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Lettuce General.
Italian lettuces come in all sizes, shapes and textures. You can harvest them at any state – as ‘mesclun’ when
they are 3-4 inches high, as baby lettuce where you serve the entire head, or as
traditional full sized plants. Some
lettuces do best in the relatively cool weather of spring and fall.
Most butterheads like 4 seasons and regina di maggio and romaines prefer
the cool weather. Crisp heads like rossa di trento, loose leafs like lollo
rossa and biscia rossa and cutting lettuces like bionda do well in summer as
well as spring and fall. If you are
growing for ‘mesclun’ or baby size, all
will do well at any time of year. Lettuces
are very cold hardy and will survive a significant frost. Lettuce in the unheated greenhouse routinely survives the
entire winter here in zone 5-6 (southern New England). Planting.
Lettuce prefers a fairly fertile soil
with a high nitrogen content and requires a regular supply of moisture.
We recommend using 4-6 week transplants for several reasons.
First you often have a little space here and there where you can tuck six
or eight lettuce transplants. Secondly,
it makes weed control easier. Hoe
before transplanting. Hoe again in
a few weeks when more weeds have just emerged.
After that, the lettuce is usually big enough to shade out most weed
growth. Finally, lettuce germinates
poorly when temperatures are above 80-85 degrees.
In mid summer use of transplants, perhaps started in a cooler basement,
is almost required. If you direct
seed, put 3-4 seeds every foot in rows one foot apart. Thin to one plant. You
can seed as early as the soil can be worked.
Make new plantings every 2-3 weeks for a continuous harvest.
For transplants, you can put them out 4 weeks before the last frost date
(6weeks if you give them some protection with remay cloth).
Colors tend to be more intense in cooler weather.
For example, spring planted 4-stagioni lettuce are usually a creamy green
with red on the tips of leaves. 4-stagioni
that matures in October is almost completely red. Mesclun mix, cutting lettuce. Plant in a well prepared bed.
Thinly scatter seeds over the surface trying to get them ½-1 inch apart
(just scatter them and don’t worry all that much about spacing).
If you have some finely sifted compost, cover the bed with @ 1-8-1/4 inch
of compost. If not, just drag an
iron rake through the area you seeded and tamp everything well with your hands,
hoe or whatever. Keep the bed moist until seedlings emerge.
Depending on the weather, it will take anywhere from three to seven days. Harvest when 4-5 inches high by cutting about ½ inch above the soil line.
Make plantings every 2-3 weeks for a continuous harvest. If you use four foot beds, a 2 foot section of bed will
provide you with plenty of lettuce for several weeks.
You can also dig out some of your seedlings and transplant them elsewhere
to grow on to baby or full size heads. Pests & disease.
There are virtually no insect pests that bother lettuce.
Wire worm can be a problem in early spring, but can usually be defeated
by placing a paper collar around transplants. Radicchio, endive, chicory
& escarole. General.
Chicory is a perennial, but usually grown as an annual.
Radicchio are chicory. Endives
are annuals. Both are closely
related and one is often called the other.
Escarole is a type of endive. Most
chicory forms some sort of head and most endives are loose leaf, but not always. All grow best in cool weather and are
normally grown in spring (from transplants) or fall (direct seed or
transplants). Like lettuce, color
deepens as it becomes cooler. The
beautiful brilliant red/white radicchio like Treviso or Rossa di Verona are
often ‘forced’. Forcing means
in the fall you dig up the plant, cut off the head, cut the root back to 10-12
inches and replant it in a pot, usually filled with peat moss.
Cover it with a pail, black plastic, etc. to keep out light and let it
regrow at 50-60 degrees (a basement works well). In two weeks or so, you will have new growth which is
bitter/sweet and has that beautiful contrasting color of white stems and red
leaves. Typical forcing chicory are
Treviso, Rossa di Verona and Palla Rossa. Of
course, you do not have to force your chicory.
Just grow it and enjoy it. Or
you can have your cake and eat it too; dig
it up, cut off the head and eat it, then bring it inside and force it. Endives, including escarole, are often
‘blanched’ to lighten color and change the taste somewhat.
It is fairly simple to do. Seven
to 14 days before harvest, withhold light from the plant. You can do this by putting a pail or pot or plastic bag over
the plant or you can tie up the leaves with string. If you do this, make sure the leaves are dry and you untie it
if the leaves get wet. Culture.
All prefer soil conditions similar to lettuce;
loose, well drained soil with a higher than average fertility, especially
nitrogen. In the north, spring
crops can usually be grown with 4-6 week transplants set out four weeks or so
before the last frost date. For
fall crops, direct seed or set out transplants in July or very early August.
Escarole and endive can go out a bit later.
Direct seed 3-4 seeds every 12-16 inches in rows 16” apart.
Set transplants at same depth they were growing.
Provide a constant source of water.
All of these will take very low temperatures and survive temperatures in
the low twenties. Loose leaf
varieties will survive the winter if given some protection or grown in an
unheated greenhouse. In warmer
areas (parts of zone 6, 7, 8, etc., you can leave them in the ground all winter.
If your climate is warm enough, you can even ‘force’ them outside.
Since chicory is a perennial, they will regrow the following spring. However, quality is not as good as those grown as annuals. Disease/pests.
Nothing much bothers these. You
might have some problems with wire worms or root maggots in the early spring,
but these can be controlled by using paper collars.
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