How To Grow Lettuce

Lettuce is a plant of the daisy family Asteraceae, which is often grown as a leaf vegetable. People usually eat lettuce as cold and raw or in salads or sandwiches etc. It grows best in wet environment and in sunny weather, depending on its genre. There are four kinds of lettuce - leaf lettuce, butter head lettuce, romaine lettuce, crisphead lettuce - and each of them has different basic growing requirements. Lettuce grows well under wet conditions and needs plenty of water to grow properly. It is harmful to shower a lot of water on lettuce seeds because there is high possibility that they may get infected and rot. Lettuce is considered as an ideal cro to grow either during the early spring or the fall. Read on the article to know more about how to grow lettuce.

Tips For Growing Lettuce

You should use a deep seed tray which can carry 3 cm of soil at the minimum. Then you can fill it nearly to the brim with compost. Leaving one centimeter gap between compost and top of the container is essential. Best compose you can use for lettuce is seed compost.

Sowing

Take a pinch of seeds between your thumb and forefinger and sprinkle them as much as you would sprinkle salt on food. This is the best way to scatter the lettuce seeds across the surface of the compost.
Sowing thin will give you the best results. If the seeds get crowded overwhelmingly, there is a chance for a fungus infection because they will have to fight for space and light as they grow.
After finishing sowing, you can cover the seed with a thin layer of compost and you should firm the compost down gently.
If the compost stuff is not wet, then water it thoroughly to get good impact but you should do this in an experienced farmer’s presence because too much of water can spoil your seeds. Seeds may rot in too much wet conditions.
Cover your seed tray with paper or cling film.

Seedling Tray

You should check your farm daily to find out if the seeds have germinated or not. It is important to make sure that the compost is still damp. Water your seeds carefully to keep them cool in any condition.
Once you find that the seedling is big enough to touch the plastic or the cling film, it is the right time to take it off. If you used paper, take it off when you see a few seedlings.
Planting lettuce seedlings throughout the season can give you lettuce available for a major part of the year. When the seedlings are grown about an inch high you should transplant them into their growing positions. If you let them to get much bigger, then they will become floppy due to the lack of enough space in the seed tray to grow in the right way.
You can use a pencil or your fingers to divide the seedlings away from their buddies in the tray. You can use compost to strengthen their roots. This helps us them to get established as soon as possible in their new positions.
Dig a hole which is larger than the root mass of the lettuce. Lay your lettuce in the hole allowing the leaves to poke out over the hole. Water the hole until it is swimmy with mud and then gently put the soil around the roots. Press it firmly and root will get firm in the soil. Then the roots will be prepared and ready to take nutrients and will help the plant to grow.

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