Growing lettuce on a windowsill

Lettuce is a cold-resistant plant that can be grown all season. In order to get a harvest of lettuce in the winter, it can be planted on the windowsill. To grow lettuce in winter, he needs to provide additional lighting, and also choose the right sowing container and soil composition.

Soil composition

Lettuce grows well on light, fertile soil with a slightly acidic or neutral acid-base balance. Lettuce is native to the Mediterranean. This region is dominated by sandy loam peat soils and a hot climate, so two parts of peat, one part of calcined river sand and a little garden perlite are used to prepare the soil mixture. Additionally, complex mineral fertilizers and wood ash can be added to the soil. To normalize the acid-base balance of the soil, slaked lime or dolomite flour must be added to the soil.

Container for salad

The prepared soil mixture is poured into a previously prepared container. The height of the container must be at least 10 cm.

Use a juice container as a container for planting salad. Its interior is covered with foil, which provides additional indirect lighting for the salad. Make drain holes in the side of the box and at the bottom to allow water to drain.

A drainage layer must be placed on the bottom. Pebbles, small stones or broken brick can be used as drainage. Then the container is filled with potting soil.

Before planting lettuce, the soil must be shed with Fitosporin solution. If the soil is warmed up before planting, then the seeds of lettuce will sprout faster, so the drug solution must be hot. The soil must be left for 12 hours. When the hay stick and other possible bacteria have died, lettuce seeds can be planted.

Sowing lettuce

The seeds are mixed with river sand for sowing convenience. They should not be deeply buried in the soil, otherwise the germination of lettuce will decrease. The maximum sowing depth of seeds is 1 cm. After planting the seeds, the soil is moistened with a spray bottle. Then the container with seeds is covered with a plastic bag until the first shoots appear. After their appearance, the package must be removed, since the greenhouse effect has a bad effect on the aboveground part of the plants.