Lettuce woes
May 12, 2008 by gardengeekette
My black-seeded Simpson is not doing very well. I’m not exactly sure what the problem is. Ever since I thinned them, the sprouts have languished– one of them has even flat out died. They don’t seem to have any self-support the way they used to, and I usually find them sort of lying down. Perhaps when I thinned the seedlings, I disturbed the roots of the ones I left (I did cut the extras out rather than pulling them up…)? I think that I have been watering them enough, and it has certainly been raining a lot here lately. The last time I watered the plants, I added fertilizer (Miracle-Gro) thinking that it might help. I also planted a couple new seeds to replace the sprout that died.
Does anyone have an idea of what might be going on? Not enough sun? Too much water? Not enough water?
Hi there,
I thinned my lettuce, too, and it certainly doesn’t seem to be quite as sturdy as it was. The leaves keep growing, though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. For what it’s worth, I plucked my sprouts by hand instead of clipping them with scissors, and I thought that was my culprit, but it sounds like you have the same problem and you did clip.
I’m sorry I don’t have some magic answer. Hang in there!
Melissa
I don’t know if this would hurt or help…but in my “in the ground” garden, I grow lettuce and I never intentionally thin it. I just let it grow wherever, and I thin by pulling plants when I am ready to eat them. It’s a gradual thinning, instead of an all at once, plus that way the plants go further and I don’t have to eat an entire micro salad.
I’m not sure if that technique would transfer to container gardening or not?
Thanks for the vote of support, Melissa! I hope your lettuce perks up, too…
Ellie, that is really good advice… I did reseed some of my lettuce– and this time I didn’t just sprinkle the seed willy-nilly so they won’t come up right on top of each other. So given your suggestion, I won’t thin it at all and see what happens. Though the microgreen salad was very tasty!
(I just hope it wasn’t the only lettuce we’ll taste this growing season… 
It could be that it is “dampening off” — I’ve had this happen to seedlings indoors that I’ve started. It has also happened with Swiss Chard that I’ve started indoor. Just put a small fan on very low speed to blow over the plants (if you have them inside) and it will stop this from happening.
Thanks for the suggestion, Judy. I’ll look into dampening off… I’d not heard of the problem before (this is my first time growing any leafy greens!)
However, I am growing the lettuces on my balcony where there is plenty of wind (sometimes too much, really!)