"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Blair wrote:

I tried to grow lettuce last summer here in Perth.
Never again - they required constant water

Yeah, managed to **** up the ones the nursery said did fine in the hot
weather,

lettuce can be fascinatingly difficult!! (at any rate, i've been fascinated
with the difficulties i've had ;-)

firstly, you may not have ****ed them up - not all nurserypersons have any
idea about growing stuff, & babies in punnets from bunnings (or similar) can
simply be a bad bet - firstly, transplanting causes some element of stress
to them (therefore they bolt sooner) and secondly they've not had the chance
to grow in their conditions (as punnets are always coddled but gardens can't
be so much) so they therefore bolt sooner.

summer is hard for lettuce, it doesn't like heat too much. try them in
semi-shaded pots/foam boxes or some other sort of semi-shaded location, or
under shade cloth in the garden. shade will help enormously.

if you plant seed direct (whether in the garden or a pot) you will have much
more success too, it avoids the problems mentioned above. sow thickly & then
thin them out (the second session of thinnings when the thinnings are
baby-sized but big enough to eat).

they like a LOT of water relative to many other plants, as their structure
is mostly water. failure to water leads to bolting!

I'll probably get another punnet of them and keep them well watered, more
for academic interest than anything else. The stuff we buy in the
supermarket
right thru the summer must be coming from somewhere

cooler areas, and often grown in shadehouses (or similar). but they're not
really a summer crop. other greens like mizuna are a better bet. you can
also track down seed of lettuce cultivars which are intended to cope better
with summer, but no guarantees there.

and if they can do it,
I should be able to too. I just want leaves, dont care if I cant get
icebergs to grow.

leafies are better, as even when (rather than if ;-)) they bolt, you've
still eaten from them. whereas icebergs & other hearting lettuces give less,
& are more of a risk re bolting well before maturity.

Might try some lettuce in pots inside, I obviously have an evaporative
cooler on the roof and just bask under that in that sort of hot weather.

inside is not the worst idea, but they will still need some sun. perhaps a
spot that's sunny in the mornings.

i had my best crop ever by growing an heirloom mix, sown direct, under
shadecloth, but they still bolted before i wanted them to. but, sowing them
is simple & you get loads this way & can re-sow every 2 weeks or a month for
a supply of nice baby greens. even if they still bolt too young, you've had
soemthing from them.

in winter, lettuce is a pain in the arse as well. but, there are many winter
cultivars (they're often the red lettuces).

i haven't worked out yet whether seasol/poo stew is a huge help to lettuce
or not, but it does seem to be anecdotally.
kylie