Lettuce seedlings

Discussion in 'NEW Gardeners !' started by cathymoon, Feb 21, 2016.

  1. cathymoon

    cathymoon Gardener

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    I started this seeds on February 7th. It was a seed per pot.
    The soil choice wasn't the best for seeds, just some soil brought up by moles mixed with vermin compost.
    I think most of the plants are weeds, but this is my first time trying to grow anything.
    Many of the plants stopped evolving a few day up to a week ago.
    The longer seedling is a bit over an inch long and there is a 3rd leaf appearing.

    I'm about to start a new batch with store bought seedling and herbs soil.
    Should I descard this, or can I save them?
    Thank you
     

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  2. Fat Controller

    Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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    HI @cathymoon and welcome to GC :sign0016:

    What seeds were they?

    To my eye, the soil looks far too heavy for successful germination. You would be much better with Seed Compost, or something like Jack's Magic which is a decent all-round compost.

    Also, I would suggest avoiding those compostable fibrous pots like the plague - I have used them in the past, and grew more moulds and fungi than I did seedlings!

    EDIT - the clue is in the thread title - LETTUCE!! Doh! :doh:
     
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    • cathymoon

      cathymoon Gardener

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      Oh, I made the pots by cutting kitchen paper towels rolls.
      So, should I discard the whole thing and start fresh?
      Can the bigger one be saved?
       
    • Fat Controller

      Fat Controller 'Cuddly' Scottish Admin! Staff Member

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      Sorry, I didn't realise they were kitchen roll inners - they should be fine then. No harm in letting the larger one carry on as it is and see how it goes. I wouldn't re-pot it at this stage though, I would let it grow a bit and then put the whole lot (cardboard and all) into a larger pot :)
       
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      • cathymoon

        cathymoon Gardener

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        Thank you. I started a new batch this morning with proper seedling soil.
        When planting in the bigger pots, I have a few that a bit over 25 cm deep and 30 diameter, will they work for 2 lettuces? I have 2 kinds, they both have loose leaves, one of them with a button.
         

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      • Scrungee

        Scrungee Well known for it

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        Those lettuce seedlings appear to be seriously suffering from lack of light and have grown far too spindly to be of any use. Far better to sow a dozen or more lettuce seeds in a 70mm shallow pot using only a small amount of decent seed compost, place in full light, then transplant into sections (burying any long stems) of 40x cell trays to maximise use of space.
         
      • Tracy_x

        Tracy_x Gardener

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        I will plant at least 8 in that pots, you can eat some anytime, when they grow bigger and crowd, they don't have deep root, so depth doesn't matter
         
      • cathymoon

        cathymoon Gardener

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        Won't that be to crowded. I intend to harvest some of the outer leaves nearly every day (we eat a lot of salad), but 8 lettuces in a round pot with 30 cm (11-12 inches) diameter seems a bit much.
        If I only kept the small inner button I could fit 3 maybe 4.
        That's why I'm asking if 2 of them to share one without stunning their growth.
         
      • cathymoon

        cathymoon Gardener

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        So, after doing some more research, it looks like these lettuces would fare well in a somewhat crowded pot. They don't look anything like they do when I buy them at the grocery shop.
        Thank you.
        Now I have to wait and see if the new seedlings fare well.
        Is it normal for them to sprout after 3 days? Maybe it's because the room they were in got a bit warm, and as they were covered, the temperature inside the "greenhouse" got up to 27° Celsius.
        What do you think? There are 8 seeds/seedlings in each side. 2 different types of lettuce, the picture of the packages is in one of the posts above.
         

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        Last edited: Feb 24, 2016
      • "M"

        "M" Total Gardener

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        It's not unusual for them to sprout within a few days; that is why some varieties of lettuce are used for micro greens.
        During winter time when salads are expensive, have you thought of growing sprouting seeds and micro greens? From seed to plate in days :blue thumb: (ok, maybe a week :heehee: )
        There's an interesting article on micro greens here
         
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