Lettuce is a frugal, fast-growing vegetable that not only thrives in the garden bed. It can also be grown in a pot on the balcony. Find out below how to plant and care for your lettuce on the balcony and how to harvest it.
How to grow and care for lettuce on the balcony?
To successfully grow lettuce on the balcony, choose a sunny location, sow from February in nutrient-rich substrate at a planting distance of 25 cm and water regularly. Protect plants from pests and harvest the outer leaves after 60-120 days or continuously.
The right location for lettuce on the balcony
Lettuce needs as much sun as possible. Therefore, choose a location that is as sunny and sheltered from the wind as possible. When it comes to planting, lettuce is not very demanding: it does not have deep roots and needs around 25 cm2 of space to develop its beautiful, round head. Make sure that the planter has drainage to avoid waterlogging.
The most important things about sowing at a glance:
- Preparation: Clean the planter thoroughly to prevent disease
- Sowing date: from February on the windowsill, from May on the balcony (depending on the variety!)
- Sowing depth: 0.5cm
- Substrate: nutrient-rich, e.g. enriched with compost
- Location: full sun
- Planting distance: 25cm
- Pricking out: one to two weeks after sowing
Here you will find detailed instructions for sowing lettuce in a pot.
Care for lettuce on the balcony
Lettuce needs to be watered regularly, especially on dry, hot days. Fertilization is usually unnecessary because the nutrients present in the soil are sufficient for the short development period. Snails and other creatures like lettuce almost as much as you do. If you have problems with such insects on your balcony, you can protect the lettuce with snail nets (€174.00 on Amazon) or something similar. Diseases such as powdery mildew or lettuce rot can also affect it. Here you can find out what to do about it. Weakened lettuce is particularly susceptible to pests and diseases. So if you care for it properly, there is less risk of it becoming sick or attacked by insects.
Harvesting lettuce on the balcony
Lettuce can be harvested as soon as it has reached the desired size. Depending on the variety, the ideal harvest date is 60 to 120 days after sowing. You can also continually harvest your lettuce by removing only the outer leaves. As soon as the lettuce shows signs of forming a flower, it should be harvested completely or you can let it bloom and use the seeds for propagation.
Tip
Sow a lettuce seed in an elongated balcony box every week. Maintain a distance of 25cm between each plant. This means you can harvest a fresh head of lettuce every week two to three months later.