7 Types Of Salad For Your Garden. The Best Varieties. Sowing, Cultivation And Care. Description, Photo - Page 2 Of 8

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

1. Leafy salads

Lettuce of this species is distinguished by the tenderness of the leaves and the form of growth in the form of a loose rosette. Lettuce salads can be either whole-leafed, dissected or even pinnate. They have a smooth or scalloped, ruffle-like edge combined with the most variable palette of colors - from light green to yellowish, gray, purple, brown, spotted. A distinctive feature of them is also a fresh, very delicate taste, a tendency to deformation and rapid wilting after collecting the leaves.

The use of lettuce in cooking

This is the most delicate type of salad, which is not cut, but carefully torn and consumed only fresh. It is used mainly in a mixture with bitter and pepper salads, cold snacks, with butter or sour cream dressings. A versatile source of greens for culinary experimentation.

Sowing dates for leafy lettuce

The first sowing in the ground is carried out under a film or in greenhouses in early April, the last in August.

Leaf lettuce in greenhouse culture is sown from the beginning of March for unheated greenhouses and all year round, including winter for warm ones. Agrotechnology for both ground and greenhouse salads is similar.

The necessary conditions

Leafy salads are cold-resistant, they need a bright sunny location and will not be content with even partial shade. Salads should be planted on loose, light, nutritious soils, an admixture of sand is encouraged. You shouldn't grow lettuce in acidic soil: it only feels comfortable in neutral or slightly alkaline soils.

Sowing lettuce into the soil

Lettuce seeds are sown on beds with row spacing of about 20-35 cm. The maximum depth of immersion of seeds should not exceed 1.5 cm. Seedlings will appear in about 2 weeks or a little later in cold conditions. For all leafy salads, it is advisable to apply the technique of covering crops with spunbond or any other non-woven material in the early stages to accelerate germination. Crops are thinned out in the phase of the second or third true leaf, this culture can grow thickened, provided a constant selection of leaves for consumption.

The specifics of caring for leafy salads

Starting from the second week, seedlings need to remove weeds and loosen the soil as often as possible. Loosening is repeated with thinning and as an earthen crust forms. Watering is carried out during the slightest drought, carefully, trying not to stain the leaves. To retain moisture and cleanliness of the crop, it is better to mulch.

Harvesting and storage

The first crop is harvested during the thinning of the salads. Subsequent harvesting is carried out, if necessary, picking off the leaves selectively or at the age of 25-35 days, removing the entire plant.

The best varieties of lettuce:

• "Moscow greenhouse", an early variety that ripens in 30-35 days with half-raised rosettes of pale leaves about 25 cm in diameter;
• "Zabava" is a medium oily semi-erect variety with flat large leaves and a red color of the outer rows of leaves;
• “Oak MC”, a medium 30-day-old variety with erect rosettes up to 30 cm in diameter with a light color of leaves;
• "Ballet", a late oily variety with horizontal rosettes of large fan-shaped leaves and increased preservation of greenery;
• "Oaklif", a special species with oak-like leaves, unusual green or red-green color and nutty taste;
• purple "Lolla Rossa" and very light "Lolla Blonde" with very curly, elegant leaves, distinguished not only by increased decorativeness, but also by an intense taste with a light mustard.

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