Lettuce and Salad Leaves

There are many varieties of lettuce to choose from nowadays so there is no excuse for growing just boring old “iceberg”. My personal favourites are the red tinged varieties like lollo rosso and other loose leaved varieties. Rocket is also always top of the list of things to grow when I’m planning the plot. It has a nice peppery taste and gives salads a good kick up the bum. There are also some nice oriental leaves that have appeared in seed catalogues over the past few years although they are less common here in Spain. If you want to try these then the internet is the best place to start.  

Sowing seeds

In each packet you are likely to get hundreds of seeds and its unlikely you will be able to use all of them even though they will last for a couple of years. Some seed merchants sell mixed seed packets which allows you to grow three or four varieties from one pack. This is good news in one way but the varieties are not always listed and in some packets the seeds are mixed together, meaning that you are not sure of exactly what you’re growing. However, if you’re not fussy about what lettuce you eat or are a novice and don’t know the different varieties it is a very economical way of growing several types. Lettuce seeds are small so should be grown on top of moist compost and covered with a fine layer of compost or vermiculite. There is nothing to stop you from sowing straight into the soil if your soil is nice and fine. I personally don’t and always start off my plants in pots if I can because I have too many stones that prevent the fragile seedlings from growing.

Soil

Any soil type will give reasonable results but if you can incorporate compost. It will give you bigger lettuce and they will grow much quicker. Having said that, home grown lettuce does not keep in the fridge for as long as shop bought ones, so you might have a certain amount of wastage. Not a major problem if you have a compost heap or chickens and rabbits that you can supplement their diet with.

Aftercare

You must keep the soil moist if you are to stop the lettuce from setting seed (bolting). Apply fertilizer if your soil is poor but it shouldn’t be necessary if you incorporated some compost before planting (a good reason for making the effort with your soil early on). Slugs and snails can be a problem earlier in the year when it’s wet and grasshoppers/ locust are the biggest problem in summer. To combat slugs and snails, sink empty tuna tins into the soil so the top is flush with the soil and fill with beer or sugared water. The slugs find them irresistible and slither their way into the tins/traps where they die from drowning or alcohol poisoning!! Grasshoppers are almost impossible to catch and if you find you have a major problem then your only option is to cover the lettuces with netting. This is easy if your lettuces are grown in nice symmetrical rows, not so easy if like me you grow them in between other plants. A good tip is to buy food protectors from a general houseware shop. They are made of rigid wire mesh and dome shaped and are designed to stop flies from landing on your food. An expensive way of doing it if you grow lots of lettuces, I know. Your alternative is to grow more than you need and be prepared to lose a few along the way.

Harvesting

It is tempting to pull up the lettuce once it has reached a reasonable size but I prefer to harvest in two ways. First is to pick the young outside leaves as the lettuce grows discarding any that have been nibbled or wilted (give them to the chickens instead). Secondly; lettuces are what you call “cut and come again” which means you can cut the lettuce just above the soil leaving the roots in the ground. With a bit of luck those roots will grow a new head of lettuce giving you a second crop.

General tips

The most annoying thing about growing and harvesting lettuces is splashing soil all over the leaves. The best way to prevent this is to lay weed membrane or plastic sheeting with holes punched into it on the soil prior to planting. Make some slits in the membrane and plant your lettuces through the slits, this will stop the soil from splashing on the leaves and conserve moisture too.