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Lettucecabbage

Seedlings in the shade

Varieties sown:

Cabbage: greyhound

Lettuce: Butterhead


Lettuce do not germinate in heat like many other seeds. Prefering the cool, the seeds are in a cell in the shade. I have planted them in cells in the hope that the seeds will germinate and become a good few inches high with some leaves. By which time, the crops in the containers will have been harvested, with the lettuce and cabbage taking their places.


Lettuces leaves require a lot of watering, and this is recommended to be done in the morning, rather than in the evening.

The joy of cabbage is that as a brassica it fits nicely into the crop rotation scheme of things., However, there are certain cabbages for certain times of the year. I have no doubtedly missed a mark in planting them in early July. This means they may or may not necessarily heart up and be cabbages 'proper'.


These two crops are off course just asking for trouble when it comes to pests. Gardeners galore have dealt death blows for centuries when it comes to slugs, snails and cabbage flies. That is also another reason as to why these have not been sewn direct.


Lettuce seedlings

Lettuce seedlings mid july

In mid July, seedlings are lurking in the green house til later. These were kept in the green house and left to their own devices. However, one day, the sun made an appearance. Causing them all to cook through. Cue a mad dash with a watering can, hoping that the lettuce and cabbage crop would be rejuvenated. Alas, that didn't seem to work. The cabbages were really crispy and cooked through. Another batch were sown immediately. At the moment, early August, they are left to their own devices in a shady spot.


Lettuce

Butterhead lettuces

Cabbage

Greyhound Cabbage

On the left are Butterhead lettuces. On the right are Greyhound cabbages.These have been transplanted into grow bags that previously housed tendergreen dwarf beans and scarlet emperor runner beans. Slug pellets were put down as a preventative measure. And boy did the slugs arrive! Both of these will need regualr watering, the lettuces will have to monitored carefully as they do not like being transplanted.


Lettucebatchtwo

Second batch of butterhead lettuce

There were a lot of successful leaves. This is the second batch on the left of butterhead lettuces. The first batch presented itself with long leaves, that were lovely and green. The ones on the left, were smaller, but still lovely and more cut and come again. Unlike the cabbages, these are a success!

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