There cutting lettuce it is the ideal vegetable to be sown directly in the garden or in a pot and guarantees a plentiful and prolonged harvest. Unlike the classic head lettuce, which needs a certain space to get bigger, the baby lettuce it is sown in a dense manner and, in proportion, can be grown in decidedly confined spaces. Another peculiarity is that once the first cut has been made, the plant shoots back new shoots and the leaves can be harvested again and in a short time. With this cutting salad we will therefore always have fresh, genuine vegetables with a unique flavor available.
So let’s see everything there is to know for the sowing and harvesting of this plant.
When sowing lettuce
An undoubted advantage of cut lettuce is that it can be grown practically at any time of the year. It can be sown at the end of winter (for an early harvest in early spring) or in late spring (to have the harvest in summer). Autumn sowing is also excellent, to harvest in late autumn or winter.
Sowing in the middle of summer is to be avoided, especially in particularly hot and dry areas, if we are instead in the hills or in the mountains, then you can proceed with the sowing of lettuce also in this period.
Variety of lettuce
Cut lettuce comes directly from the species Lactuca sativa and in practice they are particular varieties of lettucetherefore they are not to be considered botanical species in their own right.
To choose the variety of lettuce that we like the most, there is really spoiled for choice and a great ease in find the seeds in specialized shops.
The most original and tasty varieties of this lettuce for cutting are the following: canary tongue, smooth leaf blonde, red snake, curly blonde, oak leaf, lollo rossa and blonde.
Very interesting are also the mixed salads, that is the different types of lettuce seeds packaged together, to cultivate a “meadow” of lettuce with variegated colors and flavors.
Preparing the land for sowing lettuce
Before talking about the sowing of lettuce it is necessary to explain how to properly prepare the soil that will host the seeds.
The ideal soil should be fresh, di medium mixture, with a good supply of organic matter. It must be finely worked, especially in the superficial portion. We therefore advise you to carry out a first hoeing to clean it. Then a light organic fertilizer is distributed, such as compost or earthworm humus. Continue with a dig to open the soil and amend the fertilizer. Finally, a superficial refinement is carried out with the rake.
With this sequence of operations, your soil will be ready for lettuce sowing.
How to sow lettuce in the vegetable garden
Now let’s see how to sow the cutting salad directly in the vegetable garden. There direct seeding technique that is used is the so-called broadcaster, or the “sprint”, as our peasant grandparents would say. In practice, a handful of seeds is taken and spread on the piece of land intended for cultivation. For a more regular distribution of the seed, it is advisable to mix it with fine sand. After sowing, it is sufficient to simply sprinkle and keep the soil well moist until sprouting. Subsequently, a slight thinning can be carried out to distance the buds born attached to each other, but without a wealth of details. Characteristic of lettuce is in fact that of growing well even if sown in a dense way, unlike the classic head lettuce.
Sowing in regular rows
Broadcasting of lettuce is very convenient in terms of execution, but has the drawback that afterwards you have to continue to sprinkle. Furthermore, cleaning from weeds will be very difficult.
To overcome these technical drawbacks, it is possible to sow in regular rows, following the row of the irrigation hose. In practice, the seeds are taken (always mixed with sand) and spread along the row, as if you were putting salt on a dish.
20 cm are left between one row and the next. By doing this, the cutting salad plants will sprout more regularly and in correspondence with the patch of water left by the irrigation hose. We will lose space, but we will have a more orderly cultivation.
How to sow cut lettuce in pots
Sowing in pots does not differ too much from broadcasting in the vegetable garden just seen.
The advice is to use a high quality soil for vegetable plants (which you can find here) to mix a little organic fertilizer.
At the bottom of the pot always place some expanded clay to drain excess water. Use capacious and sufficiently deep vessels, in this sense a good option is the vases in geotextile fabric.
Finally, place the container in the sun in the autumn-winter cycles, and in partial shade in the spring-summer cycle.
Cultural care
Cut salads are easy to grow, as they require little care. In the early stages of growth it is important eliminate weeds, with repeated weeding operations.
Much attention should also be paid toirrigation, especially in the spring-summer cycles. The soil must always be well moist, but never soaked. So the classic rule applies, irrigate a little, but often.
Biological defense from snails
When sowing cut lettuce, pay close attention to the presence of snails. This parasite, in fact, is greedy for this mini-vegetable and considers it, in practice, a real feast, so much so that this type of salad is used in heliciculture.
To protect our lettuce therefore, we recommend using traps with beercapable of eliminate both snails and slugsa somewhat drastic solution, but certainly effective.
Collection
The great thing about cutting lettuce is that it is harvested in abundance. After sowing and the emergence of the shoots, in fact, 20-30 days are enough for the first harvest. The important thing is that the leaves reach 8/10 cm in height, with small differences depending on the variety. As we have mentioned, the cutting lettuce seedlings throw back, so they must not be uprooted, but cut at the base with a knife, about one centimeter in height. Taking advantage of this peculiarity we will have a prolonged harvest even for several months. It is recommended to stop the cycle when the new leaves that emerge immediately become hard.
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