Growing lettuce at home. Full report from seed selection to results

Lettuce, like many leafy vegetables, can be grown not only in the garden and in the greenhouse. Unpretentious herbs give good harvests even in a city apartment. And if you organize additional illumination of seedlings in cloudy weather in late autumn, winter and early spring, then cutting greenery can be done all year round.

Growing leaf lettuce at home Full report from seed selection to results

For a mini garden on a windowsill, it is best to use early-ripening and unpretentious varieties of lettuce, for example, “Red Coral”, “Green Coral”, “Odessky Kucheryavets”, “Rukola”. After sowing in moist and fertile soil, the lettuce sprouts on the third day. The cutting of leaves begins after 3 weeks.

To meet the family's needs for juicy and tender salad leaves, you can organize a conveyor belt for growing greens on the windowsill. Sow new batches of plants at intervals of 1 week, then you will not have to buy greens at the market, which is especially important in winter and spring.

Technology for growing lettuce on a window sill or insulated loggia

Any containers, pots, boxes, flowerpots and plant pots with a depth of more than 12 cm are used as planting containers for a mini garden. Moreover, to prevent stagnation of moisture and rotting of the underground part of the seedlings, the bottom of the container, which does not have drainage holes, must be laid out with a centimeter layer of broken bricks or egg shells crushed in the palms.

To grow greenery at home, it is most convenient to buy ready-made substrates with neutral acidity (pH 5.0 - 7.0), for example, “Universal soil for indoor plants” or “Universal substrate for seedlings of vegetables and flowers based on lowland peat.” Such soil has a light structure, but at the same time high moisture capacity and fertility.

Sowing of dry lettuce seeds is carried out in moist and loose soil, lightly pressed with fingertips. The grains are laid out completely over the surface, but not very densely. Excess sprouts can later be removed so that the remaining seedlings can develop normally and build up powerful leaf mass.

After laying out, the seeds are sprinkled with melt water from a spray bottle or a homemade sprinkler and covered with a thin layer of earth (about 5 mm), as if “salting” the crops. Then the surface of the substrate is moistened again.

To create a greenhouse effect until seedlings emerge, planting containers are placed under a glass or film cover.

The optimal temperature for germinating lettuce is +20 – 26°C. Subsequently, the plants continue to develop harmoniously at temperatures from +15 to +24°C. It is recommended to moisten lettuce and other leafy crops in a mini garden with melt, rain or softened water (without chlorine and heavy metals).

Massive lettuce sprouts appear on the second or third day.

After pipping the plants, the cover is removed, and the crops are moistened daily using a spray bottle, mini watering can or spray bottle. The soil surface must be constantly moist, but not wet, otherwise the seedlings may suffocate.

The optimal daylight hours for salad are 10-12 hours. From April to early October, plants placed on the windowsill of south-facing windows receive sufficient lighting. The rest of the time, and for growing greenery on northern windows, it is necessary to install additional lighting sources (phytolambs, fluorescent lamps, LED strips and lamps, etc.).

Salad sprouts at home can live up to 4 months. After the bushes become thin and dry, they are pulled out. The depleted soil is shaken out of the vacated containers, filled with a new portion of fertile substrate, and re-seeding is carried out.