Something weird happened to my vegetables

Tweet

I thought I had probably experienced many of the problems that can occur when growing vegetables – slugs and snails, mice and squirrels, aphids, leaf miners… and of course weather - too wet, too dry or too cold. But then there’s always something new it seems. This year I encountered a new phenomenon. Back in the spring I sowed lettuce seed in a hanging basket in the greenhouse, where they were safe from the voracious monster slugs. They did well – so well in fact that I couldn’t eat them all and had to take the basket camping with us and share them about! So as soon as we were back, I re-filled the basket with fresh compost and sowed some more seeds. At first nothing happened, but then eventually a few of the seeds grew. But then they just stopped! At less than an inch, they formed little miniature lettuces and they just stayed that way ever since, for more than four months! I’ve known lettuce to not germinate, or to be eaten by various pests, or to go straight to seed, but this is a new one for me. Perfect dolls’ house-size lettuces that just stay that way apparently forever! Well they have now been recycled on the compost heap. Has anyone else ever had a problem like this? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.