It is not difficult to grow a salad on your own in your garden. The leafy vegetable continues to be popular with gardeners and health aficionados.
Growing lettuce on a windowsill
If you decide to start growing lettuce at home, be it oaklif, lettuce or frieze, then you should worry in advance about preparing a large container and soil mixture. So, for growing large leaves, the container must have a sufficient area - 400 cm2 per root (20x20x25 cm). For the successful growth of frisee lettuce, you need a capacity of up to 900 cm2 (30x30x35 cm).
Stock up on plastic wrap: it will be needed to create a greenhouse effect for the seedlings. Sintepon is a great way to drain. With the help of this material, folded in 5-6 layers, it is possible to maintain microclimate conditions on the windowsill, since when watering, the synthetic winterizer absorbs excess water and provides moisture. When choosing a watering can, pay attention to the length of the gander. As the greenery grows, it will not be easy to get to it from the other side, so here you will need a tool with a thin and long gander.
The soil
Due to the superficial location of the main part of the roots, the gardener needs to create such conditions that the thin roots in the outer layer simply do not dry out. The soil must be water-absorbing, so it is prepared as follows: we mix one part of the compost, garden soil and peat. We add sand and wood ash (one kg each), nitrophoska (mineral nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer in the amount of 1 tbsp. L.) And 1 teaspoon of urea to the bucket of the finished composition.
Care
When applying organic fertilizer, the plant must be fed with a mullein solution (mix in a ratio of 1:10).
When growing salad greens from November to March, it is important to provide it with an additional source of lighting. For this, hang a fluorescent light bulb at a height of 50 cm.
Sowing
Lettuce seeds are characterized by good germination, so it is better to plant them not thickly. Compact the rows with a roller and water the seedlings, then stretch the container with plastic wrap. Leave it in this position until shoots emerge. As soon as the first sprouts hatch, carefully remove the plastic. In the future, care comes down to timely watering, weekly feeding and spraying. It is impossible to loosen the soil - this way you can accidentally touch the surface roots, which will negatively affect further growth.
Features of growing salad plants in the garden
When growing lettuce in the garden by planting potted seedlings in the ground, the soil is prepared from the autumn period. Solonetzic, saline, clayey, acidic and heavy soils are not suitable for leafy vegetable crops. Get rid of weeds by treating the roots with a herbicide. To improve the composition, it is advisable to lime acidic soil, and add gypsum to the alkaline soil, and then enrich the soil with potash and phosphorus fertilizers.
Dig the ground in the fall to a depth of about 25 cm and level with harrowing. Plant seedlings very shallowly - the seedlings should not deepen excessively, raise them above the ground at a height of 5-10 mm. If you bury it deeply, the leaves are affected by fungal diseases, as a result of which they rot.
1. Frize
Curly endive is famous for its pungent bitterness. At the initial stage of growth, this variety of chicory salad is grown in the dark, due to which the middle of the salad acquires a delicate light yellow color. During the ripening period, the leaves should be tied so that no light enters the core.
2. Oaklif salad
In shape, the oaklif resembles the cut leaves of an oak. After the formation of a dense rosette, the salad grows in small heads of green or red color.
3. Lettuce salad
Head varieties require more light, so plant sprouts without thickening the rows. With a lack of moisture, the lettuce forms flower stalks. Cereals and legumes are considered good precursors to lettuce. Lettuce is not recommended to be planted after cruciferous plants.
Types of head lettuce, depending on the timing of growing, are divided into the following varieties:
- 40–45 days - early: Gourmet, Pervomaisky, Bettner, Vitamin.
- 50-60 days - mid-season: Avangard, Adriatic, Luziana, Batana, Berlin yellow, Boston, Botavia, Dubrava, Kucheryavets, Dendi, Domino, Green round, Festivalny.
- 70-80 days - late: Odessa kucheryavets, Tarzan, Large cabbage, Svetlana, Parisian green, Ballet.
Lettuce is the earliest ripe species: the leaves are edible after a month. Following the appearance of a near-root rosette, a flowering stem begins to develop. The most common varieties are the greenhouse Moscow, Rizhsky.
Breakaway salad is known for such varieties as Struvelpeter, Australian, Lollo, American, Braunino. Its leaves are thin and delicate, and the edges are cut in the form of denticles and waves.
Asparagus salad is a thickened stem with long leaves. The most popular is the Dungan variety.
Salad cleaning
The crop is harvested in the early morning, while the leaves retain their freshness and firmness. You cannot do this on rainy or hot days - the salad will quickly lose its useful properties and begin to deteriorate.
Pests and diseases
- Rhizoctonia: leads to decay of roots and damage to the stems, affects other vegetable crops. Control measures: replacing, disinfecting the soil, maintaining the optimal moisture and temperature regime, since the fungus "grows" faster with excessive humidity and lack of ventilation.
- Root salad aphid: harmful to carrots and salad greens, retards growth, leads to yellowing. If you uproot the vegetation, you can see a lot of aphids on it. What will help eliminate pests: abundant watering in the hot summer season, isolation of salad crops from poplars, disinfection of the soil and removal of affected plants.
- Downy mildew: dangerous for testes during germination of sprouts in a foil greenhouse. On the outside of the leaves, pale green and yellow spots are formed, which later stick together and form a whitish bloom. The disease develops on cool days. You can fight powdery mildew by dressing the seeds and treating the testes with a solution of fungicides.
- Septoria: a fungal disease that forms rusty and gray-brown spots on the lower (old) leaves. Affected plants should be removed immediately, and plant residues should be destroyed.
Video about a technological complex for growing lettuce:
