throughout the year: in summer, autumn and spring in the open field, and in winter in a protected area. The undoubted advantage of the plant is that it is one of the first to give its vitamin greens and at the same time feels great both in the garden and in a pot on the windowsill.

Characteristics of culture

Lettuce, which does not require much effort to grow, is a cold-resistant crop. The optimum temperature for vegetation is the range from 16 to 18 degrees. In warmer temperatures and dryer climates, all the plant's vigor can go into bloom. The most widespread are leaf and head salads. Their leaves can be whole or dissected, serrated or smooth, heads of cabbage are rounded or rounded flat. Lettuce, the cultivation of which in the ground does not require special preparation, ripens in 25-40 days after the first shoots.

Soil for lettuce. Cultivation in open ground.

Lettuce grows best in places where potatoes and cabbage were planted last year, especially if organic fertilizers were applied to the soil. Lettuce, the cultivation of which does not require special soil preparation, nevertheless does not accept brackish, clay soils. However, in general, the plant is unpretentious. The increased content of humus and mineral fertilizers in the soil will only improve germination.

Salad. Growing from seed

Lettuce seeds are sown very early - in late April - early May. Such early varieties include lettuce Zabava, Yeralash, Credo, Dubrava. Sowing must be carried out in an ordinary way. Maintain intervals of 20 centimeters between rows, and one and a half centimeters between seeds. Germination of seeds occurs already at a temperature of +2 degrees, the most active growth at a temperature of +20 - +22 degrees. Harvest in the open field can be obtained from June to September, when using a film - already in the month of May. Lettuces that require a lot of light to grow are long day plants. During the growing season, it is extremely important to provide the plant with the necessary amount of moisture. If moisture is not enough, then they will become coarse, and the vegetable itself will lose most of it.

lettuce cleaning

Harvesting is carried out after 30 - 40 days from the date of emergence of seedlings. Partially, you can collect leaves when thinning the plant. For head lettuce, a longer ripening period is characteristic - up to 70 days.

Growing from seedlings

For growing lettuce from seedlings, a cassette or pot is used, since the seedlings do not tolerate damage to the root system. with a seedling, it must be planted shallow enough so that it rises a centimeter above the main soil, since with a deeper planting, the lower leaves can rot or become infected with a fungus. This method is most acceptable for growing head lettuce varieties.