Individually pot grown lettuce

Saw some 'fancy' lettuce in Tescos the other day that had been grown individually grown in (70 x 70mm?) pots with equally fancy cellophane wrapper and price of £1 each, and wondered if there was actually some advantage(s) in growing a few this way. They looked something like this:



I assume they are grown under cover, perhaps on capillary matting and placed at ever increasing distances apart until ready for shipping to the shops?

Perhaps if they were stood in a saucer and watered occasionally, the outer leaves could be gradually harvested, keep it fresher for longer?

Additionally, if you took a load of excess cut lettuces to a boot sale and didn't sell them, you might end up getting extremely soporific trying to finish them up, but grown this way they might last longer.

Also useful for leaving for whoever's looking after your hens when you go on holiday to use as the hen's greenstuff. Just pull the pot off and chuck it in their run.

 

I've bought these very ocasionally, when perhaps there weren't any ready in the garden/greenhouse and have stuck them on the windowsill knowing they'll still probably be OK to eat in 3, 4 or 5 days' time- and yes, I've used them as 'cut-and-come-again'.

I guess there are probably 3 reasons why they're sold this way - 1. People without a garden (or who have no interest in gardening), can keep a lettuce 'alive' for use several days hence. 2. Growers don't have to employ 10 East Europeans (to cut, trim and bag them), when all they can employ 5 to pull them off the matting and stick them in a polybag and 3. If supermarkets don't want the 'growing' ones, they can be left, cut at a later date and sold as bags of 'prepared salad leaves'.

 

I seem to remember I used to grow one lettuce per 5 in pot.
Its not difficult, in fact I found it easier than growing in the ground, what with slugs and all.

 

Sounds good so far, I normally sow lettuce seeds in pots, prick out into cell trays, then plant out, but this may be another potential method to get the most out of things, especially if there's any potential ways of delaying bolting using this method of growing.

 

I was always a fan of Webs Wonder

 

Me too, but they always seemed to become plagued with brown rot,

 

I never grow lettuce in my garden - that's not for the want of trying, but I don't buy wild bird food so I'm damned if I'm going to buy slug food any more!

I often grow lettuce in pots, using just the 3" or 4" square plastic ones you might get a plant in from the garden centre. I've got several of those compartmentalised plant pot 'holders' from garden centres too (I think they're referred to as 'shuttle trays'?), so it's easy to keep 15 or 18 neatly together for watering, I can carry them in and out the greenhouse easily, stand them well above 'slug height' and (in various stages of maturity) they're good for passing onto a daughter who lives on the 3rd floor without even a balcony or anywhere to put a window box.

 

Yes - I've got to start thinking about growing stuff a bit differently for a daughter who'll be at Uni next year (assuming she'll still want some nice home grown veg).

 

Almost certainly Hydroponics I would expect - the roots out-the-bottom would have been in the hydroponic channel with nutrient flowing past them. The pots may not contain any "soil" (might be rockwool or somesuch substrate)

Depending on your view you may not think them very "organic" ? !!

They should keep growing / fresher than a "dead" Lettuce in the fridge though.

 

I suspected they were grown in soil-less medium as they felt very light when I picked one up in the store. There was probably loads of other stuff on the shelves grown the same way, but there's no obvious way of indentifying it.

 

From the root mat i`d say its probably NFT (nutrient film technique), a bit pricey at £1 but you do get a free pot.

 

stand them well above 'slug height'
Where`s that on the roof ?, then the pigeons will get them,

 

No - I stand 'em on an old 3' 6" high fold-up garden table - by the time the slugs have smelled the lettuce, made their way to the table, crawled up the 'x' shaped legs, worked their way across the underside of the table-top, hauled themselves over the edge, crossed the table, negotiated the many edges of the shuttle trays and finally got to the lettuce, they're too damned exhausted to eat!!