When you’re looking for gardening tips for beginners, one of the biggest questions often asked is whether or not lettuce needs full sun. Many gardeners mistakenly believe that lettuce is an indoor vegetable and therefore does not require sun. This simply is not true. Lettuce is a cool-season grass and as such, requires full sun to help it thrive and grow. Most varieties of lettuce are cool-season plants, meaning they need about ten to fourteen hours of morning sun per day for optimal growing conditions.
But the term full sun means almost any location that receives at least 6 hours of indirect or direct sunlight each day. This is the optimum time for gardeners to provide their plants with as much sunshine as possible. Although it is during the summer months when most salad greens and tomatoes are in their flowering and growing stages, lettuce is best enjoyed as a cold season crop. Full sun means allowing your plants the best growing conditions possible throughout the cold winter season.
One of the most important gardening tips for beginners is watering. Although you should water your garden only when necessary, watering throughout the growing season is just as important as when necessary. Most experts recommend watering daily throughout the winter season, but some like to water lightly right before harvesting. The amount and frequency of watering is completely up to you as part of the gardening tips for beginners.
To ensure that lettuce grows well in full shade, do not plant too close to a tree or bush. Neither should you plant lettuce in the shade between shrubs. Lettuce thrives best when it is planted in a row, but when it is planted in the center of a bed or in a spread, it will need more room to grow properly. Be sure to follow any planting instructions for your specific climate. If you are unsure, be sure to remove an existing plant that is struggling. Removing a struggling plant will help ensure that the others in the spread do not suffer from poor conditions.
The soil that you purchase for your lettuce plant should be given a full test before planting. The first step is to take a sample of the soil and sprinkle it onto a piece of dry pebbles. If it seems to be lacking in nutrients, add one tablespoon of compost to the mixture. Be sure to place the pot in a sunny and shaded area.
Most experts suggest that a fifteen inch garden soil mix works well for lettuce. You will want to use three inches of soil for planting, which is ample for planting all four sides of the plants. Three inches is also the approximate depth of space that your fingers will be able to reach whitening your plants. However, keep in mind that you can actually shallowen the soil by a quarter of an inch and still have plenty of room to grow.
There are many types of lettuce that you can grow including: baby lettuce, red and green lettuce, Swiss chard, and baby snow lettuce. Each of these requires a different method of pest and disease management so be sure to do your homework before deciding on the type of lettuce that you want to grow. Pests such as caterpillars, grubs, snails, silverfinches, aphids, thrips, and rootworms will all cause problems if you are not careful. Leaf spot is often caused by aphids but mildew or cabbage leaf spot is caused primarily by fungi.
Be sure to water your new lettuce plants thoroughly after they have been planted. You may want to water them every day, but at least once a week. You should check the underside of the leaves for moisture and if necessary to water them with a watering can several times each day. Good nutrition is the key to having a thriving vegetable garden so make sure that you plant lettuce with a good soil mix and fertilize frequently.