Thinning out Lettuce?

[PunkRotten]

Hi,

I am growing green and red romaine lettuce as well as a mesclun salad mix. I planted a bunch of seeds in each hole and now have a mound of leaves. Do I eventually thin the romaine to just one plant? What about the mesclun mix? The mesclun is a mix of ruby lettuce, Bull's Blood beet, Bloomsdale spinach, Simpson lettuce, and Tendergreen mustard.

Here is some pics:



[img]https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c86/punkrotten/938_1671.jpg[/img]


[img]https://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c86/punkrotten/938_1672.jpg[/img]

[PunkRotten]

Also when you harvest lettuce, can you just take leaves whenever you want and will they grow back?

[CharlieBear]

If you are careful the mescalin mix can be transplanted when they are small I do it all the time. Once the lettuce is established you can cut if off and use it as it grows back, called cut and come again, many just cut off outside leaves as the parent plant seems to resent that less especially as the days grow shorter. The romain will have to be thinned or if it is very small you could transplant them about 2/3's generally take in the new spot.

[gumbo2176]

I generally flatten the tops of my rows for leaf crops like lettuce, kale, chard etc. I'll make the rows flat and about 2 ft. wide, make 3 shallow furrows in the rows and spread the seeds fairly heavy. After the seedlings come up and grow until they are about 3 inches high, I'll thin them and transplant them around my garden. I find lettuce, chard, mesclun, kale, arugula, etc. all take pretty well to transplanting. I'll put some between my tomatoes, broccoli, along the sides of my pole beans growing on a trellis for more harvest. What I don't use, I give away and only grow leaf varieties of salad greens for a prolonged harvest by only taking some leaves from each plant.

Last year, the lettuce and leaf veggies I planted in the fall lasted all the way to the late spring before they finally bolted and went to seed.

[rainbowgardener]

Definitely thin, either by transplanting or just by pulling some of the extra plants out whole and then eating them as baby greens. You can keep gradually thinning by eating for awhile. Once your plants are appropriately spaced, then just take off outer leaves, but no more than 1/3 of the leaves at a time, then don't take from that plant any more until it starts growing back.

[PunkRotten]

So I should yank the extra lettuce out or cut them at soil level?

[PunkRotten]

Nevermind. They came out so easy. They were much bigger now than they looked in the pic. I got a huge salad out of it. I even pulled a few radishes to add to the salad too.

[PunkRotten]

Question - Does Lettuce generally have shallow roots? How about Spinach? What would be the minimum depth they can grow in?

[Bobberman]

Trans plant on a wet cloudy day! Thin buy planting every plant anywhere wih some space! Another way to trans plant is to let a bunch grow several inches high then cut the tops to eat and transplantthe stem with some cut leaves attached. In about a week you will see how strong the plant will get and grow to a eally nice plant! I like oak leaf buttercrunch and simson and for color prize head!
+++ Starting seeds in a bag of soil kept in a warm place for three days then just dump in a row and the seeds will sprout over night! Works great when the outside temp is below 50 !

[PunkRotten]

It just so happened to be a wet and cloudy day today. It rained pretty good the day before.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes lettuce and spinach are pretty shallow rooted and can easily grow in 6" deep of soil.