The harvests from your kitchen garden are always priceless though it is a vegetable thats available very cheap in stores outside; though you spent a lot on growing it than what its worth.. Though its available in plenty. But the Joy goes one level higher if you start growing something that you dont get outside easily and its very expensive. Yeah!!.. I am making my way towards the title of this post. “The Lettuce”.
Before we start on the techniques of it, a little primer. There are several varieties of Lettuce.
-
Butterhead
-
Chinese lettuce
-
Crisphead/Iceberg
-
Loose leaf
-
Romaine/Cos
The ones that we get in the super market is mostly Iceberg. It has more water content, and is very crisp. But it is of very less nutritional value. There are other varieties of Lettuce that do have very high nutritional value. Those lettuce that have a mild flavor and pigmented leaves are rich in nutrients and Anti-oxidants.
What are the Cultivars that I sowed:
-
Lolla Rosa [Loose leaf]
-
Red Salad Bowl [Oakleaf Lettuce]
-
Marvel of Four Seasons [ Butter head]
-
Great Lakes 118.[Ice berg]
Though the varieties are different, the sowing technique remains the same. FYI, Lettuce belongs to the family Asteraceae ( Same as Sunflower, Daisy etc).
Seed starting:
Lettuce seeds look like this. The darker seeds are of “Red” colored leaves.
Step 1:
Fill your seedling tray with moist seed starting mix. Your seed starting mix must be free of any pathogens/fungi. Using a sterile seed starting mix will avoid “Damping-off”. Here I use washed Coco-peat/Coco-coir/Coir-pith. Its not soggy but moist.
Step 2:
Take your dibber and make half centimeter pit in each cell of the seedling tray. An old toothbrush can be beheaded to make a dibber as in this picture.
Step 3:
Sow the seeds two per hole. I sow two per hole. If you think one per hole is fine, goahead with one per hole. Once you have sown the seeds completely. Cover the seeds with little coco peat on all the cells. Sprinkle some water using a sprayer if the media is little dry. And important thing, If you are sowing more than one variety of the same veggie, then Label them.
The seeds are sown in the following order from left to right: Great Lakes, Lolla Rossa, Red Salad Bowl, Marvel of Four seasons and the last row is not actually lettuce it is Cabbage 
. I had just 4 cultivars of lettuce.
More later
gg
Chandramouli.S said,
May 14, 2009 at 6:16 am
You’re lucky, gg, to get so many varieties and talk about cultivars! Wish we get that in Chennai too… [SIGH] Well, I wouldn’t blame the shops but the people – they just aren’t so enthusiastic here….
rajapanda said,
May 14, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Hi GG,
This is just excellent!! Me and wife are huge lettuce fans
Would you mind seed sharing if you have more of them ?
KitchenGardener
arundati said,
May 19, 2009 at 10:13 am
Hi GG,
Long time no write… good to see you doing well ….i wonder if Vinitha is not feeling a little neglected !!!!!!!!!!
As for me, havent had any time for my garden as my father suffered a stroke March end, was hospitalised for a week and my parents are now with me…
Gardening activities are confined to adding manure and watering , keeping them alive through summer..
Of course , i have been reading your posts regularly and feel good.
keep posting…:)
Chandramouli said,
May 22, 2009 at 4:54 pm
That’s a sad truth, but come to think of it, we Indians in ancient times were supposed to be experts at gardening and used to give garden a special importance. Out Ancient Legends talk about how to grow trees, how important it is to have gardens/parks, and we even had florists as an esteemed profession! Florists unlike today’s were learned in which flower would imbibe which mood, and all that stuff… Hope we don’t lose it all…
Gururaj said,
May 28, 2009 at 3:36 pm
This is the first time I have seen lettuce seeds! Thanks. I grow lettuce throughout the year and it is an indispensable part of my morning breakfast – sold as young plants here in Japan. Coir is again one item I miss here in Japan (sigh)! It might sound funny to you but next time I come to India, I’m going to get lots of coir and curry leaf seeds.
gururajr said,
May 30, 2009 at 3:19 am
Well, there’s no coconut tree in mainland Japan
. So coir as are many natural items available dirt cheap in other countries, will be imported into Japan. Peat moss is available here and I do use it where it helps retain moisture. Sure, I’ll catch up with you next time I’m in B’lore.
Nipendra Singh said,
June 5, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Respected Sir
with due respected i am english vegetavles growers os i want hybrid lettuce seed variety raider please contect me.
thanks nipendra singh chauhan
moradabad U.P.
moile no. 09927117560
Satish K said,
July 3, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Hi,
Could you please share with me the source of the seeds?
Do you also have pics of the final crop?
Thank you so much.
Regards
Satish
Satish K said,
August 28, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hi,
I am excited to tell you that we have started large scale farming of lettuce. Sadly i couldnt get the seeds from the bangalore address you mentioned, as i live in Delhi.
I imported them from USA and we have sown over 15 acres of land with iceberg and Romaine/Cos variety.
I would be more than happy to share the pictures if anyone is interested. Or if anyone wants to try farming it in large scale with me.
We have over 300 acres of farm land with unlimited water supply.
Thank you
Satish
iFarm Produce India
http://www.ifarm.in
+91 9750404690
Rakshi said,
September 25, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Hey i just got the seeds 1-2 weeks back. Can i sow them now?
Seed Saving Lettuce « Geekgardener’s Weblog said,
October 20, 2009 at 11:29 pm
[...] Tags: dormant, germination, lettuce, seed saving, seeds, seedstarting Earlier I wrote about Seed starting Lettuce with many pictures of various steps involved. I couldn’t blog about the results actually. Anyway, [...]
geekgardener said,
May 14, 2009 at 8:05 am
Its the people my friend. There are lots of excellent gardening products that just fade away as there are no takers or they feel its not worth the price. The price factor is because of not much demand. Anyways. we can talk about it all day!!…
If you see india as a whole we are still so behind in gardening compariing to other countries. Look at Israel, they are pioneers in many things agri/horti now.
geekgardener said,
May 19, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hello Arundati,
I am shocked to hear that. Must have been a difficult time for you. Hope your dad’s health is getting better now. With emergencies like this, you are finding time to manure and water the plants. That by itself is a great thing. It shows your passion. It is readers like you who motivate me to post more often.
.
How are your Hibiscuses doing?.
I am back on gardening at top gear. About Vinitha, she gets really excited about my garden and helps me start seeds, water plants and keeping my garden clean (which i was very bad at).
Take care & Happy gardening
gg
geekgardener said,
May 22, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I cannot agree more. If you get a chance do search the web for “Vrikshayurveda” . It is about ayurveda for plants/trees. Our ancestors have done research on these things to an unimaginable degree. Look at the spectrum of herbs we have. Most of these herbs are exported
. What about us? . Why should someone from outside tell us how to use “Neem oil” or even Compost tea?. We take lots of things for granted these days and we are busy copying the developed countries. In fact, we are so busy copying that we dont even know that we know(knew) so much. But the good news is we are improving. We will get there..
geekgardener said,
May 28, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Hi Guru,
Haa, I know how it feels. Infact, I wouldn’t bother sowing them if i can get lettuce seedlings here. ( finding lettuce is difficult here let alone their seedlings
.
Let me tell you something, When I started off gardening, i used to search for alternative mediums and Peat moss is the one that tops the list and I will be like frustrated so much since its something I don’t have access to. But once I started using cocopeat, I lost the need for peat. Does garden centres in Japan stock them?. You can check in some bedding mart/couch makers. Coco coir, before it was a big hit in horticulture, was used primarily as a cushion for bedding.
Let me know when you come to Bangalore. We shall meet up.
gg
geekgardener said,
June 10, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hello Nipendra,
Welcome to my blog. The lettuce I have are all OP varieties and not a hybrid one. I will check out in Bangalore, if the variety you mention is available or not.
gg.
geekgardener said,
July 4, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Hi Satish,
I buy seeds from different places. The lettuce seeds i got are from DOH & A seed shop near INDAM in K R Road. I have the pics and will post it soon. Work got too hectic and couldnt find time to blog.
gg