I have my tropicals in a conservatory with 14 hour light cycles and temperature ~70F.
I thought it might be fun to try to grow some lettuce. Is this a crazy idea?
If anyone has seed that might work I could do SASBE or trade.
Should I try anything else?
ROX
Wanted: Lettuce seed
Hello Rox,
I have lettuce seed - nothing terribly unique at the moment, but they're good hardworking varieties. I have loose leaf, bibb, butterhead and possibly romaine (I don't think I have a lot of seed for the romaine types right now).
In the setting your describing the loose leafs will likely do the best job for you. I have loose leaf and butterhead lettuces growing in a cool heated greenhouse right now. The temps are about ten degrees cooler than your conservatory, but they're doing fantastic out there and my family and I have been eating fresh salads from them all winter.
I think all the loose-leafs I have at the moment were bred for slow bolting (with the possible exception of the 'Black Seeded Simpson' which is a bit older) and all of these ones I grow right through the summer here without problem.
The varieties of loose leaf I currently have are:
'Black Seeded Simpson'
'Garnet Oakleaf' (small quantity)
'Grand Rapids'
'Prizehead'
'Red Sails'
'Salad Bowl'
Just let me know if you'd be interested in trying any of those varieties. I'd love to trade if you have anything currently available for trade, but could also most certainly send a bit older seed, which will still do just fine for you, for SASBE if not.
~Amanda
Amanda-
I'd love to try any of the loose leaf varieties. Here are the seeds I have right now:
Lablab purpurea - Hyacinth Bean
Baptisia 'Waynes Co' [a white flowered variety]
Anemone hybriday 'Pamina'
Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki'
Tricyrtis hirta 'variegata'
Dianthus armeria
California poppy - wild california variety
PS any tips on growing lettuce would be appreciated: soil, pots size, watering etc.
ROX
Rox,
Wonderful. I'll send a selection of the loose leaf varsities I have your way and you can see which grows best for you (besides the different leaf colors make for more interesting salads).
Lettuces like for the soil to be fairly moist so they're not one that you want to let dry out much between waterings, but they do want a well draining mix so that they're not sitting in water either. If you're growing them in pots, any standard potting soil will be just fine for them. They do grow best with some extra nitrogen provided since this is one plant that you do want to encourage succulent new growth on during the active growing season.
As long as you can water the container often enough to keep it moist lettuce will grow in just about any reasonable size container - it's just a matter of how many you can fit in the container. You can grow them in individual containers, or large containers with a few plants, and let them grow to full size. In that case you can continually harvest large leaves, or full heads if you needed a lot. Or you can sow a bunch of leaf lettuce seeds in a wide container or deep flat so that they have just a little bit of spacing around each plant. In that case instead of harvesting whole heads or large leaves you could continually sheer trimmings for young greens. Both ways work very well - it just depends what size leaves you prefer.
The seeds germinate relatively pretty quickly in the 70s. They just need to stay moist during germination and should be planted very shallowly since the seeds benefit from light for germination.
I see that you're in the address exchange and I am as well. I'll get your lettuce seeds heading your way. As for your seeds I would absolutely love some of the California poppy and seeds for either of the Tricyrtis hirta (I can't believe I forgot how much I love toad lilies!).
~Amanda
Don't want to contradict, but I have a printout from our county extension agent that says "Excessive amounts of nitrogen will reduce yields or lower quality or both" for lettuce. I generally have good results with lettuce in a balanced soil. I do not side dress or incorporate additional nitrogen. Since there is some disagreement between our info I suggest contacting your local extension agent. They can usually send you information for whatever specific crop you plan to grow.
No disagreement there, pamsaplantin - in fact, that's a very good point. Absolutely "excessive amounts of nitrogen" isn't good for much of anything, even greens, and excessive application will damage most plants.
Greens like lettuce are considered heavy feeders and do require more nitrogen than many other vegetables. However, depending on a given soil, there may already be a sufficient amount of nitrogen present in which case there certainly is no need to add any. In my particular area winter rains leach the majority of the nitrogen from the soil so greens here need to be side dressed, which wouldn't necessarily be the case for some other areas which is why it is indeed always a good idea to check with the local extension before starting a garden.
In this case though we're talking about lettuces being grown in a pot in a greenhouse so native soil and weather doesn't play much of a role. Nearly any plant confined to a container is going to require fertilizer of some sort when the fertilizer contained in the potting mix is exhausted and that's especially the case here given lettuce's higher than normal feeding needs.
~Amanda
Amanda-
I will send all three types of seeds. Thank you!
pamsaplantin andAmada-
Thanks for the seed info. I think it is really helpful when people are willing to provide info about growing conditions when you ask for seeds.
ROX
Sounds absolutely wonderful, Rox, thank you very much! And I hope these lettuces grow extremely well for you.
~Amanda