Practical Gardening Good lettuces are grown quickly, without check

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32774, 26 November 1971, Page 11

Practical Gardening Good lettuces are grown quickly, without check

Lettuce is probably the main salad crop, and although primarily eaten as part of a cold meal it can: also be cooked like cabbage. There is, however, but oneway of obtaining a crisp sweet and a palatable lettuce, and that is by growing it quickly without a check. Although lettuce can be grown with relative success in most types of soil, best results are achieved in the lighter fertile loam soils which have good drainage,

la necessity for a crop such as this which responds to plenty of moisture but resents water-logged conditions.

j Lettuce is a plant which is grown for its leaves, so the aim is to produce a goodsized specimen. For this reason a high organic matter content in the soil is most desirable, and well-rotted poultry manure or other animal manures should be added, preferably well in advance of sowing or planting time. If this is not available a good substitute is blood and bone —Jib per square yard. A lack of nitrogen can retard formation of the head and quality can also be impaired—a contributory factor towards a hard, bitter-tasting leaf.

Only sufficient lime should be added to bring an acid soil to near neutral as above this level it can have an adverse effect.

Lettuce is predominantly a cool weather plant, but plant breeding has given us varieties and strains which enable almost a year-round continuity of cropping to be

achieved. An important factor here is correct choice for the time of the year. For winter or early spring sowing or planting: Imperial 615, Webbs Wonderful, Winter Lake, Imperial Triumph. For warmer periods of the year selections include Iceberg, Great Lakes, Tom Thumb, Summer Gem, Neapolitan. All Year Round will yield satisfactorily almost throughout the year. ’ Depth of sowing Sowing the seed itself is quite an important task in the process of raising lettuces and bringing them to maturity. If sown too deeply it will fail to germmate and there is often a similar noticeable lack of satisfac-

tory response from seed sown during very warm weather. Depth of sowing will be somewhat dependent on soil type but half an inch should be about the maximum anywhere. It is preferable to sow in moist, not dry, soil.

As soon as the seedlings have developed true leaves and are sturdy enough to handle they should be transplanted into their permanent positions or thinned to a spacing which will provide just sufficient room for full . development—between Bin and 14in, depending on variety and time of year. Lettuce does not take kindly to mishandling and transplanting should be done with the absolute minimum of delay to avoid setbacks. Avoid this task in the heat of the day and provide shade if the succeeding day is hot. Results in commercial practice have proved conclusively the advantage of sowing in situ over transplanting. This is particularly evident with summer crops. In the home garden it can be achieved by sowing the seed very thinly along the rows and subsequently thinning still further to get the desired spacings between plants. Aeration is a very important aspect of lettuce culture and satisfactory spacing and weed control play a leading rede. Regular light hoeing should not be neglected. Moisture is necessary to assist in the germination of lettuce seed just as it is during the intervening period to harvest. Drying out should be avoided and an even soil moisture maintained from start to finish of cropping. Surface watering is the ideal as it can reduce the chances of tip bum and various diseases but may not always be possible. When the days are hot and sunny watering is best done at night. Many varieties of considerable merit have already been mentioned in the sowing guide but there are others which deserve consideration, some of which are described here.

Butter Crunch is a verydelicate excellent flavoured butterhead type which has considerable heat resistance.

Salad Bowl and Bronze Beauty are outstanding representatives of the less frequently grown loose leaf varieties which are charac-

tensed by a rather spreading loose habit of growth which does not form a heart. The Cos or romaine lettuces are distinguishable by their upright habit, spathulate leaves and elongated heads. They are generally much crisper than the other types and frequently sweeter. Cos White Paris and Cos Red are examples of this type.