Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Butterhead Lettuce

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It has been getting cooler at night and dipping down into the upper forties at times, so I have been bringing my lettuce plants inside at night. I would have expected these little lettuce plants to grow a little more quickly. They are a couple of weeks old now, and really aren’t starting to form heads yet. I have never grown head lettuce before, so I don’t really know what to expect.

Some books I read suggested lettuce can be difficult to germinate, but mine came up just fine, and faster than the packet said it might. It has just seemed slow since then. I am afraid I may have a repeat of the green onions, which never got beyond looking like small chives. I think I planted them too late in the season though, and it was too hot for them.

My pepper plant is still going strong, and I should have some more jalapeƱos ripening soon. I let them ripen to red, since green ones are widely available.

My tomato plant though, was even less successful than last year, not even flowering. Last year I got two tomatoes, both of which disappeared just before they were ripe enough to pick, although I never discovered if that was the work of an animal or a human. My money was on human, though. This year, not even a single flower. I think the plant was not getting enough sun.

I understand many people have successful patio or container gardens, but the only thing I have really been successful with is basil. Also, most of my friends seem to have similar stories of very meager harvests of one or two fruits, or, in the case of one couple I know, who had a small garden on a third floor balcony, all of their tomatoes being eaten by a roof rat!

1 comment:

Susan said...

Basil was one of the plants that was an utter failure in my (real, not on a patio) garden. I actually bought a plant and put it in the garden plot. Something promptly nibbled it down to almost nothing, and it was never again as big as it was when I planted it.