Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Alistair1392 on June 13, 2015, 20:32
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I heard somewhere the other day that if you harvest lettuces with the roots still attached, then cutting the edible end off, then submerge the roots in a pot of water that the lettuce would start to regrow. Now I'm into experimenting with plants so I thought it would be worth a go. So three days on and it's really growing strong again. The question is, when I go to replant it, as it's sat on the kitchen windowsill, will it need planting in the greenhouse then hardening off, or will it be happy enough going straight into the garden.
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Not heard of this one, but if you cut a lettuce and leave it's roots in the ground, it will often regrow.
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Much simpler to leave it where it was and just let it carry on isn't it!
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Isn't that why some salad mixes are called 'cut & come again'? :)
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The lettuce in question was one that I was given from a neighbouring allotment so that wasn't an option, in future I plan on just leaving the roots in the ground and feeding, I'm just playing around to be perfectly honest to see how it works out.
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Ah, now - my absolute favourite sort of lettuce - 'Cut and Come Again.' I grow them every year. I think the one I've got at the moment is Salad Bowl - green, crisp and ultra frilly! I grow them outdoors in pots and just two plants will last us all summer - they go on and on and on. Just pull a few leaves off the outside and the plant more than makes up for it. Superb! :D
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The cut and come again is amazing stuff. This lettuce I'm using isn't a cut and come again but seems to be working out that way. I just love playing around and experimenting with gardening and plants.
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Have a gurgle of growing veg from scraps, lots of experimenting ideas :)
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I buy living lettuce from Lidl, it's 69p I think & must contain at least 30 lettuce.
We eat the leaves then I seperate them out & plant them. Spaced further apart they always thrive for a second & sometimes third picking.
My 69p worth can last months!! & there is always a good mix of leaves.
A couple of pics, the bought tray & some planted in the garden.
Br
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Whilst I know that cut and come again lettuce works, I just sow lettuce regularly through the year, enough to get about 12 plants a fortnight. I plant them with a 7cm pots worth of compost so I keep adding to the soil (its heavy clay and needs all the help it can get).
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You'll never be short if you use this method of consecutive sowing. Doing the first stage prompts you to do the other two:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=113538.msg1299723#msg1299723
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You'll never be short if you use this method of consecutive sowing. Doing the first stage prompts you to do the other two:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=113538.msg1299723#msg1299723
That's more or less what I do. Except I sow three varieties in 7cm pots each time and then pot them up into 7cm pots 5 of each when they're large enough to handle. I have about 20 different lettuce varieties and cycle through them through the year so I get a variety of different sorts to choose from.
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I buy living lettuce from Lidl, it's 69p I think & must contain at least 30 lettuce.
We eat the leaves then I seperate them out & plant them. Spaced further apart they always thrive for a second & sometimes third picking.
My 69p worth can last months!! & there is always a good mix of leaves.
A couple of pics, the bought tray & some planted in the garden.
Br
I did this last year with a tray that had been reduced to 50p in the supermarket. It was amazing all Summer long. One of the red frilly ones went to seed and I have a few self sown red seedlings popped up now. Talk about good value for money! :D
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I just don't have the time to sow in pots & transplant. I did sow about 60 seeds in the spring, not one germinated. :(
I find that replanting the stumps works well for me. If my seed sowing had been successful, I might feel differently. :)
Br
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I just don't have the time to sow in pots & transplant. I did sow about 60 seeds in the spring, not one germinated.
I bet some did but the slugs saw them before you did :(
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It only takes a few minutes to sow in pots and transplant, in fact it's probably quicker than preparing a drill for the seed in open ground, especially if you have to re-sow as you're just growing slug food. You can also germinate them a lot quicker.
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Just happened to have a tray of living salad - I've just tried planting them out now. If I remember the last time I tried it I had trouble with them drying out. How long till the roots get established would you guess? I can water every day till the weekend then they have to take their chances for a few days.
Pip pip,
Balders
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Evening Balders I have found this too. Perhaps enrich ground with some multipurpose compost and or sink a pot as per squashes. Could even add some water retaining crystals as used hanging baskets.
Good luck HH
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Lidl salad transplanted out for me too. Still chopping the tops off the ones I planted out at Easter that replaced the ones in the cold frame over winter.
I'd say a few days would be ok Balders- they flop about and look really awful for a few days, but perk up after that. I shade mine with debris netting on a frame, especially when they are establishing
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I always grow lettuce now as come again.
My variety is French salad leaves mixed from DeRee.
Have a few pots on the go and when I start picking, then start sowing new ones.
Use small tubs to stop me growing too much.
Got some lettuce red and green salad bowl that was on a kitchen garden calendar and growing them in pots outside.
Do like this lidl method though, may give that a go too.
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I manage to make one sowing of Little Gem last all summer by sowing them quite thickly, then part picking as cut-and-come-again and part transplanting the young plants to create a succession of mature lettuces (Little Gem seem to be infinitely forgiving!)
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I bet some did but the slugs saw them before you did :(
Fair point but I was germinating them in a module tray? inside.
Perhaps it was too warm, although we don't have a "hot house"
I seem to remember failing last year as well.
I would say that pigguns has it right, a few days to settle in then off they go. Mine don't get watered every day.
If I remember I'll take another picture this weekend if there's any progress.
Br