Urban gardening is on everyone's lips these days because nothing tastes better than home-grown food. You can also sow lettuce on a balcony or terrace so that you can harvest crunchy lettuce leaves at hand all summer long.

Choosing the right seed variety

There are now a number of cultivated varieties of lettuce that differ not only in the shape and color of their leaves. The recommendations given in the respective cultivation instructions at the time of cultivation should be observed when picking lettuce, as some varieties can otherwise tend to shoot or stunted growth. When growing lettuce on the balcony, varieties such as the following should be selected, which can tolerate a certain degree of drought and heat:

  • Australian Yellow
  • Venetian brown
  • deer tongue

The preparation and planting of the balcony box

To grow lettuce, you need the following basic equipment:

  • balcony box
  • humus growing or garden soil
  • seed
  • Fleece to cover against night frosts

The seeds of the pick-lettuce are sprinkled sparingly on the growing substrate and are not covered with soil. The light-germinated seeds will then germinate within about a week or two if kept evenly moist during this time. It is essential to ensure that the lettuce is not sowed too densely, as otherwise plants that are too dense will have to be isolated later.

A continuous harvest straight from the balcony

If you would like to harvest fresh lettuce leaves from the balcony from June to October, you should germinate the first seeds on the windowsill by the end of February. You can place the young plants in the balcony box from the beginning of May if you lay a fleece over the sensitive plants to protect them from night frosts. Use several balcony boxes (€109.00) to lay the foundation for a constant supply of lettuce until autumn with regular new sowing every three to four weeks.

tips and tricks

For a particularly high-yielding harvest of lettuce from your own balcony, you should take advantage of the natural benefits of this type of lettuce. To do this, leave the heart shoot of the plant, which can develop new side leaves several times. However, before flowering, the plant must be harvested whole, otherwise the leaves will have a rather bitter taste after the flowers have budded.

Category:

Vegetable garden