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How to Grow Lettuce and other Salad Greens

Its lettuce time and growing lettuces, with their mosaic of colors, textures and leafy rosette shapes is one of the most rewarding aspects of having your own kitchen garden. A large and very diverse world of lettuces is available to grow from seed and this is the time to start them. Consider putting them in containers or large movable pots and you will be able to cut as they grow and move them out of the hot sun and keep them from going to seed quickly.

Also plant a row or two and wait a week and then another row or two or pot or container and you will have some for quite a good long season. In other words, whether you start directly from seeds or plants you want to start a new crop every 7 to 10 days.

Lettuces really are the easiest plants to grow from seeds and since a package of seeds will cost a lot less than plants, give thought to be frugal and using seeds, especially heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds, unlike hybrid seeds, will give you replacement seeds when you allow some of your lettuces to purposely go to seed.
I find that having a variety of lettuce planted gives our salads a great boost and having our own growing allows us to pick the leaves of the different greens at their youngest and most delicate stages. This gives the flavor at its crunchiest and most tender stage. It tastes the same as the larger leaves without any bitterness that may come with the larger leaves.

Lettuce is a very adaptable plant and will grow at a different rate according to the season and the weather. With that in mind, some rules can be used to calculate harvest dates such as the following:
Loose-leaf takes about 45-60 days to mature
Butterhead takes about 60 to 75 days to mature
Crisp head or iceberg takes about 75+ days to mature
Romaine takes about 75+ days to mature.

Crisp head or iceberg lettuces are less tolerant of hot weather so if you live in a warmer area, you might want to consider starting some in the late summer to mature in the cooler weather of the fall. Since we are seeing climate changes this may work very well in your area especially if your winter temperatures stay above 10F.

Consider growing a container or two of cress since it is very easy to grow and adds a high note to just about any salad. A point to remember with cress is to keep it well waters and move your containers to the shade in hot weather. Harvest when the leaves are 4 to 6" high.

Should you have a nice moist spot in your garden consider growing a perennial called Tangy Watercress which is a salad plant that is the member of the mustard family. It is very easy to grow in moist, neutral soil that gets plenty of sun and it is a delightful addition to any salad.

Seriously consider growing some spinach under the same conditions as mentioned above since fresh spinach will notch up your salad quite a bit. My favorite for baby leaf production and one that is also loved by chefs is mild flavored and excellent mildew resistant spinach called Rembrandt.

Another tip for growing spinach is to sow some later on in your garden under the shade of tall growing plants to extend our spinach growing season. Spinach matures in 35 to 40 days and keeping that in mind you can have it basically all growing season.

Happy Gardening!

Learn more about this author, Arlene Wright-Correll.
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