{"id":4350,"date":"2013-05-16T02:53:15","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T09:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4350"},"modified":"2013-05-15T11:11:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T18:11:30","slug":"growing-lettuce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/growing-lettuce\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Lettuce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lettuce may not contain that many calories so it makes a great summer food crop.<br \/>\n<figure style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Lettuce\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2483\/3670575415_282ff68933.jpg?v=0\" alt=\"Lettuce\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lettuce in neat rows, looks a great sight as well as offering great crops<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>Growing lettuce is one of the most rewarding vegetable or salad crops. If you keep the slugs at bay, you will have a rewarding crop, even from a tiny space in the back garden.<\/p>\n<p>In summer, lettuce has a short growing season. It means within a couple of months, you can be cutting leaves for the salad bowl. The loose leaf varieties can be ready for harvest after only 6-8 weeks. If you sow at regular intervals and make use of cloches, you can have a supply of lettuce for a large part of the year.<\/p>\n<h3>Tips for Growing Lettuce<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Sow directly into the ground and thin out later. Lettuce doesn&#8217;t like being moved. If you have to sow in greenhouse, use modules for easy transfer.<\/li>\n<li>Lettuce do npot germinate well in hot temperatures.<\/li>\n<li>Lettuce like a humous rich soil, so make sure soil is well prepared, otherwise, the leaves will be tougher and more leathery.<\/li>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<li>Lettuce needs to be well watered but not on the leaves. This is essential for optimal growing.<\/li>\n<li>Lettuce would ideally be shaded from full summer sun. A lightly shaded area will be ideal. If it is hot, make sure they are well watered.<\/li>\n<li>Keep a check on greenfly and slugs, as they can decimate a crop.<\/li>\n<li>Lettuce can be sown in between slower growing vegetables to provide a catch crop.<\/li>\n<li>Some loose leaf varieties can have leaves harvested when you need them, the plant will keep growing and provide leaves over a long time period.<\/li>\n<li>Be ruthless in thinning out, don&#8217;t try to squash too many in an area.<\/li>\n<li>Sow at intervals of two weeks to provide a longer cropping season.<\/li>\n<li>For early (and late) season lettuce you can use cloches or cold frame and harden them off protecting from frosts and any cold spells.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lettuce may not contain that many calories so it makes a great summer food crop. Growing lettuce is one of the most rewarding vegetable or salad crops. If you keep the slugs at bay, you will have a rewarding crop, even from a tiny space in the back garden. In summer, lettuce has a short growing season. It means within a couple of months, you can be cutting leaves for the salad bowl. The loose leaf varieties can be ready&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/growing-lettuce\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}