As you can see I grow some of my lettuce in a hanging basket which is lined with an old fleece, I like bright colours. Last year I bought a somewhat more tasteful coir liner which the blackbirds removed most of in about 10 days to line their nests with, so I decided to put an old fleece to good use. There are a few radishes growing at the back of the basket as well.
Growing lettuce this way certainly avoids problems with slugs and snails! I don’t grow any lettuce in the ground now after being forced into discovering the benefits of growing it in containers when I only had a patio garden.
Growing lettuce is quite easy but there are a couple of tips it is helpful to know.
Lettuce is a cool weather crop, seeds rarely germinate at temperatures above 20°C which of course can cause problems sowing them in June, July, August and nowadays sometimes in September too. With fast maturing crops such as lettuce it is best to sow a few seeds every couple of weeks to keep your supply constant (technical term – successional sowing). Their preferred temperature for the best germination is 15 – 18°C, so rather than sowing seeds in a bed (unless it is out of direct sun) it is much better to sow them in a seed tray or pots that can be put in a position where the sun does not reach them. If you have to sow in a bed, do so first thing in the morning after a cool night and immediately rig up something to stop the sun heating up their bit of soil, an upturned cardboard vegetable tray or a bit of plywood resting on bricks or a double layer of fleece for 10 days or so until the seeds are up. I think I might try putting my next lot in a tray underneath my shed.
Once the seeds are up at this time of year you are still going to have to keep them out of constant direct sunlight – now you know what to put in those shady corners. Or you can plant them out under taller plants that will provide shade for them either shrubs or slow maturing vegetables with lots of foliage like kale or turnips or better still under your strawberries which are recommended companion plants for lettuce.
These are growing in a long plastic planter and it is in the sun for about 3 hours a day. When the seeds were first sown I put them under shrubs where they got no sun at all. If you are growing anything in these long tubs it is a good idea to tie a bit of string right around them in the middle if you intend to move them when filled. They tend to sag in the middle and soil/plants can be dislodged or evicted. Growing in this one I have flat leaved parsley, cut and come again lettuce (variety – Salad Bowl), land cress and oak leaf lettuce, it is right outside the kitchen door, if it is very hot I move it a few feet over into more shade.
Lettuce do not like being transplanted once they get past the smallish seedling stage, really they need to be transplanted for the last time when they are about 2″ or 5-6cm tall. If you do transplant them at a later stage they do tend to bolt which means instead of growing into nice lettuces they start producing seed stalks rather than leaves and the remaining leaves tend to get hard and tough. If possible sow them where you want them to grow and if they are overcrowded gently pull a few out, without disturbing the others if possible. You can of course eat the thinings.
Lettuce does like moisture retentive soil but does not like very rich soil as it can cause rotting at the base of the stems, so don’t grow it on top of this year’s manured bed, for the same reason it does not need feeding.
You can have lettuce growing nearly all the year round by using cloches or a greenhouse in the autumn and winter and by starting seeds off indoors late winter and early spring.
Slugs, snails and aphids will be fighting you for control of your lettuce so check them often, millipedes and cutworms can also be a problem.
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I have done a post in the last couple of days about autumn and winter alternatives for lettuce here
THis is a great article. I am going to talk about this on our blog
Great post!
I’ve been growing lettuces recently, and have had some interesting results.
I might try the hanging basket for the front of our house, my wife does not like hanging baskets, but when she see’s the results I hope that she will come around.
Hi Ben
Is the front of your house in the shade? Having read on your blog that you can get temperatures up to 40C unless you are using Aussie heat proof lettuce (if there is such a thing) it might be too warm for them.
Cherry tomatoes grow very well in hanging baskets if you are trying to convert your wife to them.
Angie
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I would be interested to know more about growing lettuce in a hanging pot, as I have a patio that might be put to use in that way!
My questions are:
1. How many things do you grow in a pot? Lettuce and radishes – anything else? Do they complement each other? How do you make sure the soil remains nutritious – do you “mulch” in that little pot? 😉
2. I live in England and my patio faces straight north. So, not all that much frost, not much hot weather either, short days long nights in the winter, and only a few hours of sunlight in the morning (if that!) – Do you reckon there is any chance this might work?
Depends how big/deep the pot is. I normally just grow lettuce (usually the cut and come again type) and radishes in my largish hanging basket. I line the basket with plastic and put only a few small holes in it for drainage otherwise I would have to water it several times a day. I usually water every day with a seaweed liquid feed diluted to about a quarter of the normal strength once everything is growing strongly.
Where I grow my baskets of lettuce faces north/north east and also only gets a few hours of sun as it is blocked by the house next door. Lettuces do not like a lot of direct sun and sometimes will not germinate if it is too hot.
Good luck
Angie
[…] How To Grow Lettuce From A Hanging Planter […]
I am confused. If you are still there, can you please advise.
I read in your postings that lettuce do not want rich soil so don’t feed or put too much compost, then I read: feed daily with seaweed… which is it? I am about to make a pot to sow lettuce in, so far have put about 2/3 soil from garden, 1/3 peat free New Horizon (rough) compost from last yr’s bag and about 1/12th perltie: will this be OK? Wil it need feeding or not and at what point?
Ta!
Helen