Limp lettuce !

I am growing veggies in the front room, along the windowsill and on a long table beside it. My lettuce all looks and feels very knackered & limp ( a bit like me really ..) Are they too hot or too cool ot too dry or too wet ? Sometimes they just keel over and faint !

 

Might be too hot, but I suspect more likely not enough light.

Putting them outside on a nice sunny day, and bringing them back in at night, will help - particularly if you have sheltered spot (or can make one) where they will be out of draughts.

Making a tin-foil reflector at the back (far side from the window) would help too - to give them more light. Cardboard box to provide a rigid frame, and line with tinfoil is all you need - easy to then move away to water / tend to the plants, or store until next year.

I'm sure making one is a Blue Peter Badge activity!!

 

Oh thats a good idea ! it'll be the first badge I ever got if I do it though...at my age LOL ! I will do that, - and take them out to sit in the garden in the sun thanks .

 

Trust me, its better than wearing the limp-lettuce badge!

 

transplanted first of lettuce yesterday, this morning looking good seeded in unheated greenhouse

 

They look much better than my latest batch which I keep covered over with polythene after pricking out (to keep the humidity up) for too long, and they didn't get enough light - and are looking very pathetic.

 

Good luck with the Blue Peter project..
Your lettuce look better then some of mine I planted out this morning!

 

I have never tried this variety before its called, (suttons Tom Thumb)
I think its quite a soft leaf lettuce,I normally use webbs wonderful

 

Tom Thumb is a butterhead, I think, whereas Webbs Wonderful is an Iceberg

 

Mine are very much bigger than those, I wonder if I started too early...they are inside.

 

My first batch are a lot bigger too - sown 01-Mar. So long as they have enough light, and some heat, I don't think you can start Lettuce too early. Picture of mine from a couple of days ago

 

ok ta. I will do a Basil Fawlty...go through there and tell them to pull themselves together !

 

My little gems are doing well, but this seems to be a result of lots of sun and lots of water.

They are pretty tough little things, whose only enemy seems to be the slug!!

 

mine just dont seem to be well at all. Too much sun they scream and faint. Not enough sun they lay down in a tantrum. (I didnt get any alcan foil yet but kept turning them daily instead ). So today I re-potted them all in bigger pots, pressed them down firmly and put them back on the windowsill with a good drink. I cant remember now what kind of lettuce they are...I thought little gem but they look very different... long thinnish leaves and still, alas, LIMP !!