Who has not heard of a culture like lettuce? There are probably no such people. When the first greens appear on the shelves, we are pleased to buy, along with onions, dill and parsley, tender lettuce leaves gathered in bunches. Some people mistakenly believe that lettuce is an onion, but if you set a goal and thoroughly understand the essence of the issue, you can find out that this kind of onion does not exist. There is a batun, leek or shallot, finally, but lettuce ... In general, let's agree: lettuce is a salad. But since people sometimes confuse these concepts, we, too, will sometimes βmake a reservationβ in the article.
Lettuce salad / onion, cultivation of which has been practiced since time immemorial, is a legendary vegetable crop that occupies its niche in the family of asters. This oldest plant was cultivated in the Mediterranean three millennia ago.
The Egyptian priests knew about its benefits, the Persian rulers revered it as a treat, and in ancient Byzantium it was used as an effective medicine.
Enlightened Europe learned about the salad during the time of Louis XIV, and since then its popularity has only grown. Today lettuce is one of the favorite summer vegetables and a source of the most valuable substances that a person needs. This publication is dedicated to this amazing culture.
Gender Description
There are over 100 types of lettuce. For the most part, these are annual herbaceous plants with a central rosette combining leaves of various shapes and colors. Inflorescences in a culture are panicles or tassels composed of small flowers. After pollination, the fetus develops - the achene. Cultivated lettuce, called differently - salad or onion.
Leaves are taken for food, which are removed before the stem is formed, since after that they begin to noticeably bitter.
Onion lettuce: how it grows
The plant is many-sided. The most popular are its leafy, rolled, asparagus and stall species. In Russia, until recently, lettuce was the most common, today gardeners are increasingly conquered by the headed species, first forming large leaves, then forming a loose or dense head of cabbage.
Varieties of lettuce are classified according to the ripening duration, distinguishing between early ones with a growing season of up to 45 days, medium (50-60 days) and late (up to 80 days).
The most demanded today are varieties of leaf lettuce (Riga, Moscow greenhouse), which are the ripening champions, giving marketable products 35-40 days after sowing. The Roman salad is gaining popularity, the leaves of which are tied, simulating the formation of a head of cabbage, inside of which a tender light shoot grows.
Lettuce is cold-resistant and photophilous. These properties are inherent in all varieties and species. Experienced gardeners consider the range of +10 ... + 19Λ the most comfortable temperatures for growing plants.
Onion lettuce: beneficial properties and harm
The composition of the leaves of the plant is unique, they contain a huge number of useful trace elements that saturate the human body with potassium, zinc, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium and other compounds. This herb is a storehouse of vitamins of groups B, A, C, P. Thanks to the presence of these valuable substances, the use of a plant in food provides a therapeutic effect at the stages of recovery after operations, serious illnesses, in the treatment of pulmonary, cardiovascular, gastric diseases and nervous disorders. In addition, it is a low-calorie product that allows you to include it in many diets. Onions, lettuce, recipes from which are appreciated in the cuisines of different countries, are successfully used to prevent obesity.
Fresh juice from lettuce leaves helps to optimize the digestion process and normalize appetite. Infusions are used for liver damage. Shredded seeds increase lactation in nursing mothers. The cosmetology plant is actively used in the treatment of hair loss and restoration of skin structure.
Despite the usefulness of the plant, it should be used with caution by people with diseases such as a stomach ulcer or duodenal ulcer, asthma, and tuberculosis.
Site selection rules and soil requirements
The site for planting the crop should be open, ventilated, but also a little shading to the plant also does not harm. A great lover of loose and light drained sandy loam, lettuce grows well on loams. If only the soil reaction was close to the pH index 6.5-7.5, and groundwater did not come close to the surface of the earth. Lettuce prefers moderately moist soils: stagnation is detrimental to the plant, provoking the appearance of rot.
Excessive acidity of the site is neutralized by liming during preplant treatment. The plot is prepared in the fall, increasing soil fertility by adding humus or compost for digging in the amount of 5-6 kg and 60 g of nitrophosphate per 1 m2 of area. The best predecessors cultivated earlier on the selected bed are legumes and grains. Planting onion lettuce after cabbage and other cruciferous plants is not recommended.
Planting seedlings
The culture is sown immediately in the garden or grown by the seedling method, which allows you to get healthy leaves much earlier. Both methods have both supporters and opponents. Let's talk about each of them.
For seedlings, seeds are sown in containers filled with a mixture of turf land with humus in equal parts in the first ten days of April. The seeds are deepened by 1 cm, and the interval between rows should be 1.5-2 cm. Then the soil in the container is slightly compacted and moistened with a spray bottle. For better germination, the containers are covered with glass or film, creating the most comfortable microclimate. With the advent of seedlings, the covering material is removed, the seedlings are thinned out, keeping a distance of 2 cm between the seedlings.
Seedlings are ready for transplantation on a prepared bed after 30-35 days. By this time, seedlings will already form 3-4 leaves. They are planted, maintaining the same level as was in the seedlings, carefully observing that the root neck does not deepen. The distance between the bushes is maintained, focusing on the variety, since the nutrition area for early ripening is only 1 dm 2 , for medium early - 2.2 dm 2 , and for later - 6.2 dm 2 .
There is an opinion that transplanting seedlings undermines the strength of the plant, but careful implementation of the procedure will not harm it much.
Sowing seeds on ridges
Lettuce seeds are sown in open ridges at the beginning or in the middle of May, when average daily temperatures are set at +4 ... +5 Λ. However, the endurance and cold resistance of the plant allows it to withstand spring frosts to -2 Β° C. Cultivation is often practiced, maintaining an interval of 15-20 days to provide healthy greens throughout the summer season.
A feature of such a crop as lettuce is that late-ripening varieties are resistant to shooting. Seeds are sown in rows, the interval between which for leaf varieties is 7-9 cm, for cabbage varieties - at least 15 cm.
Crop care
Courting arrangements for lettuce are traditional, they include regular cultivation, removal of weed grass and reasonable watering. Onions Lettuce is moisture-loving and requires maintaining soil moisture, but moderation is important in everything, so they try not to resort to excessive watering. Moreover, as soon as the heads of cabbage start to set, the intensity of watering is reduced.
The qualitative development of culture involves the introduction of the necessary fertilizers. The best for lettuce are nitrogen-potassium top dressings, adding which, they also observe certain rules:
β’ the concentration of fertilizers in solutions is halved compared to the recommended norm in the instructions for the preparations;
β’ top dressing is applied strictly under the root, avoiding contact with leaves;
β’ fertilize plantings a week after planting seedlings or seedlings.
Gardeners practice growing crops in the neighborhood of plants that repel pests. Those are considered spinach, peas, nightshade. A favorite neighbor of such a crop as lettuce is leek.
Thus, cultivation of lettuce is a simple process that brings benefits and satisfaction.