Some good links in this page
Growing lettuces http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/horticulture/5248.html

Epsom Salts
http://gardening.about.com/od/organi...psom_Salts.htm
There are various opinions on this.

This climate guide may also explain the best things to grow and when.
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2781004.htm
On 24/01/2010 5:20 AM, Rod Speed wrote:
Jonno wrote:


Most plant do terrible in very hot weather. (Unless youre cactus.)

Dunno, my tomatoes and potatos and strawberrys are doing fine.


Those plants like hot weather and have small leaves.
All large leaved varieties seem to go limp when the wind hits them EG
Rhubarb, Silverbeet Lettuce Pumpkins.
Wind screws them up badly. The wind and heat evaporates moisture and the
roots cant keep up...
My patch is muddy at the moment (Luck so far no water restrictions) Must
put the timer on for shorter periods...
All you in water restricted areas, due to government mismanagement (No
Dams Etc) suffer! (grin!)
Most lettuce plants like Mignonette are spring type plants.

You wanna try hot windy days when the temp is 45C. (grin that exactly what were getting)





I found it difficult to get lettuce plants in December January, until accountants started asking why they weren't
selling any at that time of year.
Why arent they eating salads ? I certainly do, more than in winter etc.

Yep but theyre hard to grow, so they shouldnt sell the plants then.
growing them at that time can mean failure.
S o youre finding outThe reason was most gardeners had problems growing them is stressfull heat.. (Melbourne)


If you plant them amongst other plants,

I am doing that.

They must get some direct light, as otherwise they grow a bit funny.
(though comic vegetables would be a change from the usual.)
you can do like me, have success if you water them twice a day,

I've just started doing that now, be interesting to see what difference it makes.


and keep checking them fro heat stress..

Nothing visible with the previous ones, they just dont do anything, dont grow.


No problems in NE Victoria.

Thats a similar climate to mine.


if you are aware that Aquasol is helpful,

The growing instructions say grow them fast. Magnesium Suphate or Epson
salts appear to help greatly in the plants, depending on your soil, but
I've found it beneficial in most cases.
Link
http://gardening.about.com/od/organi...psom_Salts.htm
There are various opinions on this.

This climate guide may also explain the best things to grow and when.

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2781004.htm

Havent been fertilizing them, mainly because the first two
batches of mignonettes and cos in spring did fine without any.
This is on fresh ground that has just had weeds growing on it.
I did apply the Brunnings vegitable starter fertilizer before
transplanting the seedlings with the mignonettes and cos
but not with the later 4 batches of mignonettes and cos, salad mix
and icebergs. I've just applied some now to see if thats the
problem. The strawberrys in that patch are doing fine tho.


but if they get limp, like most they cannot reproduce or even grow.

Yeah, thats why I transplanted another punnet of the Lettuce Combo,
tho the green flat leaved seedlings have produced new leaves. I didnt
ask the woman at the nursury which particular ones she was getting
the new leaves off, she wasnt there yesterday when I got the
second punnet of Lettuce Combo, I'll show up on Thursday and
see if she's in there again.


A bit like humans really. When your hot , youre not...

Most of the tomatoes are doing fine, particularly the
Cherry Sweet Bites, Father Toms and Mama's Delight.


These liek hot weather. The trick is to find heat resistant types,
allthough I like the Great Lakes lettuces, (not happy but still growing
OK) and let my wife grow the mignonette variety.
Theyre more of a soft leaf type, and I like the crisp types. The
mignonettes seem to like spring time best.
The problem appears to be that lettuce doesnt like stinking hot weather much.



This seems to answer most questions well!
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/horticulture/5248.html
Rod Speed wrote

I dont know that much about growing veg, first time this
spring/summer. The first couple of batches of lettuce did fine, First batch was
mignonettes, planted from seedlings from bunnings, transplanted early sep, took a
bit of time to start but then did fine. Second batch was cos, planted mid
oct from seedlings from bunnings again.

They both went to seed after a very hot spell in mid Nov, got quite
a few leaves to eat until then. I've since planted some more icebers, 'salad mix', cos, and lollo
rossa, mostly from seedings from bunnings, but the salad mix from someone flogging
them at the sunday market.

None of them have done much except the icebergs.
They havent died, just havent done much growth wise.

The icebergs did grow noticeably, up to big bigger than a large
grapefruit size, but no hearts. Since the first two batches had gone to seed I did
start using leaves off the small icebergs. Now even the icebergs seen to have
stopped. We have had much hotter weather obviously, in fact a couple of
patches of a week or so over 40C, with some rather cooler times in between.

They get plenty of water, once a day from one of those
soaker hoses that sort of weep water rather than spray it.

Is it just that they dont like the very hot weather ?

The net seems to suggest that thats the problem.

Are there any varietys that do much better in the very hot weather ?

Go to top for Links to various....helpfull websites.



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