Urban gardening is on everyone's lips these days, because nothing tastes better than home-grown food. Sow lettuce on a balcony or terrace so that you can have crisp lettuce leaves ready to hand all summer long can.
How can you successfully grow lettuce on the balcony?
Plucking lettuce can be easily grown on the balcony: choose drought and heat-tolerant varieties such as “Australian Yellow”, “Venetian Brown” or “Hirschtongue”. Use a balcony box with humus-rich growing soil or garden soil and sow sparingly. Schedule regular reseeding every three to four weeks to ensure a consistent harvest.
Sow lettuce on a balcony or terrace so that you can harvest crisp lettuce leaves at your fingertips all summer long.
Choosing the right seed variety
There are now several cultivars of lettuce that differ not only in the shape and color of their leaves. The recommendations given in the respective cultivation instructions at the time of cultivation should be strictly observed when picking lettuce, as otherwise some varieties may tend to shoot or stunt. To grow lettuce on the balcony, you should choose varieties like the following that can tolerate a certain amount of drought and heat:
- Australian Yellow
- Venetian Brown
- Deer Tongue
Preparing and planting the balcony box
To grow lettuce you need the following basic equipment:
- Balcony box
- humous cultivation or garden soil
- Seeds
- Fleece to cover against night frosts
The seeds of the lettuce are sprinkled sparingly onto the growing substrate and not covered with soil. The light-germinating seeds will then germinate within about one to two weeks if they are kept evenly moist during this time. It is important to ensure that the lettuce is not sowed too densely, otherwise plants that are too densely packed will have to be separated later.
A continuous harvest directly from the balcony
If you would like to consistently harvest fresh lettuce leaves from the balcony from June to October, you should germinate the first seeds on the windowsill at the end of February. You can put the young plants in the balcony box from the beginning of May if you place a fleece over the sensitive plants to protect them against night frosts. Use several balcony boxes to lay the foundation for a consistent supply of lettuce until autumn with regular re-sowing every three to four weeks.
Tips & Tricks
For a particularly productive harvest of lettuce from your own balcony, you should take advantage of the natural advantages of this type of lettuce. To do this, leave the heart shoot of the plant standing, which can form new side leaves several times. Before flowering, the plant must be harvested whole, otherwise the leaves will have a rather bitter taste after the flowers have sprouted.
