Lettuce has been popularly known as a fresh, raw, all-leaf vegetable that is commonly used in salads. It is also a valuable food for humans that commands a good price in the market today. This pick and eat type of leafy vegetable is also quite popular among vegans and even the least health conscious among people.
Growing lettuce can be fun and easy as well as pleasing when it comes to seeing them grow their beautiful and luscious leaves. There are many methods on how to raise your lettuce in your garden. Your planting space doesn't really matter as this type of vegetable can be spaced closely and still grow properly.
Although lettuce thrives best in cool season, they still need adequate warmth in order for its seeds to germinate. They also grow best if they get sunshine so when it comes to sowing lettuce seeds, covering them with little amount of soil is better for them to germinate faster. When you see small leaves coming out of the soil, this is the right time to transfer them if you did not seed the lettuce directly to your garden. Remember though that you should not wait for them to grow older as it is not advisable to transfer older seedlings. Don't forget that lettuce is a cool season crop that's why you shouldn't let them get too hot by keeping the soil moist.
Lettuce can go along just fine with a high nitrogen level soil as you only want the leaves. Adding animal manures is the best thing to do aside from putting chemical fertilizers. Animal manures such as rabbit manures are high in nitrogen which makes up for a good fertilizer for your lettuce. Be careful though not to put fresh animal manures on your lettuce garden as you will burn the leaves of your lettuce. If you are using synthetic fertilizer, make sure that you read the label and instructions before you use it; otherwise you'll just be killing and burning your lettuce. How much you feed your lettuce can also be found in the label of your fertilizer. Feeding too much can be harmful to it and feeding a little will stunt its growth producing an unhealthy lettuce.
Lettuce requires to be watered frequently as they have shallow roots which mean that they can't get much water as their roots can't dig deeper. They should be watered more frequently in order to sustain water for the roots. Although it is a good idea to water as much as possible, watering thoroughly is better as they can take as much water as they can then letting them sip a little though done frequently. However, keeping a damp environment on your lettuce garden is not a good idea as snails and other pests as well as fungi gets attracted into your garden.
Lettuce can be harvested depending on their types. The loose-leaf lettuces can be harvested whenever you want to throw a salad in your bowl while the other varieties like the cabbage lettuce should be plucked out of the ground.
