Young sugar loaf seedlings are sold in garden centers at planting time. Sowing your own seeds is of course cheaper. However, one thing must be avoided at all costs: well-intentioned haste. If you want to harvest too early, you can quickly get nothing. So start at the right time!

Sugarloaf is preferred on the windowsill

Sowing takes place in summer

We would like to enrich our dishes with fresh lettuce leaves early in the year. But the sugar loaf can do nothing about it. If sown early, it will get cold stimuli in this country, which will drive it to shoot up and bloom. You can only sow it from March if you can offer it consistently warm temperatures, for example in a greenhouse. Otherwise, wait until at least mid-June. You can sow the seeds until the end of July.

Prepare the bed for sowing

Choose a sunny to partially shaded bed with fresh, moist and well-drained soil. You are welcome to use it beforehand for early crops such as spinach or peas. Before sowing, the bed must be prepared:

  • remove all remains of the previous culture
  • also pull any weeds and their roots out of the ground
  • Loosen up the bed with a cultivator
  • Remove stones, break up large clods of earth
  • Smooth the sowing area with the rake

tips

Fertilization is not necessary when growing after legumes as these will enrich the soil with nitrogen. Otherwise, you can mix in some compost before sowing.

How to sow outdoors

Since the sugar loaf has a long taproot, it is difficult to prick out. Therefore, sow it immediately while maintaining optimal spacing. There should be at least 30 cm between two plants and two rows. If there is enough space, the rows can also be 45 cm apart. Also note the following points:

  • sow in staggered rows
  • sow 2-3 seeds per spot for safe germination
  • ideal sowing depth is 1 to 1.5 cm
  • the soil must always be slightly moist

After the seed has sprouted, only leave the strongest sugar loaf plant per sowing spot.

Prefer sugar loaf for earlier harvest

Sugarloaf can be grown in small pots (€16.68) at the beginning of June and planted out at the end of June. Here, too, the bed must be prepared as described above. The distances are the same as for direct sowing.

You can harvest sugar loaf that has been brought forward in this way as early as August. Simply cut off the required head across the bottom. Heads of lettuce that have not yet been used can also easily overwinter in the bed at temperatures down to - 4°C and serve us as winter lettuce.

Category:

Vegetable garden