When to sow lettuce in open ground in spring? Proper growing of lettuce on the windowsill from seeds

This appetizer is made from the most common ingredients. You don’t even need to spend money for this, because the fruits of your labors from the garden beds are used. Cooking does not take much time, but you need to wait for the vegetables to release their juice, this is about 2-4 hours. Now they will become soft, and it will not be difficult to place them in a dish, in addition, they will become smaller in size and more of them will fit in and the finished food will not lose in volume.

Cucumber salad

Vegetable oil is an integral component of this preparation; it is better to choose unrefined oil. If you absolutely cannot stand the aroma of the oil and find it not tasty, give preference to cold-pressed olive oil.

A cucumber appetizer goes well in addition to meat or fish dishes, cutlets and, of course, mashed potatoes.

The total cooking time will be 4 hours. The recipe is intended for preservation.

Required ingredients:

• Fresh cucumbers – 1 kg;
• Onions – 1 kg;
• Sunflower oil (not refined or olive) – 65 ml;
• Black peppercorns – 2 tsp;
• Apple cider vinegar – 30 ml;
• Chili pepper - to taste;
• Cloves - to taste;
• Sugar – 15 g;
• Salt – 20 g.

Steps for preparing salad

You need to start by preparing the cans so that they do not burst or explode. Wash the glass container clean and rinse in clean water. Preheat the oven to 110ᵒC and place the dishes in it, leaving them inside until they cool down.

You need to start by preparing the jars

Soak whole cucumbers in clean filtered water for about 120 minutes, after which we wash them and cut them on both sides.

Soak cucumbers in filtered water

We pass the washed and trimmed products through a vegetable cutter, this is necessary to obtain pieces of the same size and thickness.

Leaf lettuce is included in the diet of therapeutic and dietary nutrition, due to its rich vitamin composition. You can please yourself and your loved ones with delicious, and most importantly healthy, dishes if you plant the crop in your garden plot or directly on the windowsill.

With proper care and proper agricultural practices, even a beginner can sow and grow lettuce.

Planting lettuce in the garden every 2 weeks, harvesting fresh crops throughout the warm season. Sowing dates are determined taking into account the characteristics of the variety.

Among the varieties offered there are plants of different growing seasons: early ripening, mid ripening and late. The culture is maturing in 25-50 days.

Planting work begins in early spring, when night temperatures reach above zero. This time falls in the middle zone for April - early May. According to the lunar calendar, the so-called tops, which include lettuce, are planted on the waxing moon.

Growing leaf and head lettuce is possible in several ways:

• seedlings;
• seed.

A variety such as Romaine is cultivated only by seedlings.

The garden bed is being organized in open ground, greenhouse and even on the windowsill. The seedling method is more suitable for regions with harsh climates and in cases where there is a desire to get an early harvest.

Spring time is characterized by inconsistent weather, and a high probability of night frosts. Seedlings should be planted in an open bed when the threat of freezing of young shoots has passed.

The seedling method allows you to get an early harvest, which ahead of normal deadlines by 3-4 weeks.

The most popular varieties of lettuce for growing in the country

The variety of varieties will satisfy the needs and desires of the most fastidious gardener. And for those who are just starting to master the technology of growing vegetable crops, it is recommended to purchase proven varieties.

Excitement

Azart is a mid-early ripening plant with a growing season 64 days. The dimensions of the fan-shaped leaf are quite large, the edge has a characteristic waviness. The structure of the greens is tender and semi-crispy. The bush reaches a height of 25-27 cm, the diameter of the rosette is 30-32 cm.

Weight of a medium-sized head of cabbage – 250 gr. Disembarkation times: April May.

After the emergence of seedlings in the phase of formation of the first leaf, the beds are thinned, leaving an interval between shoots of 5-7 cm. After another 2 weeks, excess sprouts are removed, choosing underdeveloped ones. The distance between the remaining ones is 25-30 cm.

Peculiarities of the crop: positive reaction to fertilizing and watering, but do not overuse nutrition. Excess water leads to rotting of the roots.

Dubrava

The growing season lasts 65-80 days. The variety belongs to an oily variety of lettuce. A mature bush is characterized by its large size and semi-erect shape. The yellowish-green leaves have a folded surface, but the structure is delicate. The taste is also excellent.

Advantages of Dubrava: resistance to gray rot and leaf burn.

Iceberg

The appearance of the salad is similar to white cabbage. When forming, the leaves gather towards the core, forming a ball. The color of the juicy crispy greens has a whitish tint. The plant is weighty, large specimens reach 1 kg(average 300-600 gr.).

The technical ripeness of the crop is approaching in 75-90 days. The peculiarity of Iceberg is its resistance to bolting and downy mildew. Value of the variety: high commercial and taste qualities, long shelf life of fresh product (up to 3 weeks).

Romain Gelbus

The crop has a medium ripening period, the growing season lasts 85-90 days. The oblong leaves grow strictly vertically. The texture of the greens is crispy, but tender to the touch. The popularity of the variety is explained by its very pleasant taste and juiciness.

The variety is very demanding when it comes to watering; the soil should not be allowed to dry out, otherwise the plant will wither. Features of culture: high and stable yield(1-2.2 kg per 1 m2).

What kind of soil does the plant like?

Culture responds well to fertilized soil with drainage, which is enriched with mineral additives. If the medium is acidified, it must be neutralized by introducing dolomite flour or crushed lime.

The place to plant is chosen well lit and ventilated, but without drafts. The culture grows well in diffuse partial shade. If there is a choice between a hill and a lowland, then preference is given to the hill. This reduces the risk of root system rotting.

How to prepare a bed for sowing

The soil must first be prepared. In the fall, it is appropriate to enrich the future garden bed humus. And in the spring, 2-3 weeks before planting, the soil is dug up again and mineral fertilizers are applied, in particular potassium salt, ammonium sulfate, superphosphate and etc.

If the soil is not fertile, it can be enriched with the following nutrients: perlite sand, peat, humus, compost, wood ash.

Preparations should begin in the fall by adding fertilizer when digging the ground. In the spring, the planting site must be disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or boiling water.

Before sowing, you need to thoroughly level the soil and break up any large lumps with a rake. Salad loves loose soils, so dense earth is lightened peat, river sand and humus.

Proper seed preparation before planting

High-quality seeds are selected for planting with a high germination rate(at least 80%).

First, the seed undergoes calibration: healthy and undeformed specimens are selected from the total quantity. Sorting also includes rejecting small grains.

As practice shows, the shoots sprouted from them turn out weak and small. The size of the seeds complicates the task, so gardeners use this method:

• cook table salt solution (3-5%);
• pour the seeds over it and leave for 15-20 minutes;
• remove floating grains(those remaining at the bottom are considered suitable);
• Carefully drain the liquid and rinse the remaining seeds under running water through a sieve.

After drying, the seeds need to be soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection. The duration of the procedure is 15 minutes.

Before sowing, it is worth checking the seeds for germination.

To do this, select a few pieces of each variety and wrap them in a damp cloth. If after 1-2 days the grains hatch, you can plant them in the soil and count the number of sprouts.

The spring period is characterized for any person by a deficiency of vitamins and valuable microelements, so an early harvest will be a good, and most importantly, useful addition to the table. Will help speed up the development of lettuce soaking seeds in nutrient liquid.

• Ideal (teaspoon per liter of water);
• Epin (2 drops per 100 ml of water);
• Epin-Extra (30 drops per glass of water).

Other drugs whose action is aimed at plant growth stimulation.

What scheme can you use to sow seeds?

There are several schemes for planting lettuce; the option is selected depending on the characteristics of the variety. Summer residents who own small plots of land manage to sow the plant in the rows, along the fence, between the beds of vegetable crops.

A few days before planting, the soil is abundantly moistened, followed by loosening.

The bed is being formed in a loose manner and in order. The interval provided for by the lettuce planting scheme is observed only when transferring seedlings to open ground or a greenhouse. When sowing, the distance between the grains is no more than 3 cm.

The scheme intended for low-growing plants recommends adhering to the interval between bushes not less than 20 cm(20x20 cm). For tall crops, the optimal distance will be 25-30 cm(25x30 cm). In the greenhouse, furrows are made for the rows at intervals of 10-15 cm. The seeds are immersed in the soil to a depth of 1-2 cm. The plant cannot be replanted.

The technology for growing lettuce is quite simple; you just need to follow the general rules and follow the regime. And the harvest obtained through one’s own efforts is always tastier than purchased greens.

The very first crop, since it is very cold-resistant and can withstand frosts down to -5 degrees, so sowing can begin as soon as the ground thaws. To quickly get the first greenery, you can plant it through seedlings or grow it.

Features of planting watercress

It is best to grow all types of lettuce in areas where crops such as potatoes and cabbage were grown the previous year, that is, after crops for which organic fertilizers were applied.

Seedlings. There should be a distance of 4-5 cm between plants. A week after planting, feed (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water) or complex fertilizer. After 2 weeks, the watercress is ready for use; other types of lettuce can be planted in its place.

Features of planting lettuce

When growing head lettuce, thinning should be done, otherwise the heads will not curl and ordinary leaf lettuce will grow.

Features of planting arugula

Bury the arugula seeds 1.5 cm into the soil; they will begin to germinate on the third day and will quickly begin to grow. The optimal temperature for growing it is 20-25 degrees, so sow this salad in late May-early June.

Greetings, friends, to the website advice for gardeners. Lettuce (lettuce) is currently considered a fairly popular vegetable crop in many European countries.

In some of them, lettuce cultivation reaches an industrial scale and vast areas of land are allocated for its cultivation.

This crop is mainly grown for food. However, young leaves can also serve as food for birds. Lettuce stems are used to produce latex, which is used in homeopathy.

Vegetable crops have two varieties:

Leaf salad
head lettuce

The leafy one forms a rosette of leaves, which can be dissected or whole.
The cabbage head also first forms a rosette of leaves, and later a loose head of cabbage is formed from it.

Each variety has quite a few varieties, which differ from each other in their unique taste, leaf shape and color palette.

The most common and productive varieties include:

« Odessa curly haired"(mid-late leaf)
"Abracadabra" (mid-season leaf)
"Yeralash" (mid-early leafy)
"Zabava" (mid-season leaf)
"Yakhont" (mid-season cabbage type)
"Roger" (mid-season half-headed)

Cold resistance, productivity and early maturity allow this plant to grow in almost all zones of the globe.

In terms of nutritional value, green salad is the undisputed leader among its green counterparts. It is a source of vitamins: E, C, K, PP, B, P and microelements: iron, copper, cobalt, zinc iodine, manganese, boron. The seeds of the plant contain excellent quality oil.

The salad is preferred by supporters of therapeutic and dietary nutrition, as well as lovers of healthy and wholesome food.

Systematic consumption of these vitamin-rich greens significantly improves your well-being. Salad is very useful for constipation, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, gastritis.

Growing lettuce, planting time

The plant's resistance to frost allows you to sow seeds in open ground in early spring (mid-April) and late autumn (late October). Juicy lettuce leaves can be present in our diet almost all year round.

It should be noted that growing lettuce in open ground makes it possible to preserve the beneficial qualities of the plant for a long time. Since all greens grown in this way are more fortified, tasty and aromatic, and the vitamins present in them are preserved at low temperatures for a long time.

Growing seedlings, pot and potless method

The seedling method is especially good for growing cabbage varieties. Thanks to this method, we are able to harvest lettuce much earlier and reduce seed consumption.

Seeds for seedlings must be taken of good seed quality, which is determined by purity and germination. Then the seedlings will be strong, healthy and will more easily tolerate transplantation into open ground.

It must be remembered that lettuce does not tolerate transplantation well, so it is better to sow the seeds in seed boxes and then plant the seedlings in peat-humus pots, cubes, cassettes, which are then transferred along with the plant into the ground. This method is called potting.

The composition for making such pots includes: peat, humus, turf soil, sand, ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium salt.

Seedlings grown in peat-humus pots are much better than those grown with seeds. Such pots are filled with a mixture of soil and mineral fertilizers.

With the mass (potless) method of growing seedlings in greenhouses and hotbeds, the seeds are sown in the soil to a depth of 0.5 cm. The layer of soil mixture of peat, sand and turf soil must be at least 15 cm

In the future, the seedlings must be planted in peat-humus pots or dug up. Picking should be done in the phase of the first true leaf, when the root system is actively growing. In the later phase, the plant tolerates picking more painfully.

In rooms where seedlings are grown you need to maintain the required temperature and humidity, monitor the lighting. Seedlings need moderate watering and fertilizing with organic and mineral fertilizers.

Seedlings also need hardening, which will allow them to quickly adapt to open ground. Hardening means a gradual decrease in soil and air temperatures and an increase in ventilation in the room. Lettuce seedlings, about a week before planting in open ground, are taken out of the room first for a day, and three days before and for the night.

Site selection and soil preparation

When choosing a place for a green crop, you need to take into account that this plant is quite light-loving, so it is not advisable to plant it in shady places. In the shade, it accumulates nitrates and throws out flower arrows.

The land plot for growing leaf and head lettuce must be constantly changing. Only after two to three years can the plant be returned to its original place.

In the fall, the soil for planting this crop is filled with humus and mineral fertilizers: ammonium sulfate, superphosphate, potassium salt. Highly acidic soil must be limed.

Sowing seeds in open ground

Lettuce is a cold-resistant crop that does not respond to day length. These characteristics allow the first sowing of lettuce to be done in early spring, and the last (pre-winter) sowing in late autumn. If necessary, sowing of this crop can be done throughout the summer. The soil for sowing seeds must be prepared in advance.

Seeds are sown in rows - continuous and nesting method. With the nesting method, several seeds are thrown into holes equally spaced from each other. With this sowing, seed consumption is much less, and seedlings appear much earlier.

With the continuous method, the seeds are sown densely in shallow furrows. The distance between them should be about twenty centimeters.
To speed up the seed germination process, the crops are covered with plastic film.

After the seedlings sprout, the rows must be thinned. As the crop grows, thinning is carried out in several stages. If the variety is a cabbage variety, then to form a head of cabbage, you need to leave 20 - 30 centimeters between the bushes. To form a larger rosette, 15 cm should be left between shoots of the leaf variety.

Lettuce care

This vegetable crop has a large mass of leaves and a weak root system, so it is demanding of moisture. But the main thing is not to overdo it, because excessive watering leads to the formation of fungi.

It is enough to prevent the appearance of dry crust on the soil. If you need to be away for a long time, then after watering, in order to avoid drying out the soil, you should mulch the soil around the plant with mowed grass.

Lettuce is a fairly unpretentious plant and does not require special care. Timely watering, loosening the soil, good lighting and, if necessary, protection from pests and diseases are enough.

If the soil was sufficiently seasoned before planting lettuce, it does not need additional fertilizing.

Harvest

Harvesting begins after the plant has formed a rosette of
six to ten leaves or a head of cabbage with a diameter of 6-12 cm.

Harvesting should take place in dry weather. Vegetable crops cannot be harvested after rain, as this affects the shelf life.

The leaf variety is harvested in one stage. Green bushes are uprooted, freed from the ground and placed vertically in boxes.

The head variety of lettuce is harvested selectively. First, heads of cabbage that have reached commercial maturity are cut off; wilted, yellow lower leaves are removed from the heads of cabbage.

Parsley, dill, sorrel and other fresh herbs are rich in minerals, vitamins and various substances beneficial to the human body. There are a lot of microelements, vitamins C and A, folic acid and especially iron in lettuce leaves. In addition, consuming this greenery improves digestion, which is why it is used as a dietary product. Today, almost everyone grows lettuce in their garden plots and dachas. This cold-resistant, unpretentious plant can be planted in beds from early spring to mid-summer to always have fresh greens. We will tell you how to properly plant lettuce and care for it in our article.

Description and best varieties of salad

Since the plant has many species, its appearance is difficult to describe. On a herbaceous plant, basal leaves first develop, and then a flowering stem, the height of which can be 60-120 cm. Large lettuce leaves can be smooth and corrugated, curly and wrinkled, whole or cut.

Only fresh leaves, which contain large amounts of minerals and vitamins, are suitable for food. As soon as the stem begins to grow, they develop a bitter taste.

The lettuce plant has four varieties, each of which is represented by many varieties.

Leaf salad

This plant species eats only leaves, which can have different colors and shapes. Popular varieties of lettuce:

1. Sandwich– an early ripening variety with wavy light green leaves, suitable for making salads and sandwiches.
2. Lollo Rosso– a plant with a rosette of wavy burgundy leaves has a pleasant taste and will decorate the site. The variety is mid-season.
3. Fun– a mid-season variety characterized by large bright red leaves and resistance to stemming and diseases.
4. Dubachek– a plant with light green oblong wavy leaves has the peculiarity of growing new leaves instead of cut ones. The variety is mid-season.
5. Ballet– lettuce is suitable for growing not only in summer on the site, but also in winter and spring at home and in greenhouses, as it is resistant to lack of light. Its dark green fan-shaped leaves look very beautiful as they have a scalloped edge.
6. Riviera– the leaves of this mid-season variety look like oak leaves. The plant is resistant to flowering, has good yield and excellent taste.

Half head lettuce

The leaves of this species are collected in open heads. The best varieties:

1. Kucheryavets Gribovsky- a mid-early variety with juicy, tasty and crispy bright green leaves, the edges of which are slightly corrugated. The plant is disease resistant.
2. Boston– a plant with light green leaves wavy along the edge is a loose semi-head. What makes this variety popular is its excellent taste and high yield.
3. Berlin yellow– the variety is distinguished by yellowish leaves and a rounded rosette weighing up to 200 grams. Medium ripening plant.
4. Eurydice– The dark green and crisp leaves of this salad taste great. The compact half-pump has a semi-raised rosette. The variety is mid-season.

The cabbage-like plant consists of leaves that have a strong crunch. The best varieties:

1. Four seasons– a variety with excellent taste is also interesting for the color of the leaves, which are yellow-green inside and have a bronze-red hue on the outside. It can be grown in greenhouses and in open ground beds. The variety is mid-season.
2. Kolobok– the plant is a round, smooth head of cabbage consisting of bluish-green leaves. The variety is characterized by high yield and excellent taste. From germination to ripening – 90 days.
3. Great Lakes– a variety with a large round head of cabbage and crisp, dark green oak-shaped leaves. The plant is resistant to burns and flowering. Late ripening variety.
4. Adamant– this variety will need only 50 days to ripen. It has slightly lumpy, dark green leaves with a nutty flavor. The plant is resistant to bolting and weighs about 350 grams.

When to plant lettuce in seedlings and in the ground in 2019

Lettuce seeds can be sown directly in open ground, and to obtain greens in early spring, plants are grown through seedlings or in greenhouses.

According to the Lunar calendar in 2019, favorable days for sowing lettuce seeds are:

• in February: 7, 11, 13, 17;
• in March the best days are 10, 12, 16, but you can start sowing on March 8, 18, 19, 20;
• in April: 8, 12, 18 are the best days for sowing seeds, you can also start planting on April 2, 3, 9, 10, 13, 28, 29, 30;
• in May: 9, 10, 16, 17;
• in June: 6th, 12th, 14th, 17th.

Unfavorable days for sowing and planting:

• February: 3,4, 5, 19, 20;
• March: 5, 6, 21, 31;
• April: 5, 19;
• May: 5, 19;
• June: 3, 17.

Growing lettuce from seeds

Growing lettuce seedlings

Sowing for seedlings begins a month before planting in open ground. You can sow seeds at home in seedling containers, or you can grow seedlings in a greenhouse or greenhouse:

1. The soil mixture for sowing seeds can be used ready-made or mixed independently from humus soil, peat and sand (2:1:1).
2. Before sowing, seeds are disinfected for three hours in a pink solution of potassium permanganate.
3. The seedling boxes are filled with moist soil, in which grooves are made 1 cm deep. The distance between the grooves should be about 5 cm, and between the seeds - about 10 cm. You can sow the seeds more often, but then the seedlings will have to be planted.
4. The crops are sprinkled with a small layer of soil, watered abundantly (preferably with a spray bottle) and covered with polyethylene on top.
5. Seedling containers are placed in a warm and bright place. Before emergence, the cover is removed daily to ventilate the soil. The dried top layer of soil is moistened with a sprayer.

If the planting material is of high quality, shoots may appear already on the third or fourth day. To prevent them from starting to pull out, the seedlings are removed to a well-lit place with a temperature of +15..+18 degrees.

If the seeds were planted frequently, a pick is made when the second true leaf appears on the seedlings. Bushes with 3-4 true leaves are ready for planting in open ground. A week before planting in the garden, the seedlings begin to harden off.

Lettuce seedlings are planted in open ground in warm weather (night frosts down to -2 degrees are allowed). The bushes are planted according to the following scheme:

• large plants - 35x35 cm;
• early ripening compact varieties - 25x25 cm.

Seedlings planted in the ground are sprinkled with soil so that the root collar is at ground level. Planted plants are well watered.

Since lettuce seeds can hatch at a temperature of +5 degrees, it can be planted and grown in a greenhouse even in winter, provided that the room is heated. However, in the future the plant needs a temperature of about +20 degrees for growth and development. Therefore, you can plant lettuce seeds in an unheated greenhouse from mid-March to the end of April (depending on the region).

1. Add 15 grams of potassium chloride and 40 grams of superphosphate for each square meter.
2. Dig up the soil along with fertilizers.
3. If the soil is acidic, it is recommended to add slaked lime or dolomite flour (the rates depend on the degree of acidity of the soil). Also, the acidity level will help level out rotted manure.

In the spring, the bed needs to be loosened, leveled and grooves made in it at a distance of 10 cm from each other. The seeds are planted to a depth of 1-2 cm, sprinkled with soil and watered. Since subzero temperatures are not uncommon in early spring, it is recommended to sprinkle the bed with mulch in the form of fine humus.

When the seedlings sprout and grow a little, they are thinned out so that the distance between the specimens is 15-20 cm.

Caring for lettuce in a greenhouse consists of abundant but not frequent watering, weeding and loosening of the soil, and fertilizing. Fertilizers are applied twice during the growing season. The last fertilizing should be done no later than a month before harvest. As fertilizers, use a solution of 10 liters of water and ammonium nitrate with potassium chloride (half a teaspoon of each preparation).

When to plant lettuce in open ground in spring

From mid-April you can start sowing lettuce in open ground. However, everything depends on the climate of the region. It is necessary to focus on the weather, since night frosts should not fall below -2 degrees. Therefore, in Siberia and colder areas, lettuce begins to be sown in open ground in May.

Planting can be done every two weeks so that healthy greens can be eaten until late autumn. Mid-season and late varieties are sown until mid-June. Varieties with a short growing season can be planted until mid-August. However, you should know that at +20 degrees, lettuce seeds germinate worse than at lower temperatures.

Rules for planting lettuce in the ground with seeds

For cultivation, choose sunny areas with nutritious soil. It can be loam, black soil and even sand, but not heavy clay soil. Soil acidity should be no more than 7 pH.

The bed for planting lettuce is dug up in the fall, and one bucket of rotted manure or compost is added for each square meter of it. Two weeks before planting in the spring, the area is loosened and fertilized. For 1 sq. meter you will need:

• Mortar – 1 tbsp. l or Nitrophoska, if the soil is acidic;
• potassium sulfate – 1 tsp;
• superphosphate - 1 tbsp. l.

Dolomite flour must be added to acidic soil.

Sowing lettuce seeds in open ground is carried out according to the same scheme as in a greenhouse. When seedlings appear en masse, thinning begins, which is carried out in two stages. As a result, the following distance between plants should be obtained:

• between leaf varieties – 7-8 cm;
• between half-headed and headed – 10-15 cm.

Attention! When choosing a site for planting lettuce, it is important to know that its best predecessors are cucumbers and zucchini, potatoes and cabbage. It is best to plant lettuce with onions in one bed, as this crop repels aphids. Also good neighbors are spinach and peas, radishes and cabbage, tomatoes and strawberries, radishes. The next year, after lettuce, it is best to plant tomatoes and peppers.

Caring for lettuce in open ground

Lettuce care includes the following procedures:

1. Watering. Lettuce at an early stage of development is watered once a week. When heads of cabbage begin to form, reduce watering, otherwise parts of the plant may begin to rot. However, the frequency of watering depends on how often it rains. Headed varieties are watered so that water does not get on the leaves.
2. Weeding and loosening. Weeds are removed from the beds as needed, and loosening the soil between the rows is recommended after each watering.
3. Feeding lettuce. Leaf varieties growing in nutritious soil do not need fertilizers. In poor soil it is necessary to apply complex mineral fertilizers, which include magnesium and potassium, calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen. Headed varieties are fed with bird droppings (20:1) or mullein (10:1) diluted in water. Solutions are used after watering. And don’t forget that fertilizing is stopped a month before harvest.

Lettuce pests

The most common pests that plague a delicate plant are slugs and aphids, cruciferous flea beetles and wireworms. Since chemicals will be absorbed into the leaves, they cannot be used, so it is recommended to use folk remedies:

1. Holes on the leaves indicate that the plant is eating cruciferous flea. Good preventative measures are weeding and regular watering (flea fleas do not like moisture). Planting marigolds, calendula, tomatoes, and garlic nearby will repel the pest.
2. Salad aphid feeds on plant sap, the leaves of which begin to darken and curl. This insect will be repelled by onions planted nearby. You can get rid of the white-winged insect using an infusion of young potato tops, dandelion leaves or onion peels.
3. Slugs They eat the lower leaves, on which large holes are formed as a result. Traps are made for these pests: disposable cups are dug in the garden bed, into which a little syrup, juice or beer is poured. The best remedy for slugs is beer, which is harmful to them. However, pests love this drink very much, so if the traps are set in the evening, in the morning you will see many dead slugs in them.
4. Wireworm eats plant roots. To destroy these pests, there are many folk methods, which we wrote about in our article “ How to get rid of wireworms in the garden».

Lettuce diseases

Under unfavorable conditions, non-compliance with crop rotation and agricultural technology, lettuce is affected by diseases, among which the most dangerous for plants are the following:

1. White rot– a fungal disease manifests itself as a flaky coating on the leaves and watery light spots on the stems. In parts of the plant, the infection penetrates through leaves touching the ground.
2. Gray rot It affects plants in high humidity and cloudy weather. The fungus also penetrates leaves lying on the ground, on which brown necrotic spots appear. Spotting from the bottom of the heads and stems moves to the top and spreads throughout the plant. Salads such as Maisky, Khrustalny, and Moscow Greenhouse are resistant to gray rot.
3. Powdery mildew- a disease that can be recognized by a white coating similar to pieces of cotton wool on the foliage, heads of cabbage and stems.
4. Marginal burn– the disease manifests itself and spreads quickly when there is an excess of nutrients in the soil. The affected plant quickly dies.
5. Downy mildew affects crops at high air humidity. The lower leaves are covered with a white coating, and the upper leaves are covered with yellow spots. After some time, diseased leaves turn brown and dry out.

Since chemicals cannot be used to treat diseases on lettuce, preventive measures will protect the plants:

• mandatory compliance with crop rotation;
• disinfection of planting material;
• timely removal of weeds;
• regular watering;
• inadmissibility of stagnation of moisture in the soil;
• growing crops on nutritious soil;
• balanced application of fertilizers.

In the early stages of the disease, it is necessary to immediately remove the affected leaves. If the entire plant is affected, it is pulled out and burned, and the soil is disinfected.

It is recommended to collect lettuce in dry weather in the morning or evening. Raw greens and leaves collected in hot weather will not be stored. Half-headed and head lettuces are harvested after the head has formed, but before the flower shoot appears. During flowering, the taste of greens deteriorates sharply.