Lettuce - You can really taste the difference.
As it was mentioned in the previous post I picked myself up a couple of punnets of baby mignonette lettuce. It was more than I probably needed but I wanted a mixture of the green mignonette and the bronze more exotic looking lettuce (exotic is not a word often lent to lettuce). I knew I had a couple of pots lying around that would be ideal.
Now the key to getting the most out of lettuce that you’re growing at home is to use the leaves that you want and let the plant keep growing. Doesn’t work with all types of lettuce (I can’t for the life of me picture a baby iceberg in my head) but it should be right with these ones. It is surprising the amount of flavour that is contained in these baby leaves especially when all you are used to is that store bought bland iceberg.
So I split the lettuce into two teams. The upstairs deck team and the downstairs in a giant pot team. I’m interested in seeing if there is any difference in the two. Not being scientifically minded I’ve put all the bronze downstairs (except for one lone plant that I’ve put in a pot on its own) and all the green upstairs in their little pots. I don’t think there should be that big a difference in how they grow so I should still get a decent comparison.
With downstairs it is just a big pot with a lot of potting mix in it and I’ve spaced the baby lettuce out around it. With the upstairs ones I had three longer pots and put them three a piece except for one that is two.
One of the cool things about lettuce too is how it reacts so quickly to being watered. It can be all limp and dead looking and then you give it a little water and they all perk up!
Reading up on it the concerns are slugs and snails and I’ll keep an eye out for them. However with the drought I can’t say I’ve seen too many of either! The plants prefer full sun in order to get them to grow to their full potential but can thrive almost as well in semi shade.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Let us (or should that be lettuce?) just hope that the dogs stay away and let the little cuties grow!!