Freshly harvested salads are small vitamin bombs that offer a varied taste experience. In addition to traditional varieties such as lettuce, new varieties ensure variety in the salad bowl. Due to the short cultivation time of lettuce, this is guaranteed even if you only have a limited bed area.

Lettuce can also be planted out or sown in summer

Reduce cultivation time with seedlings

If you haven't sown any lettuce in June, you can shorten the time until harvest with early young plants from the garden store. When planting, consider the following points so that the small plants develop well:

  • When buying, look for strong seedlings with spotless, crisp leaves.
  • The wind must be able to blow through the lettuce: only place it so low that the root base is covered with a thin layer of substrate.
  • The planting distance is about 30 centimeters for lettuce and lettuce. Endive and radicchio, on the other hand, should be planted about 40 centimeters apart.
  • Since it can get quite warm during the day in June, you should plant the seedlings in the morning or evening hours.
  • Unfortunately, snails love young lettuce plants. Therefore pour individually. Since the soil between the seedlings remains dry, the reptiles avoid the freshly planted lettuce.

Sow salads

You can sow salads well into late summer, so it's not too late for the green vitamin bombs. Sown directly in the bed, lettuce develops more and deeper roots. As a result, they do not shoot so quickly and set inflorescences. They also need less watering. Since lettuce no longer germinates above 20 degrees, you should provide some shade on hot days or choose a cool phase for sowing.

Cultivate lettuce in a bucket

You can also grow lettuce in tubs on the balcony or patio, provided they get a bright spot. The planter does not have to be very large as few lettuce plants develop deep roots. There is space for several heads of lettuce in a balcony box. The same applies here: do not fall below a planting distance of 25 - 30 centimetres.

You don't have to fertilize additionally, because the nutrients contained in the substrate are sufficient. However, you should keep the lettuce evenly moist throughout the cultivation period and water it regularly. But don't overdo it, otherwise there is a risk of root rot.

Which variety is suitable?

Due to the large number of new breeds for the most varied of requirements, this question cannot be answered in general terms. Get detailed advice from a specialist retailer. Old varieties such as sugar loaf or the almost forgotten dandelion salad with its slightly bitter aroma are a taste experience.

What diseases and pests are there?

Unfortunately, salads are occasionally eaten by:

  • downy mildew or
  • lettuce rot

infested. Resistant new breeds are a good alternative if you have ever had to deal with these diseases in the vegetable patch.

Slug fences can be used to keep slugs, which eat up the entire lettuce in a very short time, away. Collect animals in the bed consistently. If you have the opportunity to release them far enough away from the house, you should not kill the reptiles for ecological reasons. Slug pellets with the active ingredient iron-III-phosphate, which are very effective, are approved for organic cultivation.

If aphids attack the lettuce, you should choose resistant new breeds. Rinsing with water is also helpful, since the animals washed onto the ground can no longer reach the lettuce plants.

Cutworms and rootworms are the larvae of various moth and butterfly species that lay their eggs on lettuce leaves. First, the animals eat above ground and then migrate into the ground, where they can cause massive damage to the root system. The moths can be kept away from the lettuce heads by means of culture nets without having to intervene in the natural structure.

tips

Sugarloaf is a chicory salad that can be sown in June as a follow-up crop on harvested beds. It matures by October and can remain outdoors even after the first night frosts, as it tolerates temperatures down to -8 degrees. In the past, sugar loaf was a typical storage vegetable that provided people with fresh vitamins in winter.

Category:

Vegetable garden