The video I made for today talks about straw bale gardening and lettuce.
Lettuce is a cool weather plant so you will want to start it now, if you are in the south. Check for when your last frost will be for your area. It can germinate in soil temperatures of 40 degrees F but best between 60-65 degrees. It germinates quickly and will continue to produce after harvest, so you can get multiple yields.
There are a TON of different varieties of lettuce, so you can choose your favorite. The one I planted in the straw bale is green salad bowl. I chose this variety because it is more heat tolerant and slow to bolt (flower and seed). I do leaf lettuces instead of head lettuces for easy, peasy harvest.
Here are some quick lettuce growing tips for success:
1. Make sure your soil is loose and cool. Hot soil will cause the plants to bolt and produce seed. This is great if you want to save seed, not so great if you want to eat it, as the leaves will be bitter.
2. If you want the lettuce to last longer before bolting in hot weather, give it some shade.
3. Lettuce has a shallow root system, so check to see how dry the soil is, you will probably need to water at least 2 times per week and more often if it is in a pot.
4. The tastiest, most tender leaves for eating are the young leaves. You can trim the entire plant about an inch above the ground with scissors and then allow the plant to regrow (this only works for leaf lettuces). I’ll do a video on this when it is time to harvest mine.
