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Limp lettuce
Lindsay4
Posts: 34
in Fruit & veg
Hello folks, I've grown veg succesfully and,this year, decided to grow some salad leaves. I got a mixed variety seed packet and used one of those plastic lined, hessian square shaped affairs to plant them in. They are all growing pretty well, but everything is floppy and limp! I replanted five into pots to see if it made a difference but they are also very limp. Not enjoyable to eat at all, as the great thing about a salad is the crunch! Any clues?
They are all in the conservatory which does get hot obviously, but I do keep the compost moist to ensure they don't dry out.
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they're suffering due to the heat in your conservatory, move them outside and put them in the shade for a couple of days and keep well watered they should perk up.
lettuce like a temp range of 10-25 degrees (some can survive frosts well) but once it gets above 25 they start to wilt no matter how moist you keep them
Thank you both - I was worried about the slugs getting at them but I'll try to lift the whole shebang (bit tricky as the canvas box thing is not too stable) and put it onto my potting table outside. That might keep some of the slugs and snails away.
Great info from you both and much appreciated. I'm quite a novice and just do what I think feels right - with mixed success! Getting more informed as I go though.
Right - off to try and move the lettuce now!
Lindsay - lettuce actually like a bit of shade (on the whole) so I mainly grow in containers so that I can move them around. They're suffering a bit in the heat just now so I also put other pots in front of them to create some shade, and I also use shading material on the handrail of the back steps as I have a couple of pots there right by the back door so that they're handy .
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks for all your help everyone. I've now moved all the lettuce onto my makeshift potting table at the back of the house. Just been outside to check for slugs n snails but none so far! Thankfully I'm not overlooked so don't need to worry about using a torch while creeping around at night! I'll organise some shade for them tomorrow and hopefully they will start to crisp up a bit.
Thanks again!