Lettuce Pray
By Marie Anne
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
United States
July 16, 2008 9:09am CST
... for more lettuce!
I haven't updated on any of my gardening in a while and since I was sharing this picture with some email friends, decided now was a good time to post it here too.
I've never grown lettuce before, but on a whim decided to toss a few seeds on top of an old houseplant pot. I wasn't expecting much, but they germinated in just a few days and I've been eating if for a couple of weeks now.
What's good about lettuce is that it grows very fast and even when you pick a few leaves, that spurs the rest of the plants to grow more, which extends the harvest almost indefinitely. I usually pick several leaves a day (great on a tuna sandwich!) and by the next day the pot is even fuller than before.
All of this was grown in a simple 8" pot. I think it looks pretty good!
If you haven't tried growing lettuce, I encourage you to give it a shot. It's one of the plants that doesn't mind cooler temperatures, so even though it's fairly late to be starting a lot of things, lettuce should do fine if you wanted to start some now.
1 person likes this
8 responses
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
16 Jul 08
my grandmother use to take new lettuce ,onions & radishes if she had them & pour hot fried meat grease over it. not good for you i'm sure but very tasty.
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I've never heard of anything like that. I can't imagine lettuce in any sort of hot dish.
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
16 Jul 08
that's good ol' tennessee soul food. try it u might like it. lol
2 people like this
@lloydanthony111 (4698)
• United States
17 Jul 08
I have 3 lettuce plants in my garden. It's really cool to go in your garden and get something to eat.
I like the fact that the leaves keep coming back.
I also have red cabbage in my garden. The head is starting to turn into a ball. It's really hard. Red cabbage can be eaten raw in salads or it can be cooked.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Lloyd
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
17 Jul 08
I think there are three in this little pot alone. When I saw them sprout, I honestly didn't think that it would do that well all scrunched in that little pot, but you see the proof!
1 person likes this
@sweetdesign (5142)
• United States
18 Jul 08
You really have a green thumb. All your plants look so good. That lettuce is just crying out to be a salad lol. My tomatoes are still doing real good. The onions are doing great. The cucumber despite being the ugliest plant ever has given me 3 cukes it just looks hideous. I don't think the pot is giving it enough root space. the squash is a good looking plant but doesn't produce anything but flowers that die and fall off. my pepper plant is still giving me peppers and has gotten nice and big.
1 person likes this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
18 Jul 08
I have the one cucumber plant in a container and I think it too, was too small. I got one short, fat cuke very close to the base of the plant and another one about half grown at the complete other end of the plant. I finally just picked and cut up the first one last night, hoping it'll help the other one grow better.
The short/fat one didn't appear to be growing any larger and it was getting lighter in color so I figured I'd better try to salvage it. It was pretty firm and tasted ok, but nothing special.
I put three plants in one little corner of the house and ohmygoodness, those took off like crazy and are growing all over the place. They are the bush variety and three of them are supposed to be able to grow in a 12" pot, so I don't know why these have spread out so much. I've got one cuke almost picking size there, and about 3-4 more that are just starting out, with plenty more possible as there are loads more male and female flowers still coming in.
@GardenGerty (157735)
• United States
18 Jul 08
I will wait a little later, as we are actually in our hotter months until about September, but I would love to grow lettuce. I used to plant green leaf lettuce, and red leaf lettuce. I hope to get some fall crops in, still waiting for tomatoes to ripen, homegrown are so wonderful. I will have to see what containers I have to grow some in.
1 person likes this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
18 Jul 08
My tomatoes are doing nicely and I have a few more cukes coming in too. The sugar snap peas are about done and I just finished pulling out the bean plants. I'm still undecided if I want to put anything else in or not.
I wanted to put broccoli in, but I've not done it before and after doing some reading yesterday, I'm not sure it will do well in the space that I have to put it in.
@mentalward (14691)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I totally understand the joy of picking your own fresh lettuce! I've grown lettuce almost every year for a couple of decades. One year I went nuts and grew about 20 plants. I had lettuce coming out of my ears! There are only so many ways you can eat lettuce! I won't do that again!!!
I eat a lot of salads, so I love growing fresh lettuce. One seed costs a LOT less than a head of lettuce! And you are so right about growing them in a pot. You can grow them just about anywhere. I actually had one growing on my kitchen windowsill!
I plan to throw in some dandilion greens next Spring with my lettuce, fresh radishes and spring onions. Yum!!!!!!!
Now, where does one get "bacon seeds"? LOL
2 people like this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I've never thought of growing lettuce in a garden before, it just didn't make sense to waste garden space for something you don't need a lot of. I'm sure glad I decided to try it in a pot, though, and you can bet I'll continue to do just that.
Hmmm ... bacon seeds. I wonder if planting bacon bits would yield anything? Why don't you give it a try and let me know how it turns out, LOL.
1 person likes this
@tamarafireheart (15384)
•
17 Jul 08
Hello Ldyjarhead,
Thank you for posting your discussion here and Im you did. I done the same with tomato I was sliceing a tomato one day and I was cleaning up when I just threw the bit of slice tomato and seed in a pot, it started germinated and now they are quite tall and flowering, don't know when it will start fruiting. Can lettuce be grown indoors? Thanks.
Tamarafireheart.
2 people like this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
17 Jul 08
Wow, you did that with a slice of tomato? That's neat!
I don't know if it can be grown indoors, but I imagine if it was in a location that got enough sun it could. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (170796)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I had a nice lettuce crop last fall. I plan to plant some more like in a month or so.
I think I will plant some broccoli too in about a month. I'm not having to much luck so far with the tomatoes anyway. I hope they will turn red. Anyway, i like veggies from the garden.
1 person likes this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
17 Jul 08
I've been thinking about putting broccoli and/or cauliflower in the spot that my sugar snap peas are since they're about done.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
16 Jul 08
I grow lettuce in my garden. Every summer we make my dad tons of lettuce soup. i swear its the yuckiest stuff in the world...cream, lettuce, bacon and some other stuff. But he loves it and its got to be garden lettuce used to make it or he wont eat it.
1 person likes this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
17 Jul 08
Oh goodness, lettuce soup doesn't sound appetizing at all. Lettuce is supposed to be crisp!
