We provide tips on planting and harvesting lettuce and introduce the best types of lettuce. We also explain how to properly care for lettuce.
Salad should not be missing in the garden or on the balcony. Because it is undemanding, easy to care for and can grow almost anywhere. This makes it a good culture for beginners in the garden. In this article, you'll learn everything you need to know to make sure you can't go wrong when growing lettuce. We reveal everything you need to know about the origin, different varieties, planting, care and harvesting of lettuce.
Salad: origin and characteristics
The term "lettuce" is not a botanical term and does not just mean a variety or type. Rather, it is a collective term for various vegetables that are usually eaten raw. Incidentally, the word “salad” comes from Latin and means “s alted”. This suggests that salads were valued early on and sometimes cleverly prepared. Because the world of lettuce is so diverse, it is difficult to get to the bottom of its origins. The different types of lettuce come from different parts of the world. For example, lettuce comes from the Mediterranean, while iceberg lettuce comes from the United States.
Just like the origin, the growth forms of lettuce are different. When you think of lettuce, you usually have an image of crisp, green leaves or a closed, green head of lettuce in mind. However, there is much more than just the green head of lettuce. Lettuce can also be red, brownish, yellow, or variegated. The shapes of the individual types of lettuce also vary greatly. For example, just think of curled leaves, filigree lamb's lettuce or red, firm radicchio.
Shapes and types of lettuce
Botanically, lettuces can be roughly divided into the lettuce group (Lactuca), the chicory group (Cichorium), and lettuces without a group organize. In the following we give you a brief overview of the individual salads of the three groups. information about eachLettuce shapes and lots of variety suggestions can be found here in our lettuce special article.
Buying lettuce plants: you should pay attention to this
You can find lettuce plants in hardware stores, garden centres, nurseries, at the weekly market or online retailers. When buying, you should pay attention to a few points so that you are not disappointed by the plants you have bought. When choosing, pay attention to the right lettuce shape and variety, because the individual lettuce shapes not only vary greatly in appearance and taste, but also in their requirements in terms of time of cultivation, location and care. You should also make sure that you only buy plants that make a fit and vital impression on you. This also means that the little plants do not have any damaged plant parts and are free from pests, signs of damage and diseases. If the root ball smells rotten and musty, you should better keep your hands off these plants.
At a glance: What should you look out for when buying lettuce plants?
- Choice of lettuce shape and variety
- Vital, fit plants
- No broken leaves or stems
- Free from disease and pests
- No rotten rootballs
Plant lettuce
Growing lettuce in your own bed is luckily very easy. If you don't limit yourself to just one type of lettuce, with clever cultivation planning you can harvest and enjoy your own lettuce almost all year round. Salads love a sunny to partially shaded location with loose, humus-rich soil. We have prepared detailed instructions for planting lettuce for you here.
Caring for lettuce: the right watering and fertilizing
If the right location has been chosen and the lettuce has been planted professionally, it grows almost by itself and requires little attention and care. You should still pay special attention to watering your salad. It is important to water every day, especially on hot days and in midsummer.
Before planting the lettuce, we recommend fertilizing the soil. So the soil is perfectly prepared for the lettuce and contains all the plant nutrients that are important for growth. Compost or a fertilizer with an organic long-term effect are ideal for basic fertilization. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer consists oflarge proportions of organic material from which the nutrients are slowly and gently released to the plant. So you no longer need to fertilize your lettuce after the basic fertilization.
Another important maintenance measure is regular hoeing and piling up the soil around the lettuce. The hoeing stimulates the mineralization of the soil and water can penetrate the soil better. This measure also removes unwanted weeds at the same time.
Note: Unfortunately, young lettuce is at the top of the menu for snails. Therefore, on wet days, you should check the bed for snails every day or, ideally, fight them in an ecological way.
You can find tips on how to fight snails with home remedies here.
Overview: caring for lettuce properly
- Water regularly
- Fertilize before planting
- Don't fertilize afterwards
- Chop and Pile Regularly
- Collect or fight snails
Increase Lettuce
Lettuce itself can be propagated by seeds. However, the seed production is very time-consuming due to the small seeds and requires a lot of finesse. A prerequisite for obtaining seeds is that the lettuce plants are flowering. In addition, some lettuce plants may not be harvested, but remain on the bed. For a successful propagation you need about eight to ten plants. Select the strongest and he althiest specimens and mark them with a stick. Don't just take the seeds of lettuce, which are the first to shoot. Otherwise you will unintentionally select lettuce that shoots early for your offspring.
Once the lettuces form buds, tie them to the marker sticks to support them. In addition, rotten, wilted and mushy leaves can be regularly removed from the bottom of the lettuce. If the flowers begin to wilt, you need to be particularly careful, because the tiny little lettuce seeds can now easily be washed out by the rain. Seeds are ready for harvest 12 to 24 days after flowering.
Tip: As a test for seed maturity, you can gently rub ripening seed pods between your thumb and forefinger. The seed is sufficiently ripe when the seed pod breaks up and the seeds are between your fingers.
The best seeds are those that ripen centrallyFlowers harvested at the top of the main stem. The easiest way to harvest the seeds is to hold the bud sites over a container and gently tap into it. The harvested seeds are then dried in a cloth bag and then cleaned. The seed can now be labeled and will germinate for up to three years if stored in a cool, dry place.
Overview: Propagating lettuce
- 8 - Select and mark 10 lettuce plants
- Let it bloom
- Support inflorescence
- Remove rotten, wilted leaves
- Seeds are ready 12 - 24 days after flowering
- Kick the seeds into a container
- Dry in a cloth bag
- Clean seed
- Label
- Store in a cool, dry place
Harvest lettuce
The different shapes of lettuce mean different harvest times. There are typical salads that are ready to harvest in spring, summer or autumn. When harvesting, you can decide whether you want to harvest the lettuce whole or just take individual leaves. If you harvest your lettuce as a pick or cut lettuce, you have the advantage of being able to harvest only as much as you need. The lettuce keeps growing back. You can find detailed instructions on how to harvest lettuce here.
Storing lettuce and keeping it fresh
Salad tastes best freshly harvested and in most cases does not keep for long. As a rule of thumb, the firmer the leaves, the longer the lettuce will keep. With a few tricks, you can still give the perishable salad a longer life.
At a glance: storing lettuce and keeping it fresh
- Remove wilted leaves
- Keep in the fridge crisper
- Do not store with other fruit or tomatoes
- Wrap in damp tea towel
- Do not freeze