Growing lettuce outdoors
Lettuce is a crop that can be grown in the garden almost all year round. He is not afraid of the cold, loves the sun and water, and the seeds sprout quickly, which allows you to feast on fresh leaves, starting from early spring until the very frost.
Sowing time
In open ground, early varieties of lettuce should be sown starting in April. At this time, the ground was already warmed up enough for them to rise quickly. Late and mid-season species are planted a month later - in May, and until the second decade of June.
The peculiarities of lettuce ripening include the predominance of a bitter taste during the growth of the stem by the bush. Then the leaves become inedible.
In order to have sweet and juicy leaves all summer long, multiple sowing of seeds is practiced. Until the end of August, seeds are sown in the vacant place every 10 days. In addition, like all cold-resistant crops, lettuce tolerates low temperatures well, which allows it to be sown before winter (in October). Read: application of ammonium nitrate!
Where is the best place to plant?
Lettuce grows well in almost any soil, excluding clay, but more lush bushes are obtained when grown in loose and nutritious soil. To do this, dig deeply the allotted area in the fall, after adding humus (for each square meter in a bucket).
Immediately before spring sowing, feed the soil with mineral fertilizers, per one square of soil:
- 1 tsp potassium sulfate;
- 2 tsp superphosphate;
- 2 tsp Solution.
With increased acidity, add wood ash.
It is better to set up beds for salad in a sunny place, avoiding shading. The salad grows well after cucumbers and potatoes. In the summer, you can do combined planting with tomatoes, onions or radishes.
How to plant?
On the loosened and fertilized area, make shallow grooves (up to 1 cm) and put the seeds in them. Since the bushes grow quite lush, you need to make the row spacing up to 20 cm.
For added convenience, small seeds can be mixed with sand.
Water the sown bed well. For early spring sowing, it is recommended to cover it with foil to accelerate germination.
How to care?
When all the seeds sprout and the seedlings grow a little, they should be thinned out, leaving between the bushes:
- from 6 cm - for lettuce;
- from 10 cm - for head varieties.
It is necessary to water the plantings once a week, and even less often when the heads of cabbage begin to tie. After each watering, loosen the soil so that it does not crust over.
As for dressings, provided that pre-planting fertilization is applied, nothing else needs to be added to the beds. The only exceptions are head lettuce varieties, which ripen longer than leafy ones. They should be watered once. infusion of mullein or herbs.