lettuce bowls

Has anyone ever planted lettuce (salad) bowls? I am giving a presentation in February on "salad bowls" and would appreciate any advice, links, and suggestions.

I'm going to bed for the night. Sweet dreams and love to all.

Julieanne

I have a large hanging basket about 18" x 6" that I've used to plant mesclun mix in for the past several years. I sow the seeds heavy and thin as it grows till plants are about 2" apart. I've always had more than enough for me to have salad 3 or 4 times a week and still have a really pretty basket.

An added note. I have planted smaller baskets for friends with success but the 18" basket seems to work best for being able to have several plants of each variety for both taste and visual appearence and it's shallow enough to move around and not be heavy even when its wet. Ikeep mine close to my back door so I can bring it in to pick since its uasually dark by the time we eat supper. This is the ONLY thing I grow that has never had a problem with bugs or diseases. Well worth what little effort it takes.






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One more thing, Iset it on a milk crate or bucket off the ground so it doesn't get sand splashed on it when it rains and I water with a watering can so they don't even need to be washed when I pick. I hate wet salads.

i

I just took a class last weekend on How to Grow a Salad Bowl at a local garden store. He gave us all a large-ish plastic tub (flsusie is right about not too big and not too small so you can move it around), filled with good potting soil (Happy Frog) and then we all got small plugs of four different kinds of lettuce to plant in the tub. Keep the soil moist, let it get almost dry then water again. Use fish emulsion, watered at the base, NOT onto the leaves, every couple of weeks. He said we would have lettuce for about 3 months. I move my bowl once a day so it gets all day sun.

You can also direct sow and since lettuce seeds are so tiny the seed napkin (or seed toilet paper actually) technique discussed in another thread in this forum works really well.

I have also seen this done with a hanging wire basket lined with moss and lettuce plugs inserted. It was very pretty. My one attempt at this failed miserably. Not sure why, this was years ago.

This message was edited Nov 28, 2011 8:40 AM

Thank you all. I'm going to try the basket and tub method. I have a 3-tiered planter that I'm putting on my porch to try, also. You are so wonderful for giving me the tips! I'll keep the thread open so you can see my progress. Love, Julieanne

Yikes! Re-reading my post I meant we'll have lettuce 3 MONTHS, not 3 weeks [corrected above]. Silly me.

Good luck Juleianne, keep us posted.