Salad planting and care in the open field before winter

Tell me when to plant lettuce outdoors? I found a few bags of seeds. Can they be sown next to tomatoes now?

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 quickly ascend. 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).

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 deep into 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.

In case of increased acidity, add wood ash additionally.

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 a loosened and fertilized area, make shallow grooves (up to 1 cm) and put seeds in them. Since the bushes grow quite lush, you will 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 speed up 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 fertilizing, then, subject to pre-planting fertilization, nothing else needs to be added to the beds. The only exceptions are cabbage lettuce varieties, which mature longer than leafy ones.They should be watered once with infusion of mullein or herbs.

Salad planting video

Lettuce or lettuce is a treasure trove of vitamins and the fastest production you can get from seeds. You can delight yourself with healthy and tasty greens all year round, growing on the windowsill in winter and in the open field during the warm season.

In a greenhouse, these periods are significantly extended, and if it is possible to heat the greenhouse, lettuce is grown all year round. The technology of growing lettuce is simple, but it requires simple techniques to get a good harvest.

Growing lettuce in a greenhouse in winter and early spring

How to grow lettuce in a greenhouse photo

Required temperature

Lettuce is cold resistant. It can be grown in a greenhouse from early spring, and if it is heated, it can be grown even in winter. Seeds can hatch at temperatures of 5-6 ° C, young shoots can withstand temperatures as low as -2 ° C. For good growth and development, the optimum air temperature is 20 ° C.

Choose cold tolerant varieties.

Soil preparation

Prepare the soil in the fall. Dig up thoroughly, feed. For each m² add 40 g of superphosphate, 15 g of potassium chloride. The introduction of organic matter (rotted manure) helps to equalize the acidity level to neutral or slightly acidic. Also add slaked lime if the soil is acidic.

When and how to sow

Flatten the area. Start sowing when the air temperature inside the greenhouse does not drop below 0 ° C at night (in an unheated greenhouse, this is about mid to late March).

• Make rows 10 cm apart.
• The seeding depth should be 1-2 cm.
• The weather is changeable, so if there is a threat of severe frosts, mulch the soil with fine humus.

The cultivation process will take about 1 month.

How to care

When seedlings appear, they must be thinned out, especially if you are growing products for sale: heavily thickened plantings will give less high-quality greenery, the leaves will be small and pale.

How to break through and should you dive?

Growing salad from seeds when to plant and how to care

• Leave a minimum distance of 15-20 cm between plants to obtain large leafy rosettes.
• Many people practice picking lettuce, the plants are really accepted and soon give a good harvest. However, it should be noted that you are wasting a couple of weeks of precious time.
• It is much easier, faster and more profitable to sow the required area at once and just break through the extra seedlings than to engage in an unproductive dive.

How to water

Water infrequently (1-2 times a week), but generously. Use cool water, but it shouldn't come into contact with the leaves. Stagnant water creates a favorable environment for the emergence of diseases.

Remove weeds as needed, loosen the soil regularly between rows.

How to feed

Top dressing is necessary for good growth. During the growing season, add a mixture of potassium chloride and ammonium nitrate 2 times: half a tablespoon of each fertilizer per 10 liters of water, but no later than a month before harvest, so that the products are safe and environmentally friendly.

Conditions for growing lettuce in the open field

In summer, lettuce can be grown outdoors. To get fresh greens until fall, sow every 14 days.

Choose varieties according to the ripening period: early, middle, late. Information about the timing of sowing and harvesting is indicated on the seed package. Each variety has its own characteristics: strictly follow the recommendations of the breeders on the timing of sowing, so that instead of harvesting greens, you do not get arrows with peduncles.

For leaf lettuce, a place in a light shade is preferable: the greens will turn out to be very tender and juicy.

The preparation of the site is carried out similarly to the greenhouse: autumn digging, fertilization.

When to plant lettuce seeds outdoors

Growing lettuce outdoors Proper care

Sowing dates

You can start sowing lettuce from mid-April, when night temperatures will not drop below zero degrees, the threat of short-term frosts is allowed, but no more than 1-2 ° C below zero. Loosen the prepared area, break up large lumps and lumps.

Predecessors

Desirable crop precursors are peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes. It gets along well next to beans, radishes, radishes, cucumbers, onions, the latter will scare off aphids - the main pest of lettuce.

How to sow

• For seeding, make grooves about 1 to 2 cm deep.
• Sow less often, it is advisable to leave 1-1.5 cm between the seeds
• The distance between the rows is 15-20 cm.
• Level the soil, water well.
• To accelerate germination for the first few days, cover the crops with foil.

Follow standard care procedures (similar to greenhouse): water, loosen the soil, remove weeds. When the plants sprout, thin them out several times, leaving a total of 15-20 cm in a row.

How to sow a salad in the spring in open ground, we look at the video:

Planting lettuce with seeds in the ground is the simplest task that can be entrusted even to children. This will be a good first experience with growing plants, especially when it comes time to harvest the young, succulent leaves.

Growing lettuce at home in winter on a windowsill

Leaf lettuce on the windowsill and balcony photo

To get juicy greenery in winter, you can arrange a vegetable garden on a windowsill or a covered balcony. Growing lettuce indoors is not difficult, even inexperienced gardeners can handle this.

Preparation of soil and containers for sowing

The containers are required deep - about 35 cm.

You can buy soil bush for planting at the store or prepare it yourself. Take the land from the site, add rotted manure, peat, mix in equal proportions. Use nitrophosphate and urea as fertilizer.

Be sure to lay a drainage layer at the bottom of the container (you can use expanded clay, small pebbles, walnut shells).

How to sow

Lettuce on the windowsill growing from seeds in winter Photo of seedlings

• Deepen the seeds by 1-1.5 cm, keep a distance of 15 cm between the rows.
• After sowing, carefully cover the furrows with earth, moisten the crops with a spray gun and cover with foil.
• Shoots will appear soon, we remove the film.

For plants to thrive, thin out dense plantings to a minimum distance of 8-10 cm between plants.

How to care

Water liberally a couple of times a week. In room conditions, the air is too dry - daily spraying from a spray bottle will be required.

Loosening is carried out from the fourth week of growth: the fragile roots of young plants are easy to damage.

The duration of daylight hours in winter is short, it must be extended for a salad at least up to 12 hours, so artificial lighting will be required.

How to sow and grow salad on the windowsill, look at the video:

Fresh and crispy salad throughout the year on your table is simple and easy. Lettuce is an annual vegetable that grows quickly and is used fresh. The salad does not take up much space, and in the smallest vegetable garden or even in flowerpots, you can plant several heads of lettuce. Lettuce, as a completely unpretentious plant, can grow in any soil and does not require special knowledge to obtain a rich harvest.

Types of salad:

• Cabbage salad - round, like cabbage, with wide spread smooth leaves. It grows very quickly and does not require much maintenance.
• Iceberg lettuce - crispy salad forms a large head of rolled leaves, crunchy in taste.
• Romaine lettuce - crispy, elongated leaves grow vertically upwards. Ripens longer than other types of salads and requires frequent watering.
• Curly salad - a salad with a lot of curly leaves without a core.

Recently, salads such as arugula, corn salad, watercress salad, frillis salad, lettuce have been very popular. Various in shape, color and flavor, these annual fast-growing vegetables are mainly used fresh.

Growing lettuce

To get a harvest of lettuce throughout the year, you need to sow seeds (spring, autumn, winter) every 2 weeks, in summer every week.

Soil for growing lettuce. For growing lettuce outdoors, nutrient soils with good drainage and mineral impurities are best suited. The soil should not be too acidic, but well moisturized. It is good to plant lettuce on the sunny side where there are no drafts, it will ripen faster in warmth.

Spring sowing of lettuce in open ground. The place for sowing lettuce seeds must be dug up and added organic and mineral fertilizers, leveled, made zaglibinki - you can sow lettuce seeds.

For sowing lettuce seeds in open ground, make furrows (oblong pits 2 cm deep at a distance of 20 cm from each other. Sow seeds rarely, lettuce grows very slowly with a lot of thickening, if you sow on seedlings, it can be thicker.

Dive the grown seedlings (plant in 1 plant) at a distance of 5 - 10 cm from each other. Water the seedlings regularly, weed them and move the soil.

To obtain a rich harvest of the plant, you need to loosen the soil in a timely manner, remove weeds and water regularly. During a drought period, without watering, the salad is not tied into the heads of cabbage, its leaves become coarse, bitter, and it blooms. On dense crops - lettuce heads cannot form, the plants bloom early.

Sowing lettuce seeds for seedlings

You can buy salad seedlings at the bazaar or sow yourself. Salad seeds are sown in small cups, pots or special greenhouses filled with compost or seedling soil. You need to sow the seeds, 2 seeds in one hole (depression) and water gently. Cover the sown seeds with foil or a mini-greenhouse lid.

In a few days, the seeds will germinate and the cotyledons will appear. From those two germinated seeds, select the weaker plant and cut it below the cotyledon leaves, we do not need it. Ventilate the greenhouse daily (leave it open for several hours a day) to help the plants gradually get used to the environment. When the plants grow up and 3-4 true leaves appear, they can be transplanted into pots or into open ground.

For a small vegetable garden, joint planting of garden crops in the same bed is suitable. Lettuce is planted between previously planted vegetables or herbs, which grow much slower than lettuce.

Growing lettuce on the windowsill

In order for the grown salad on the windowsill to give a rich harvest, you need to choose the right place, container, soil and seeds. Any boxes, pots are suitable for salad; the height of the filled soil should be at least 10 cm. The soil should be nutritious: turf soil, humus, sand (2: 2: 1). Having filled the container with soil, it must be tamped and poured with warm water, then make depressions up to 1.5 cm, sow the seeds at a distance of 5 cm from each other, sprinkle the seeds with earth, water again, it remains to wait for the shoots. The best place to grow lettuce on a windowsill would be the South Windowsills (additional light is required in winter). Lettuce seedlings need high air humidity, so spray them twice a day with warm water.

Salad care

It is very easy to care for the salad: it does not need to be nourished (if you used a nutritious soil). The main care consists in watering (once every 2 days), and then it will grow rapidly, and after 30 days it will be possible to treat relatives and friends to the grown salad itself.

Loosening the soil, watering and weeding lettuce

To obtain high yields, plants need timely loosening of the soil, destruction of weeds and watering.During the dry season, without watering, the salad does not tie the heads, its leaves become rough, bitter, and the flower stem is thrown away. On timely crops that are not thinned out, heads cannot form, the plants bloom early.

Growing lettuce before winter

You can grow lettuce in the fall or winter in greenhouses. Of course, you will have to make a little more effort, to select specially bred varieties. To harvest from early summer to fall, start sowing lettuce in mid-spring and continue sowing at two-week intervals until mid-summer. Then a stable harvest of lettuce is ensured from early summer to mid-autumn.

Choose frost-resistant varieties for fall harvests. Plant them in open ground no later than the first week of August. In early autumn, when the plants are strong, transplant them into a greenhouse.
If you do not transplant the plants into a greenhouse, then you should thin them out and cover them in early autumn. While it is sunny and warm outside, the shelter is removed, and closed at night. The salad will harvest in late autumn.

When lettuce is grown in a greenhouse, the seeds are sown in early to mid-autumn, and the harvest is harvested in winter and until spring.

Growing lettuce for cultural purposes has been conducted since the 18th century. The French began to use the plant in cooking. They added greens to a salad called Lettuce. Since then, the plant itself is often called this way.

Not only cooks are interested in him, but also doctors. The leaves of the plant have been shown to help fight blood leukemia and increase resistance to breast cancer.

In the brain, lettuce extract prevents neuronal death and thus Alzheimer's disease. The ability of lettuce to lower cholesterol levels was tested in mice. From the stems of the plant, doctors extract lacticaria - an antimicrobial and antifungal agent.

The vitamin cocktail in lettuce benefits the skin by restoring a healthy complexion and accelerating cell regeneration. Lettuce juice contains almost 15% sulfur, 9% phosphorus and 8% silicon.

It is the perfect nutrition for hair. They grow faster, stop falling out, shine. At the same time, you don't have to go far to get lettuce. We organize growing lettuce on the windowsill, in the greenhouse, garden.

When to plant a salad?

The timing of planting lettuce depends on its type. It can be leafy, or cabbage. The first Frenchmen began to cultivate in the greenhouses of Paris back in the 1700th year. Growing head lettuce started in 1812. The varieties were the result of selection.

Growing lettuce starts at the end of April. Cabbage varieties are planted in the second half of March. This is when sowing in open ground. Some gardeners add seeds there in the fall.

This hardens the grains. As a result, they produce a rich and strong growth resistant to disease and frost. Young plants can withstand up to -4 degrees, and adults up to -8.

Podzimnie growing conditions for lettuce are good for him if a number of conditions are met. The beds for planting are carefully loosened, freed from weeds and their roots. In the spring, the sun will warm up the loose and clean soil faster. It is worth adding humus and ash to it - a nutrient medium for seeds.

If the site is in the lowland, it is more winter growing salad from seeds or seedlings does not make sense. The culture requires full sunlight. Even on flat areas, the most elevated beds are allocated for lettuce.

They are sown in the second half of November, early December. The grains are laid in the already frozen furrows 5 centimeters deep. Cover the seeds with earth from home storage.

In the photo, lettuce seeds

Speaking of rich and strong seedlings of podwinter lettuce, the cost of sowing is rarely indicated. It is necessary to lay it in the soil 30% more than usual.

Some of the seeds do not withstand hardening. If the seedlings are dense, they are simply thinned out. Initially, podzimny sowing is carried out without leaving gaps between the lettuce grains.

Growing lettuce seedlings start in early March.Germination and preparation for planting in the garden takes 30-40 days. This is for early maturing varieties. In mid-ripening vegetation period lasts about 60 days.

There is also a late-ripening salad, the crispy leaves of which are enjoyed at the height of summer. The following batches of lettuce can be grown in parallel. Each subsequent planting is carried out a month after the previous one. The last planting of seeds is scheduled for the end of August.

Growing lettuce in a greenhouse moves the last crop to the end of September. Fresh herbs will be served on the table on the eve of November. The main thing is not to overexpose the lettuce. It's not even about the coming frosts.

With a long growing season, lettuce leaves become bitter. Therefore, they eat young greens. Lettuce is, in principle, an annual plant, designed for one cycle. With a tendency to bitterness, the hero of the article resembles a radish. It, by the way, and dill, are planted simultaneously with lettuce.

How to plant a salad?

It was said about planting podzimnogo lettuce. Now, let's deal with spring sowing. As in the winter, the beds are loosened. So that the seeds do not fall into the "tartarars", the earth is given a couple of days to settle.

Growing lettuce outdoors at the end of April, it requires the preparation of the prepared furrows with boiling water. The soil is not yet fully warmed up. Realizing this, gardeners deepen the seeds only by 0.5-1 centimeters.

Growing salad in the country compact. The plant is miniature. 20-25 centimeters are left between the rows, and about 10 between the bushes. This is when planting cabbage varieties. Leafy rosettes are spreading.

About 20 centimeters are left between them. Respectively, lettuce growing technology leafy requires rare planting of seeds. This also applies to their podzimny laying in the soil.

They resort to the nesting scheme, aiming 2-3 seeds every 15 centimeters. With the simultaneous emergence of all 3 grains, weak shoots are cut below the cotyledon leaves. This blocks the development of the lettuce.

The seed furrows are covered with sand. Loose earth will do. Seedlings are expected in 2-3 days. Germination can be delayed on lands where lettuce has already grown. It is returned to its original place after 2-3 years.

The soil should recover, accumulate the substances necessary for the salad. It is better to plant a crop in cabbage, radish and radish beds. The soil from under other vegetables is also suitable.

If you plant a salad not instead of, but next to radishes, radishes and cabbage, the greens will protect them from earthen fleas. These insects do not like the smell of lettuce. Aphids are pestering him. Therefore, we plant onions nearby. Its smell scares off aphids from lettuce.

Strawberries, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers are also recorded among the neighbors of the salad. We move tall crops further away so as not to shade the lettuce. By the way, its cabbage varieties are prone to nitrate accumulation.

Their effect on the body began to be studied in 1945 in connection with methemoglobin. This is a disease in which the hemoglobin of the blood loses its ability to carry oxygen.

The body naturally begins oxygen starvation. One of the proven causes of the disease is receiving toxic doses of nitrates. In general, there is no benefit in them and there is nothing to feed the head lettuce with nitrogen-containing fertilizers or plant on a nitrogen-rich ridge with compost.

Lettuce loves moisture. Given this, the culture is grown without soil at all by the hydroponic method. This is what industrialists use. There are advantages to saturating a salad with a nutrient solution.

Plants are arranged in several tiers, effectively using the area. The grass does not have to waste energy on fishing for microelements from the soil. It is not a secret that herbs assimilate feeding only in dissolved form.

So, growing lettuce hydroponically yields a harvest faster for at least a week. Sometimes lettuce grows out in just 20 days. Accordingly, sales increase.

There are no problems with sales, because the taste of the salad remains at its best. Agrarians dissolve in the water feeding the roots exactly as many elements as the plant needs at a certain period of development.

What types of lettuce to grow?

Lettuce is the usual salad. It looked like this in the 18th century. Delicate green leaves with a white core curly around the edges. Curliness has been brought to its climax in Lollo Rossa.

It is a type of loose-headed lettuce. Its airiness is due to the curves of greenery. Its definition loses its meaning, because often it is not green at all, but red, violet.

Lollo-rossa varieties are decorative and are often chosen for growing lettuce at home... Rossa is also a favorite of restaurateurs.

They decorate with curly and colorful leaves not windowsills, but dishes. The growing season of the varieties of the group takes no more than 45 days. Lollo-rossa foliage is delicate and crunchy.

In the photo, lollo rossa salad

The varieties of the "Romano" group were bred by the Romans. Hence the name of the species. In Rome, it was eaten separately, without adding to other dishes. Romano still beats other salads in popularity in Italy and other Mediterranean countries.

Conventionally, the varieties of the species are referred to as head varieties, but rather loose. Therefore, the concept of "half-cabbage salad" is encountered. It is considered a subspecies of "Letuka". The foliage of the varieties is juicy, crispy, pale green.

In the photo, a salad of the Romano variety

Almost whitish leaves of "Iceberg" The group includes cabbage salads. They resemble a small, loose white cabbage. One plant weighs about 400 grams, differing from other species in increased crispness.

Initially “Iceberg” was called “Crispy salad”. After that, the Americans who bred the varieties of the group noticed that the greens were stored longer next to the ice. This was the reason to call the salad "Ice".

The next step was the name "Iceberg". It is matched by the view's love of coolness. At the height of summer growing lettuce "Iceberg" - a bad job. The varieties of the group are planted in late autumn, early spring or winter.

Iceberg lettuce"

The Oaklif salad is reminiscent of oak foliage. This is reflected in the name of the species. Oak is translated from English as "oak", and leaf as "leaf". Outwardly, the plant resembles a loose head of cabbage, like "Romano".

"Oaklif" stands out for its special tenderness of taste, oiliness and minimum shelf life. It is desirable to eat varieties of the species directly from the garden, washing, of course. When moving, storing and mixing dishes with Oaklif, no metal objects are used. They oxidize the delicate leaves and deteriorate even faster.

Oaklif salad

Frisse salad stands out for its cultivation peculiarities. In the early stages of development, the varieties of the group do not need light. This allows plants to produce intibin, a substance that increases the number of red blood cells.

Not surprisingly, of all the salads, people with low hemoglobin and anemia are advised to Frisse. It belongs to the class of individuals. Unlike lettuce, this is a genus of chicory. That is, a powerful rhizome is hidden under the ground at Frisse.

In the photo frisse salad

It is for him that ordinary chicory is used. He, like "Latuk", belongs to the Aster family. Cultivation of cyclic salad gives a bitterness. It is also found in the roots of the plant. The taste is familiar from cocoa substitutes. They are made on the basis of ground chicory roots.

Chicory cocoa has a nutty flavor. It is characteristic of the group's salads as well. It also includes "Korn". This salad has small leaves that fold like roses.

They are stored in the refrigerator for about 3 days. In the dishes "Korn" is combined only with balsamic oil, or olive oil. Russians, accustomed to sunflower, rarely use the varieties of the group.

In the photo, corn salad

Arugula is also a cyclic salad. We are waiting for the same bitter-nutty taste. The long and narrow foliage protrusions of the species are somewhat reminiscent of rosemary. In Russia, "Arugula" was nicknamed "Wild mustard". Of the salads, only she has two-year varieties. Plus, "Arugula" is tall. Some orts reach 70 centimeters in height.

In the photo, arugula salad

Let's conclude the list of types of salad with a couple of cyclones. The first is Radicio. He is burgundy.The core of the leaves is white. The varieties of the group are heady, dense and crispy. Like Frisse, Radicio is grown in the dark.

This is what determines the color of the lettuce leaves. Photosynthesis in the twilight is difficult. The bitter taste of Radicio changes to sweet and spicy when the leaves are scalded. Other salads are used only fresh.

Radichio salad

The last view of the hero of the article - "Cress". Growing lettuce pleases the eye with heart-shaped leaves. They are miniature, abundantly strewn with plant stems. The varieties of the group are considered aphrodisiacs. The ability of "Cress" lettuce to improve potency was first noticed in Morocco and Iran.

Taking into account the characteristics of the types of salad, we choose according to our requests and needs. It is worth noting that dark-leaved herbs contain more useful nutrients, for example, folic acid and vitamin A.

In the photo watercress

Salad care

Growing lettuce in winter, in spring, summer and autumn, tolerates with equal success. The main thing is to give the plant a loose substrate, watering every 1-2 days and an abundance of light. Solar lamps are used during the short day.

Otherwise, the culture is unassuming. The nuances of caring for individual varieties and species were discussed above. Finally, let us recall that salad is the only vegetable that does not accept freezing and any preservation.

That is why year-round cultivation of crops at home, or in greenhouses, is justified. For a salad from stores, you will have to pay at least 200 rubles per kilogram.