How To Grow Perfect Lettuce Every Time! 🥬

If you haven't tasted fresh homegrown lettuces , you're missing out .

In fact , lettuces offer fresh leaves for picking almost year round .

It's a great crop for beginner gardeners , but there are a few tips you'll need to bear in mind for the healthiest plants .

Hi , I'm Ben .

And if you're a salad nut like me and want to up your lettuce growing game , you've come to the right place because here come my top tips for growing perfect lettuce every time .

Mm so lettuces are a cold season crop , which means , actually , you can get on and sow them nice and early .

They prefer a moisture retentive fertile soil so you can improve your soil simply by adding plenty of well rotted organic matter , such as compost in the weeks before sowing and sowing , direct outside commences about four weeks before your last frost date .

If you want to get on and start them a bit earlier like I do , then you can start them off indoors or undercover in a greenhouse cold frame or hoop house , for example , if possible , grow them under some grow lights .

If it's very gloomy , like it is here , that's very important in the winter because there simply isn't enough strong light to get them off to a great start .

So let's sew them .

I'm using just a normal multipurpose potting mix and filling up my pots , and I'm sewing into pots like this , so I can , uh , well , they take up less less room like this , and then I can , uh , transplant them into their own little plugs once they've germinated , and I'm scattering a very scant pinch of seeds over the surface like that .

Space them out if I can , because it means you can let them grow on a bit longer in the pot before they go into their own little plugs or pots and then to cover them over just the merest suggestion of potting mix about a quarter inch or half a centimetre , just enough just to cover them so they're out of the light .

Or you could just cover them with a bit of pearl light or vermiculite as well .

That would work just as well and just gently firm that in .

And then give that a little water .

These will be going under grow lights .

Uh , once they've germinated , I'll be germinating them inside with a little bit of warmth , and then once they've got a bit bigger and then towards the end of winter , they'll come out into the greenhouse .

Now , I'd like to show you some that I sewed only one week ago , which are now ready to transplant into plug trays .

So let's do that .

So these guys were germinated literally seven days ago , and they put on good growth .

They were germinated inside on a window sill , so you can see they're leaning to one side .

So now's the time to get these into their own plug trays and then have them onto the grow light so they can firm up .

So start by filling our plug tray .

And again , I'm simply using multipurpose compost .

Tamp it down and my trusty little stick here to help gonna carefully ease them out of the pot .

Probably just take about half of these .

And then , if you can get as much of the original potting mix as you can and then just , uh , pop , poke them in like that , there we are .

You can set them a little bit lower than they are here to help support them , so this one's come out with none of its original potting mix .

But you can see the long tap root there .

Try and feed that down carefully , as much as possible and then down .

So it's somewhat supported , and these are very , very delicate seedlings , but very , very resilient , too .

So as long as you don't damage the main brutal stem , they'll do just fine for you .

So they're all transplanted now into plug trays , and I wanted to show you this one , which is one I had transplanted one week ago .

These were watered , they all flattened down .

They sprung back up the next day , and I've grown them on , so it shows you how quickly they can .

Um , they can bulk out , and that's in this cooler weather .

So once they've filled their plug trays , they're good to go outside .

And at the start of the season , you can help them along by covering individual plants with bottomless um , milk bottles , for example , or clear plastic bottles or just simply spreading out a road cover of fleece like that just to keep the chill off .

And to help them acclimatise , they'll be planted 9 to 12 inches that's say 23 to 30 centimetres apart .

in both directions to give them plenty of room .

Then I'll make further sewings every three or four weeks as necessary .

The big problem comes in midsummer with the heat , but more on that in a minute .

Bolting is simply the fancy word for when crops flower prematurely before you've had a chance to harvest them .

In most cases , this renders the crop inedible .

And that's certainly the case with lettuces , whose leaves become tough .

And it also produces a truly wince inducing , bitter milky sap .

At this point , lettuces are good for one thing only , and that's digging up and adding to the compost pile .

Lettuces are cool season crops and cannot stand hot , dry weather , and this is often what causes them to bolt .

So keep your lettuces well watered in dry , hot weather .

You can also try growing them in shade , either by rigging up some shade cloth or by growing them in the shade of taller crops like , say , tomatoes , corn or climbing beans .

Also keep the area around your lettuces well weeded , so there's less competition for available soil moisture .

Germination can also be a bit erratic in hot weather , and there are two ways around this one .

You simply germinate your lettuces indoors , especially if you've got air conditioning in a hot climate , say , and then once they've germinated , then plant them outside .

The other option , which is what I do , is to simply make your drill to sew them into and then water along it .

Let it drain water along it again and then sow your seeds and then fill them over .

And that way you've got a nice , cool , wet cushion around your seeds to help them germinate .

Lettuces are generally pretty trouble free , but there are two arch nemesis that might hamper your efforts if they're left to get away with it .

Slugs and aphids Let's tackle those horrid slugs .

First of all , now , how often have you got your lettuce leaves in , only to discover that there are holes munched into them .

And there's a great big slug under there that's happened to me on more than one occasion , and it's not very nice , is it ?

So this is what I do now is I set up slug traps .

I simply sink a shallow tray or pot like this .

This is a rain into the ground at ground level and then fill it up with beer .

The slugs love the stuff .

They go into the slug traps , they drown , and they come to a sticky but probably quite happy ending .

And then you need to empty them out and refill regularly .

You don't need to use expensive beer .

Doesn't need enough to be alcoholic , but it is important that you check them and empty them regularly .

Other ways to keep slugs in check are to make sure they're properly spaced .

Remove all those weeds and any bits of debris lying around so there aren't any hiding places for them .

And do check any lurking places that there might be and pick out any slugs you find .

The great thing about going out and seeking slugs and these beer slug traps is that they won't harm any other wildlife .

It's controlling pests , naturally working with nature and not leaving a footprint on the land .

And I think that's really important Now .

The other common pest of lettuces is aphids , and the best way to control any aphids .

Whether that's black bean aphid , woolly aphid or rose aphid in the case of lettuces , is to attract their predators , things like hoverflies lace wings , lady birds or lady bugs and tiny , non stinging parasitic wasps .

The best flower for that , in the case of lettuces , is Alison .

Alison is a beautiful , sweet , perfumed annual flower that attracts the parasitic wasps and hoverflies .

The hoverflies are attracted to the nectar , and then they lay their eggs , and it's the larvae that then go on to eat the aphids in prodigious quantities .

Now organic growers in California often grow allium amongst their lettuces , growing as much as 10% of their surface area for Alice versus lettuce to help with pest control .

And that's something I think I will try this coming growing season .

There are lots of other plants that will attract beneficial bugs like this calea poached egg plant and zinia , for example , and it's really good practise to grow them in amongst your vegetables .

For this reason , companion planting like this is actually the topic of our next video .

So if you like the sound of that , then do keep your eyes peeled or turn on notifications .

Now , when it comes to harvesting your lettuces , you've got two broad types .

Loose leaf lettuces , which don't form a tight , close knit head , and head forming lettuces that do , and both require slightly different harvesting techniques .

Now , with loose leaf lettuces , you can just cut them at the base and harvest the whole head .

But a more smarter way to harvest them , perhaps , is to harvest individual leaves at a time , taking them from the outside of the of the cluster and leaving the central ones to grow on .

Now these have been overwintered these lettuces , and I'll just demonstrate that just click them off between your finger , your forefinger and your thumb like that .

And then you've got enough of the central Rosetta leaves to grow on , and those will grow bigger and then you'll take them from the outside again .

Now , with head forming lettuces , you simply pull up the entire plant or cut it off at the base .

But another clever way is to take off a few of the outer leaves while the plant is still quite young .

And then , once you've done that a few times , leave the plant to grow on and produce that nice fulls .

Some head .

Don't leave it too long to harvest your heading lettuces .

Otherwise the leaves will become quite tough .

So once you've harvested your leaves , especially in the summer .

You want to plunge them into a bucket or sink of cold water , and this serves two purposes .

One .

It washes the leaves so it gets rid of any residual bits of soil or grits .

And secondly , in the heat of summer , it cools the leaves down , and that's important so they don't go all floppy .

Once they've soaked for at least 5 to 10 minutes , you can lift them out and then flick them dry like that , or even better , use a salad spinner , then simply pack the leaves into plastic bags , roll them over and then pop them into the salad compartment of your refrigerator , where they should stay fairly fresh for up to a week .

I'm going to be growing .

Some remain lettuces this year , which form the basis to a really delicious salad , as well as some salad bowl types , which almost grow like weeds .

I tell you now , what lettuces do you fancy growing this year ?

Tell me in the comments below , you might also like to check out our video on growing winter salads like these for more tips on growing lettuces year round .

Don't miss out on that one .

And in fact , we've got loads of great content coming up on all sorts of vegetables , fruits and herbs .

So if you're new here today , don't be shy .

Subscribing and please do turn on notifications so you don't miss out .

I will catch you next time .