Lettuce or lettuce is a treasure trove of vitamins and the fastest production you can get from seeds. Useful and delicious greens you can please yourself all year round growing on the windowsill in winter and in open ground during the warm season.

In the greenhouse, these periods are significantly extended, and if it is possible to heat the greenhouse, lettuce is grown all year round. The technology of growing lettuce is simple, but it requires simple techniques to get a good harvest.

Growing lettuce in a greenhouse in winter and early spring

Required temperature

Lettuce is cold resistant. In a greenhouse, it can be used from early spring, and if it is heated, you can grow it even in winter. Seeds can hatch at temperatures of 5-6 ° C, young shoots can withstand temperatures as low as -2 ° C. For good growth and development, the optimum air temperature is 20 ° C.

Choose cold tolerant varieties.

Soil preparation

Prepare the soil in the fall. Dig up thoroughly, feed. For each m² add 40 g of superphosphate, 15 g of potassium chloride. The introduction of organic matter (rotted manure) helps to equalize the acidity level to neutral or slightly acidic. Also add slaked lime if the soil is acidic.

When and how to sow

Flatten the area. Start sowing when the air temperature inside the greenhouse does not drop below 0 ° C at night (in an unheated greenhouse, this is about mid to late March).

• Make rows 10 cm apart.
• The seeding depth should be 1-2 cm.
• The weather is changeable, so if there is a threat of severe frosts, mulch the soil with fine humus.

The cultivation process will take about 1 month.

How to care

When seedlings appear, they must be thinned out, especially if you are growing products for sale: heavily thickened plantings will give less high-quality greenery, the leaves will be small and pale.

How to break through and should you dive?

Growing salad from seeds when to plant and how to care

• Leave a minimum distance of 15-20 cm between plants to obtain large leafy rosettes.
• Many people practice picking lettuce, the plants are really accepted and soon give a good harvest. However, it should be noted that you are wasting a couple of weeks of precious time.
• It is much easier, faster and more profitable to sow the required area at once and just break through the extra seedlings than to engage in unproductive picking.

How to water

Not often (1-2 times a week), but abundant. Use cool water, but it shouldn't come into contact with the leaves. Stagnant water creates a favorable environment for the emergence of diseases.

Remove weeds as needed, loosen the soil between rows regularly.

How to feed

Necessary for good growth. During the growing season, add a mixture of potassium chloride and ammonium nitrate 2 times: half a tablespoon of each fertilizer per 10 liters of water, but no later than a month before harvesting, so that the products are safe and environmentally friendly.

Conditions for growing lettuce in the open field

Summer leaf salad can be grown outdoors. To get fresh greens until fall, sow every 14 days.

Choose varieties according to the ripening period: early, middle, late. Information about the timing of sowing and harvesting is indicated on the seed package. Each variety has its own characteristics: strictly follow the recommendations of the breeders on the timing of sowing, so that instead of harvesting greens, you do not get arrows with peduncles.

For leaf lettuce, a place in a light shade is preferable: the greens will turn out to be very tender and juicy.

The preparation of the site is carried out similarly to the greenhouse: autumn digging, fertilization.

When to plant lettuce seeds outdoors

Sowing dates

You can start sowing lettuce from mid-April, when night temperatures will not drop below zero degrees, the threat of short-term frosts is allowed, but no more than 1-2 ° C below zero. Loosen the prepared area, break up large lumps and lumps.

Predecessors

Desirable crop precursors are peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes. It gets along well next to beans, radishes, radishes, cucumbers, onions, the latter will scare off aphids - the main pest of lettuce.

How to sow

• To make grooves about 1-2 cm deep.
• Sow less often, it is advisable to leave 1-1.5 cm between the seeds
• The distance between the rows is 15-20 cm.
• Level the soil, water well.
• To accelerate germination for the first few days, cover the crops with foil.

Follow standard care procedures (similar to greenhouse): water, loosen the soil, remove weeds. When the plants sprout, thin them out several times, leaving a total of 15-20 cm in a row.

How to sow a salad in the spring in open ground, we look at the video:

Planting lettuce with seeds in the ground is the simplest task that can be entrusted even to children. This will be a good first experience with growing plants, especially when it comes time to harvest the young, succulent leaves.

Growing lettuce at home in winter on a windowsill

To get juicy greens in winter time you can arrange a vegetable garden on a windowsill or a covered balcony. Growing lettuce indoors is not difficult, even inexperienced gardeners can handle this.

Preparation of soil and containers for sowing

The containers are required deep - about 35 cm.

You can buy soil bosom for it at the store or prepare it yourself. Take the land from the site, add rotted manure, peat, mix in equal proportions... Use nitrophosphate and urea as fertilizer.

Be sure to lay a drainage layer at the bottom of the container (you can use expanded clay, small pebbles, walnut shells).

How to sow

• Deepen the seeds by 1-1.5 cm, keep a distance of 15 cm between the rows.
• After sowing, carefully cover the furrows with earth, moisten the crops with a spray gun and cover with foil.
• Shoots will appear soon, we remove the film.

For plants to thrive, thin out dense plantings to a minimum distance of 8-10 cm between plants.

How to care

Abundantly a couple of times a week. In room conditions, the air is too dry - daily spraying from a spray bottle will be required.

Loosening is carried out from the fourth week of growth: the fragile roots of young plants are easy to damage.

The duration of daylight hours in winter is short, it must be extended for a salad at least up to 12 hours, so artificial lighting will be required.

How to sow and grow salad on the windowsill, look at the video:

Today, every meal starts with a salad, and there are good reasons for that.

The fact is that raw vegetables and greens do not require a large amount of gastric juice for digestion, but by their appearance in the stomach they provoke active work glands that secrete it. As a result, the "heavy" food eaten after the salad gets into an environment favorable for digestion, which makes eating healthy and comfortable. Today we will tell you about growing lettuce on the windowsill and in the open field.

Useful properties of salad

Modern nutritional science believes that lettuce leaves are the ideal start to any meal. Several substances give it the beneficial properties of salad. The alkaloid lactucin gives the salad a bitter taste, but at the same time quickly activates the secretion of gastric juice and accelerates metabolism several times. Also, lettuce leaves contain a large amount of carotenoids, which help to maintain visual acuity and youthful skin for a long time, and daily use This 100g lettuce will help prevent Alzheimer's disease in old age.

The B vitamins included in the salad cause its soothing effect on nervous system as well as improve sleep and normalize blood pressure... Young lettuce leaves and cabbage stalks contain a large amount of folic acid, which has a beneficial effect on reproductive function organism. The beneficial properties of salad make it a must-have dish on the menu of people who are sick. diabetes mellitus... This indispensability is explained not only by the fact that the salad is low in calories, but also by the fact that it contains a large amount of vitamin K, which is able to regulate blood clotting.

Variety of salads

Growing lettuce begins with the selection of varieties. Today, there are more than a hundred types of lettuce, differing in shape, color, taste of leaves and ripening period. All species are conventionally combined into two groups - leafy and headed. As a rule, all plants are used in fresh and their own beneficial features lettuce retains for 5 hours after cutting from the root. They can be stored at temperatures from + 10C to + 40C and air humidity of 90%. It is in this state that the salad is stored on supermarket shelves, but growing lettuce on its own plot and with my own hands, of course, makes it much tastier and healthier.

Lettuce is an unpretentious plant

Salad - annual plant the cruciferous family. Like most members of this family, lettuce is a light-loving and cold-resistant culture, and fast terms ripening, from 35 days, allow you to get an excellent harvest of vitamin greens in early spring. This is such an unpretentious culture that lettuce seedlings can successfully develop in an apartment on a windowsill.

How to grow salad on a windowsill

To grow lettuce on the windowsill you will need:

• Container

The volume of the container for growing lettuce directly depends on the type of plant. If you plan to grow a juicy rosette of large leaves, then you should choose a container at the rate of 400 cm2 per root, that is, the width and length of the container should be at least 20 cm, while the depth of the container should be at least 25 cm. area - 900 cm2 (30X30), respectively, the depth should be at least 35 cm.

• Soil mixture

The structure of the root system of lettuce assumes the surface occurrence of the bulk of the roots, therefore the soil for growing this plant should be as water-absorbing as possible so that thin roots in upper layers the soil did not dry out. The optimal ratio of ingredients in a soil mixture for a salad is as follows: 1 part of garden soil, 1 part of peat, 1 part of compost. On the bucket ready mix it is necessary to add 1 kg of sand, 1 kg of wood ash, 1 tablespoon of nitrophosphate, 1 teaspoon of urea.

• Drainage

In this case, it is better to use a synthetic winterizer as drainage. Folded in several layers, this material is able not only to absorb excess water during irrigation, but also to create a favorable microclimate on the windowsill by passively humidifying the air.

• Polyethylene film

Plastic wrap is needed to create a greenhouse effect over the seedlings.

• Spray bottle and watering can

Young juicy lettuce leaves need a large number water. Small root system is not able to fully satisfy this need, therefore, daily spraying of plants will help them correctly and fully form a tasty and healthy crop. When purchasing a watering can, you should pay attention to the gander. Since lettuce forms a dense forest of greenery on the windowsill over time, it will not be easy to get to the opposite side of the container, so the watering gander should be long and thin.

• Liquid fertilizer

Intensive growth of lettuce is possible with good nutrition. Every week it must be fertilized with any complex liquid fertilizer. If you prefer organic fertilizers, then once a week you should feed the plant with an aqueous solution of mullein (1:10)

• Daylight lamp

For the successful cultivation of lettuce in the period from November to February, additional lighting is required in the evening. A fluorescent lamp suspended above a container with plants at a height of 50 cm will fully compensate for the lack of sunlight.

For growing lettuce on the windowsill, early ripening varieties are suitable, for example, Odessa, Maisky, Mustard leaf, Kochanny, Moscow leaf. In a container filled with ready-made soil mixture, seeds are sown in a row manner. As a rule, lettuce seeds have excellent germination, so you should not thicken the crops. After sowing the seeds, the soil is compacted with a paint roller and watered, then a plastic film is pulled over the container.

In this state, the container is on the windowsill until the first shoots. As soon as the first shoots have appeared, the film must be removed, the seedlings must be thinned out. Further care for the salad on the windowsill consists in watering, spraying and weekly fertilizing. In no case should you loosen the soil in the container - you can damage the surface roots, and the plant will slow down its growth for a long time. After 30 - 35 days, you can already enjoy the first juicy lettuce leaves.

How to grow lettuce outdoors

You can get early young salad greens on personal plot... There are two options for forcing early greens - a seedling method of growing and a winter sowing of seeds.

Growing seedlings

Growing seedlings is fraught with certain difficulties, therefore, before choosing this method of growing lettuce, it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons.

The first difficulty lies in the choice of the sowing date. Despite the fact that lettuce is a cold-resistant plant, a short-term drop in temperature below -20C can be fatal for it. At the same time, seedlings at the age of 14 days should already be transplanted into open ground, since there is already little food for the plant in a peat-humus pot. Therefore, sowing seeds should be 14 days before the moment when positive air temperature is supposed to be established.

The second difficulty lies in the fact that the salad does not tolerate transplanting, therefore, seedlings should be grown either in peat-humus pots or in peat cubes. The mixture for filling the pots is prepared in the same way as for growing lettuce on the windowsill. Seeds are sown in filled pots or cubes, 2 pcs. then the seedlings are thinned out, leaving one plant in a pot. After a week, the plants are fertilized with any liquid complex fertilizer or an aqueous solution of slurry (1:10). At the same time, the seedlings begin to harden - the gradual adaptation of the seedlings to the open air.

Winter sowing of lettuce

This option is ideal for getting an early harvest of lettuce, because in spring the seeds will hatch exactly at the moment when the threat of severe frosts has passed. Sowing lettuce seeds should be in the already prepared soil, and for this it is necessary to add 1 bucket of compost, 1 kg of wood ash, 3 tablespoons of nitrophoska, 3 teaspoons of urea per 1 m2 for digging. At the end of October, lettuce seeds are sown in a row manner on the formed beds. The distance between the lines should be at least 30 cm, the seeding rate must be doubled, since during the winter nature itself will produce natural selection- some seeds will freeze, some will be eaten by mice.

Salad care

In the spring, the first step is to remove excess plants and sow the seedlings. As mentioned above, lettuce has superficial roots and therefore needs a large nutrient area, so the distance between plants in a row should be 25-30 cm, the distance between rows should be 30-40 cm.

A short growing season will require systematic watering. The salad will have a positive effect on spraying and on the application of complex fertilizers. The salad does not need to be loosened, moreover, during such a procedure, the surface roots of the plant can be damaged.

Pests and diseases

The most vicious enemy of lettuce on the backyard is the slug. You can get rid of this pest exclusively by hand.

Lettuce is susceptible to diseases such as downy mildew, gray and white rot, black leg. Since it is impossible to process delicate greens with chemicals, the only way out is to pull out and burn the diseased plant. You can prevent damage from such diseases with the help of the correct alternation of crops on the site - lettuce can be planted in one place 3 years after any representatives of cruciferous plants have grown there.

Harvesting

Leafy salads reach maturity within 30-35 days after sowing the seeds. After the first collection of leaves, the plant can be left in the garden and after 2 weeks, a second crop of useful greens can be harvested. You can extend the stay of lettuce in the diet by re-sowing seeds in early May. Unfortunately, summer harvest will be the only one - with an increase in temperature and dry air, the plant will tend to shoot.

The head lettuce is ready to eat after the head is formed. You can get another harvest of such a salad - after cutting a ripe head of cabbage, the plant is left on the root and in a week, young trunks with a rudiment of a head of cabbage will appear on the root collar. One head of cabbage should be left on one plant, and the rest should be carefully removed. This head of cabbage, of course, will be smaller in size than its predecessor, but in taste and nutritional values he will not give in.

Any climatic conditions are suitable for growing lettuce. It is important that the place for sowing lettuce is sunny (otherwise nitrates_ will accumulate in the leaves and the soil is loosened to a great depth. When grown in early spring, only early varieties lettuce, with a later, respectively, summer.

Salad varieties with photos and descriptions, reviews

Iceberg lettuce, characteristic

New fruitful crunchy variety head lettuce... From the moment of germination to technical ripeness, 75-90 days pass. This variety is intended for spring and summer cultivation. Resistant to shooting.

The heads of lettuce are large, dense, weighing 300-600 grams. The leaves are corrugated, with wavy edges, juicy, bubbly, crispy, keep fresh for a long time. The taste is high.

Leaf lettuce Sandwich

Great variety of salad early term ripening. Grown in open and protected ground. Lettuce leaves are light green, tender, crunchy, with a high content of vitamins and mineral salts.

Lettuce Lettuce Sandwich is ideal for fresh consumption, making sandwiches, salads, decorating dishes.

Eurydice salad

A mid-season, half-cabbage variety of lettuce. Grown in open ground and film greenhouses.

The rosette of leaves is medium in size, semi-raised, compact, about 35 cm high, about 33 cm in diameter. The leaf is large, dark green in color, bubbly, with a wavy edge, of a crunchy consistency. Possesses excellent taste.

The mass (average weight) of an adult plant is 450 grams.

Leaf lettuce Firebird

An early ripe variety of lettuce, the harvest of which can be harvested within 45-50 days from the moment of germination. The plant forms large rosettes of intense ruby ​​red color, with delicate, crunchy leaves. Lettuce Leaves Firebird contain an increased amount of vitamins and mineral salts.

This variety of lettuce is suitable for year-round cultivation in open and protected ground throughout Russia.

Advantages of the variety: resistance to flowering, fast growth at any length of the day, excellent taste qualities.

Odessa kucheryavets salad

Mid-season (68-75 days from germination to harvest), semi-cabbage type. The plant forms a loose medium-sized rosette, 24-32 cm in diameter, weighing up to 200 grams. The leaf is fan-shaped with a corrugated edge, crispy texture, excellent taste.

Grown Odessa kucheryavets in open ground and film shelters. For continuous harvest from June to autumn, sowing in open ground is carried out from April to August. The seeding depth is 1-2 cm.

For seedlings, lettuce seeds are sown in March-April, plants are planted in May-June.

Lettuce yield: 2.7-5.0 kg / sq.m. The variety is resistant to flowering.

Leaf lettuce Grand

Early ripening variety of lettuce. It takes 45 days from germination to harvest. The plant forms a large, juicy, light green leaf with pronounced curliness.

Grade Grand is distinguished by high uniformity of rosettes.

Advantages of the variety: resistant to blooming, marginal burns and necrosis.

Crispy Vitamin Salad

Medium early lettuce variety. It takes 38-45 days from germination to ripeness. The plant is compact, about 15-18 cm in diameter, with green, crispy leaves (openwork along the edge).

Lettuce variety Crispy vitamin contains many vitamins and useful acids... It is recommended to sow several times during the season. Advantages of the variety: high yield, crispy leaf consistency, long shelf life, resistance to stalking and low light.

Leaf lettuce Kitezh

An early ripe variety of lettuce. Forms an erect rosette 20-25 cm high and about 25 cm in diameter. Leaves are medium-sized, oblong, reddish with a strong anthocyanin color, slightly bubbly, wavy along the edge, with incisions in the apical part. The consistency of the leaves is oily. The taste is excellent.

Yield lettuce Kitezh - 2.5 kg / sq.m.

Royal lettuce

High-yielding early ripening variety of lettuce. Forms large rosettes of corrugated leaves, light in the center and dark green at the edges.

It is characterized by a long period of consumer suitability, does not shoot, is very decorative. Recommended to grow in open and protected ground.

Gourmet salad

Early ripening variety of lettuce. The period from germination to harvesting is 40-45 days. Leaves are yellow-green in color, slightly wrinkled, with a wavy edge. Average weight one plant up to 200 grams.

Lettuce variety Lakomka is intended for growing in open and protected ground. Sowing outdoors from late April to mid-July. In non-heated film greenhouses, sowing / planting in the 3rd decade of April - 1st decade of May.

Landing scheme: 20 × 20 cm.

Lolo Biendo salad

An early ripe variety of lettuce. From the moment of germination to technical ripeness, it takes 40-45 days. Leaves are yellow-green in color, curly, fragrant, juicy and crunchy. The socket is compact, rounded, weighing 200-300 grams. The leaves are curly, fragrant, juicy and crunchy, yellow-green in color, delicate in taste, form a compact rounded rosette.

The average weight of one outlet is 200-300 grams. The variety is suitable for year-round cultivation in open ground and greenhouses.

Lollo San Salad

An early ripe high-yielding variety of lettuce. The period from germination to maturity is 40-45 days. The leaves are green, very decorative, corrugated. The rosette-head is loose, 15-20 cm in diameter.

The variety is resistant to shooting.

Lollo Rossa salad

The most popular variety of lettuce. The period from germination to technical ripeness is 40-55 days. The plant is tall, erect, 15-20 cm in diameter. The leaves are delicate, wrinkled, curly, light green in color with a wide reddish-pink edge.

Advantages of the variety: good taste, resistance to shooting, decorative. Lollo Rossa salad is often used to decorate flower beds.

Leaf salad Yeralash, characteristic

Mid-season high-yielding variety of lettuce. The average weight of one plant is 150-200 grams.

Advantages of the variety: resistance to marginal leaf burn, high taste.

Moscow greenhouse salad

Early ripening variety of lettuce. It takes only 35 days from germination to harvest. The leaves are pale green, tender, juicy, with excellent taste.

The Moscow Greenhouse salad variety is ideal for fresh consumption, making sandwiches, salads, decorating dishes.

Cabbage salad Kolobok

New late-ripening cabbage variety of lettuce. From germination to technical ripeness takes from 55 to 75 days.

It is grown in open ground and in film shelters. Heads of cabbage are large, weighing up to 600 g. The leaves are red with white veins, very juicy, with a piquant taste.

Fresh heads of cabbage are rich in vitamins and minerals and are recommended for salads.

Obzhorka salad, photo and description

An early ripe variety of curly lettuce. It takes 40-42 days from germination to technical ripeness.

The plant forms a raised rosette with a diameter of 25-28 cm, the leaves are reddish, large, strongly wrinkled, juicy and tender. Socket weight up to 160 grams.

Leaf lettuce Naughty

An early ripe variety of lettuce. The period from germination to technical ripeness is 39-43 days. Rosette of green, bubbly, strongly wavy leaves along the edges.

The average weight of one outlet is 150-160 grams. The consistency of the leaves is crispy.

Robin leaf salad

Late-ripening variety of lettuce. Ripening period 50 days. Recommended for growing in various climatic zones, outdoors and in winter greenhouses.

The variety is resistant to flowering.

Leaf lettuce Fairy Tale

An early ripe variety of lettuce. Ripening period 46-49 days. The rosette of leaves is large, weighing up to 250 grams.

Advantages of the variety: resistant to shooting, fast growth at any length of the day.

Typhoon salad

A new mid-season lettuce variety. The leaf is large, green, slightly bubbly, wavy along the edge, with a crispy texture, juicy and delicate in taste.

Advantages of the variety: resistant to flowering, fast growth at any length of the day.

Truffle salad

Medium early salad variety. The leaves are tender, crunchy, corrugated, due to the reddish-burgundy edge, they look very impressive and are indispensable for decorating dishes.

The Truffle salad variety is suitable for year-round cultivation in the open field and in winter greenhouses.

Leaf lettuce Season of Wonders

An excellent early ripening variety of lettuce. The plant forms a large rosette, 25 cm high and 25-40 cm in diameter. The mass of one rosette is about 150 g.

The leaf is medium in size, dark red, wavy at the edge, juicy, curly, bubbly, crispy texture. The taste of fresh leaves is excellent, delicate.

Salad Mix Multivitamin

A wonderful mixture of fast growing salads, with a growing season of 40-45 days.

Plants form large rosettes of exclusively decorative leaves. The leaves are tender, crispy, juicy, with a good taste.

The mixture is suitable for year-round cultivation in open and protected ground.

What types of salad do you think are the most delicious? What are the varieties of salad without bitterness, with delicate leaves would you advise to plant our readers?

Your feedback on lettuce varieties and additions will help many gardeners choose for planting the best varieties green, red, leafy and head lettuce.

If possible, attach a photo of the salad you have grown to your reviews. Thanks!

Tell me when to plant lettuce outdoors? I found a few bags of seeds. Can they be sown next to tomatoes now?

Lettuce is a crop that can be grown in the garden almost all year round. He is not afraid of the cold, loves the sun and water, and the seeds sprout quickly, which allows you to feast on fresh leaves starting from early spring until the very frost.

Sowing time

In open ground, early varieties of lettuce should be sown starting in April. At this time, the ground was already warmed up enough for them to quickly ascend. Late and mid-season species are planted a month later - in May, and until the second decade of June.

The peculiarities of lettuce ripening include the predominance of a bitter taste during the growth of the stem by the bush. Then the leaves become inedible.

Where is the best place to plant?

Lettuce grows well in almost any soil, excluding clay, but more lush bushes are obtained when grown in loose and nutritious soil. To do this, dig deep into the allotted area in the fall, after adding humus (for each square meter in a bucket).

Immediately before spring sowing, feed the soil with mineral fertilizers, per one square of soil:

• 1 tsp potassium sulfate;
• 2 tsp superphosphate;
• 2 tsp Solution.

It is better to set up beds for salad in a sunny place, avoiding shading. The salad grows well after cucumbers and potatoes. In the summer, you can do combined planting with tomatoes, onions or radishes.

How to plant?

On a loosened and fertilized area, make shallow grooves (up to 1 cm) and put seeds in them. Since the bushes grow quite lush, you will need to make the row spacing up to 20 cm.

For added convenience, small seeds can be mixed with sand.

Water the sown bed well. For early spring sowing, it is recommended to cover it with foil to speed up germination.

How to care?

When all the seeds sprout and the seedlings grow a little, they should be thinned out, leaving between the bushes:

• from 6 cm - for lettuce;
• from 10 cm - for head varieties.

It is necessary to water the plantings once a week, and even less often when the heads of cabbage begin to tie. After each watering, loosen the soil so that it does not crust over.

As for dressings, provided that pre-planting fertilization is applied, nothing else needs to be added to the beds. The only exceptions are head lettuce varieties, which mature longer than leafy ones. They should be watered once.

Growing lettuce in the open field does not cause any trouble to the summer resident, and there are many benefits from it. Lettuce contains almost all groups of vitamins and many minerals: potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, iodine, copper, molybdenum, boron, as well as organic acids. The use of lettuce leaves promotes proper digestion, speeds up and normalizes metabolism. There is only required condition- leaves should not pass heat treatment, i.e. the faster they are from the garden, the more useful.

Temperature and humidity conditions.

Lettuce is a cold-resistant, light-loving and moisture-loving culture, like radish. The needs of these crops are also practically the same. Sowing radishes and lettuce in the same garden is a good solution. They will protect each other from pests.

Lettuce seeds begin to germinate at +4 + 5 ° C, so they must be sown immediately after the snow melts, in slightly warmed soil. Seedlings can withstand frosts painlessly down to -2 -4 ° C, and mature plants with 4 - 5 true leaves can withstand up to -6 - 8 ° C.

The optimum temperature for plant development is +15 + 20 ° C, it is in this temperature range, provided there is sufficient soil and air moisture, that active growth of green mass begins. With an increase in temperature of more than +20 + 25 ° C, the plant gives less greenery, withers and shoots an arrow with seeds. Also at elevated temperature seeds do not germinate well, so you should not wait for real summer to sow lettuce.

Lettuce is picky about the sun and light, does not like to grow in deep shade. It is preferable to plant it in open, sunny areas in early spring. If you are late with your spring planting, then plant the lettuce in shaded areas. The scorching hot sun completely stops the growth of the lettuce, so try to shade the seedlings with other crops.

Lettuce cannot develop without an abundance of moisture in the soil and air. Therefore, it is advisable to water it every day, and preferably in the evening (after sunset). Moreover, it is better to water by sprinkling, wetting the leaves with water too, but not in the heat.

What kind of soil?

It is best to grow lettuce on loose soils with large numbers organic matter and microelements, while the acid reaction of the soil should be neutral or slightly alkaline from 6.0 to 7.2 pH.

Acidic, saline, heavy clay soils are not suitable for growing lettuce. Otherwise, the salad is unpretentious, i.e. grows well on sand, and on loam, and on black soil, and on calcareous soils.

It is necessary to prepare the beds for lettuce in advance, in the fall. It is advisable to use those beds on which fertilizers were applied. In autumn, they must be loosened and, if desired, add rotted manure or compost at the rate of a bucket per 1 m 2.
We leave everything as it is, until spring.

Due to the fact that the root system of the lettuce is not buried, the soil must always be kept loose and moist.

Varieties

For open ground:

• Emerald, Robin,
• Ballet,
• Dubachek MC,
• Kritset,
• Riga,
• Odessa kucheryavets,
• Leafley,
• Eurydice,
• Red creed and others.

In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, we cover the bed with a black film so that the earth warms up faster. After a week, remove the film and sow lettuce seeds.

Important! To accelerate the emergence of seedlings over the garden bed, you can build a greenhouse with a transparent film. Optimum humidity will be created under it. When shoots appear, the film can be removed for the day, and covered again at night.

We make grooves up to 2 cm deep, the distance between the grooves is 15 - 20 cm, depending on the type of salad. The more bushy and open the variety, the greater the distance required.
Water the grooves warm water and scatter the seeds. You can try to sow so that one seed is 2 - 3 cm, or you can not bother at this stage, and sow with a continuous ribbon, and then thin out the seedlings. Embedment depth 0.5 - 2 cm.
We fill the grooves with soil.

Important! It is convenient to grow the salad as an additional crop in the beds with radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, zucchini and other crops.

Seedlings should appear in 5 - 7 days. After the appearance of 3 - 4 true leaves of the lettuce plant, it is advisable to thin out. Therefore, we pull out the extra ones, leaving one plant for 5 - 7 cm.

We carry out the second thinning when there are 6 - 7 true leaves on the seedlings, leaving a distance of 15 - 20 cm.

For growing in a greenhouse:

• Moscow greenhouse,
• Lollo Rossa,
• Odessa kucheryavets,
• Riga.

In a heated greenhouse, lettuce can be grown throughout the winter, in an unheated greenhouse, you can start sowing from March 1. The soil is prepared in advance, the sowing is carried out shallowly - 0.5 cm is enough, you can fill it up with soil or peat. For growing lettuce in a greenhouse, a thermos greenhouse is quite suitable for you, which is easy to build with your own hands.

For the rest, the technology of growing lettuce in a greenhouse is practically no different from growing in an open field. It is necessary to create an optimal temperature and humidity regime and make sure that diseases do not appear. There is only one peculiarity: the greenhouse must be ventilated. Only when the weather is very cold can the ventilation be turned off.

In open field conditions, the surface of lettuce leaves and soil dry out quite quickly in the wind. This does not happen in the greenhouse. Therefore, it is necessary to do drip irrigation and keep the soil surface dry. Falling on wet soil, lettuce leaves begin to rot very quickly. And the high moisture content of the soil leads to the appearance of root rot.

For growing on a windowsill:

• Red creed,
• Odessa,
• Lollo rossa,
• Lolo bionda,
• Grand Rapids.

Any early ripening varieties with a not too developed root system can be grown at home all year round. Only in winter, when the sunny day is very short, it is necessary to supplement the lighting with lamps.

For growing lettuce on the windowsill, ordinary indoor flower pots with a height of at least 10 cm are suitable.

Be sure to fill the bottom with drainage (expanded clay, pebbles or other material) with a layer of 2 - 3 cm. We fill the pot with soil from the garden with the addition of rotted manure and sand. We make small depressions in the ground, no more than 0.5 cm. The distance between the holes is 2 - 3 cm. We spill them with water. Then put 1 - 2 lettuce seeds in each hole. Sprinkle with soil and water. Cover the pot with cellophane wrap.

It is best to put the pot on a windowsill on a glazed loggia, since lettuce does not like too hot air and high temperatures that can wait for it on the windowsill above the heating radiator. The glazed loggia will be just right.

After 5 - 7 days, lettuce shoots will appear. We remove the film. Now you need to make sure that the soil under the salad does not dry out. We constantly water the plants and arrange a "shower" from a spray bottle. Mandatory only in the evening.

When the leaves reach about 8-10 cm in height, they can be plucked and eaten. After about 5 to 7 weeks after sowing, the entire lettuce bush can be consumed. Then it is advisable to make a complete cut of the bush, leaving only the root. Just a little more, a week or two, the plant will be edible, tender short leaves will grow, but then it will send an arrow with seeds. Then we remove it from the pot completely.

Care

Caring for the sowing of lettuce consists only in timely watering, loosening the soil and removing weeds.

Watering is necessary once a day in dry weather and 2-3 times a week in cool and cloudy weather. This is best done by sprinkling after sunset. You cannot water the salad from a watering can on a hot day. as wet leaves will wither.

Top dressing is not necessary, since the culture is early ripening. It is better to add all the necessary trace elements in advance. Only in exceptional cases can you combine watering with top dressing by adding a little manure to the bucket and carefully hanging it in the water.

Control lettuce pests with chemicals it is forbidden. You can only use natural remedies, garlic infusions, biologics.

If a disease is found on a lettuce plant (root rot or other), it must be completely removed immediately so that the disease does not spread.

Harvesting and storage

You can pick the salad when its leaves reach the optimal length for consumption, i.e. at least 8 cm. You can pick off individual leaves and eat them on the same day, or pluck a whole plant and store in the refrigerator.

You can pick lettuce leaves only in the morning in dry weather, since wet leaves are not stored even for one day. After the leaves are plucked, they are carefully placed in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator. There they can lie for up to 1 - 1.5 weeks, then they will start to deteriorate.

At room temperature lettuce is not stored. Only at a reduced rate. You can wash the leaves only just before use and it is advisable to dry them immediately, otherwise they will lose some of their taste.

Lettuce is a spring-autumn plant. Grow it in the summer hot weather rather difficult and unnecessary. By that time, a sea of ​​other useful and delicious herbs... But in early spring, salad is a salvation from vitamin deficiency and spring depression.
Sow and eat to your health!