Onion lettuce: benefit, especially growing and care

Who has not heard about culture such as lettuce? Probably, there are no such people. When the first greens appear on the shelves, we are happy to buy along with onion, dill and parsley tender salad leaves, gathered in bundles. Some people mistakenly believe that lettuce is a bow, but if you ask yourself the goal and get a good understanding of the essence of the question, you can find out that there is no such kind of onions . There are brass, leeks or shallots, at last, but lettuce ... In general, let's agree: lettuce is a salad. But since sometimes people confuse these concepts, we, too, will sometimes "stipulate" the article.

Salad / onions lettuce, cultivation of which has been practiced since time immemorial, is a legendary vegetable culture that occupies its niche in the family of astroves. This ancient plant was cultivated in the Mediterranean three thousand years ago. Its benefits were known to the Egyptian priests, the Persian rulers revered it as a delicacy, and in ancient Byzantium it was used as an effective medicinal product.

Enlightened Europe learned about the salad in the time of Louis XIV, and since then its popularity is only growing. Today lettuce is one of your favorite summer vegetables and the source of the most valuable substances that a person needs. This publication is dedicated to this amazing culture.

Description of genus

There are more than 100 kinds of lettuce. For the most part, these are annual herbaceous plants with a central rosette combining leaves of various shapes and colors. Inflorescences in the culture - swirls or brushes, composed of small flowers. After pollination fetus-seed develops. Cultivated lettuce, called in different ways - salad or onions.

The food is consumed by the leaves, which are removed before the stalk is formed, because after that they start to noticeably be bitter.

Onion lettuce: how it grows

The plant is many. The most popular are its leaf, kochannye, asparagus and stalled species. In Russia, only recently leaf spread was the most common, today the sympathy of gardeners is increasingly conquered by cabbage species, which first form large leaves, then form loose or dense heads out of the rosette.

Salad grades are classified according to the duration of ripening, delineating the early ones with the vegetation period to 45 days, medium (50-60 days) and late (up to 80 days).

The most popular today are varieties of leaf lettuce (Riga, Moscow greenhouse), which are champions of maturation, giving marketable products after 35-40 days after sowing. The Roman salad is gaining popularity , its leaves are tied, imitating the formation of a head, inside which grows a gentle light shoot.

Lettuce is cold and light-loving. These properties are inherent in all varieties and species. The most comfortable temperatures for growing a plant are experienced gardeners consider the range of +10 ... + 19˚С.

Onion lettuce: beneficial properties and harm

The composition of plant leaves is unique, they contain a huge amount of useful microelements that saturate the human body with potassium, zinc, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium and other compounds. This herb is a storehouse of B, A, C, and P vitamins. Due to the presence of these valuable substances, the use of the plant for food provides a therapeutic effect in the recovery stages after operations, severe illnesses, in the treatment of pulmonary, cardiovascular, gastric diseases and nervous disorders. In addition, it is a low-calorie product that allows you to include it in many diets. Onion lettuce, recipes of dishes from which are appreciated in the kitchens of different countries, are successfully used for the prevention of obesity.

Fresh juice from lettuce leaves helps to optimize the process of digestion and normalize appetite. Infusions are used for liver damage. Increase lactation in nursing mothers shredded seeds. Actively use the plant of cosmetology in the treatment of hair loss and restore the structure of the skin.

Despite the usefulness of the plant, it should be used with caution by people with diseases such as a stomach ulcer or duodenal ulcer, asthma, tuberculosis.

Site selection rules and soil requirements

The site for planting the culture should be open, ventilated, but also a slight shading of the plant also does not harm. A great fan of loose and light drained sandy loam, onion lettuce grows well on loam. If only the soil response was close to the pH index of 6.5-7.5, and the groundwater did not approach close to the surface of the earth. Lettuce prefers moderately moist soils: stagnation affects the plant fatal, provoking the appearance of rot.

Excessive acidity of the site is neutralized by liming during preplanting. The site has been prepared since autumn, increasing soil fertility by introducing humus or compost in the amount of 5-6 kg and 60 g of nitrophosphate per 1 m ^{2 of} area. The best predecessors, cultivated earlier on the chosen bed, are legumes and grains. Plant onion lettuce after cabbage and other cruciferous is not recommended.

Planting seedlings

Sow the crop immediately on the bed or grow a seedling method, which allows you to get useful leaves much earlier. Both methods have supporters and opponents. Let's talk about each of them. On seedlings, the seeds are sown in containers filled with a mixture of sod land with humus in equal parts, in the first decade of April. The seeds are deepened by 1 cm, and the interval between the rows should be 1.5-2 cm. Then the soil in the container is compacted and moistened from the spray gun. For better germination, the containers are covered with glass or a film, creating the most comfortable microclimate. With the emergence of shoots, the covering material is removed, the seedlings are thinned, keeping a distance of 2 cm between the seedlings.

Seedlings are ready for transplanting to the prepared bed after 30-35 days. By this time the seedlings will form 3-4 leaves. Plant them, keeping the same level as in the seedlings, making sure that the root neck is not buried. The distance between the bushes is maintained, being guided by the variety, since the feeding area for skorospeloks is only 1 dm ² , for the midwinter - 2.2 dm ² , and for the late - 6.2 dm ² .

There is an opinion that transplanting the seedlings undermines the strength of the plant, but careful handling of the procedure will not hurt it much.

Seeding on the ridges

In open beds, lettuce seeds are sown in the beginning or middle of May, when the average daily temperatures are set at +4 ... + 5 ° C. However, the endurance and cold resistance of the plant allows it to withstand spring frosts up to -2 ° C. Often practicing crop culture, maintaining an interval of 15-20 days to provide useful greenery of the entire summer season.

A feature of such a culture, as onion lettuce, is that late-ripening varieties are resistant to rifling. Seeds are sown in rows, the interval between which for leaf varieties is 7-9 cm, for the head - at least 15 cm.

Care of the culture

Courting activities for lettuces are traditional, they include regular loosening, weed removal and reasonable irrigation. Onion lettuce is hygrophilous and requires the maintenance of soil moisture, but moderation is important in everything, so try not to resort to excessive watering. Moreover, as soon as the heads start to tie, the intensity of irrigation is reduced.

The qualitative development of culture involves the introduction of the necessary fertilizers. The best for letucha are nitrogen-potassium top dressings, adding which, also observe certain rules:

• Concentration of fertilizers in solutions is halved compared to the recommended norm in the instructions for preparations;

• top-dressing is applied strictly under the root, avoiding falling on the leaves;

• fertilize plantings one week after planting seedlings or seedlings.

Ogorodniki practice growing crops in the neighborhood of plants that repel pests. These are considered to be spinach, peas, nightshade. A favorite neighbor of such a culture as onion lettuce is leek.

Thus, cultivation of lettuce is a simple process, bringing benefits and satisfaction.