Crops · Pillar

Growing Lettuce

Lettuce grows quickly if you don't let it get too hot. Succession, shade, and slugs.

1 min read

From seed to salad in 6-8 weeks. The trick is not to fertilize: it's to prevent it from bolting or letting slugs make the first cut.

Sowing

Plant shallowly, succession every 15 days, pot size 5-7 L or planter. In May-August, provide afternoon shade or it will bolt and taste bitter.

Regular, shallow watering. Coco-perlite or light soil. Hydrogel can help in sun-exposed planters with a low dose.

Slugs in the morning, aphids on the buds, birds. A mesh in the soil of large planters reduces weeds that hide slugs.

Seed trays, pots 5-7 L, and weed control mesh in planters. Harvest outer leaves and the plant continues to grow.

Is it sown in summer?

Heat and shade varieties. The romaine from July in patio sun will bolt.

Why is it bitter?

Heat or water stress, or it is bolting. Harvest earlier.

High NPK?

Low N. Too much fertilizer and little water = ugly leaves and nitrates.

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