How to grow salad at home: a practical guide
Let's learn how to grow lettuce in pots, using bags or even leftovers
Knowing how to grow salad at home will be perfect to refine your green thumb. Follow our guide to find out simple techniques to immediately grow fresh and healthy lettuce in pots, bags or replanting the leftovers and uneaten salad itself.
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Have you ever thought of producing some foods from your kitchen by yourself? If you answered yes, then you better not miss this practical mini-guide explaining the techniques to cultivate potted or bottled salad, from seeds or leftovers.
This way you can ensure a constant flow of delicious fresh home-grown salad, you can also intelligently recycle food waste and avoid unnecessary trash.
How to grow salad at home: the basics
To cultivate the salad at home you can start from seeds, leftovers or from seedlings. If you choose to go with seeds you need to know it takes around a month more than the other options. Alternatively you can buy seedlings in nurseries or directly in agricultural stores and grow them in the house from February to September.
Lettuce salad is an easy-to-grow vegetable and has a rather rapid growth cycle and requires no special care. But let’s see how to grow fresh salad for a good part of the year, without resorting to the supermarket and other mainstream options.
How to grow lettuce in pots
To do this, you will need the following:
- A pot at least 50 CM in diameter and 25 CM in height
- Soil mixed in with compost
- Sand and gravel to prepare the bottom
- Lettuce seedlings
Place the sand and gravel on the bottom of the vessel to facilitate the drainage of water and avoid stagnation. Fill the pot with enriched soil and plant the plants well spaced one from another. Moisten through regular watering of the soil’s surface and place the pot in a place without too much exposure to sunlight. In a few days you will see the first seedlings sprout, and it would be best if you protect them from the sun with a tarp in case of temperature changes.
Once the leaves of your salad reach the desired size you can harvest them by cutting the lettuce down to 2-3 CM from the base. This way, your plants will regrow and give you a new crop of good home-made salad.
How to grow salad at home: using bags!
To grow lettuce in bags you’ll need:
- A plastic bag of appropriate size
- Fertile soil (slightly damp)
- Lettuce seeds
- A large, round plate
Get a common plastic bag (preferably dark), remove the handles and puncture holes on the surface. Fill it with ¾’s of soil and lay the bag upright on a tray or a round plate. Spread a dozen or two of lettuce seeds on the surface of the soil, cover with a thin layer of earth and spray thoroughly with a spray bottle.
Cover the envelope with a lid, leaving an opening of at least 2-3 CM, so that the excess moisture can evaporate. Place the bag in a sunny place, even on a windowsill or near a window. The seeds need several hours of light a day to develop rapidly.
Germination should take place within a week, but you will see growth after every day. If you have doubts about this technique, try to watch the video tutorials explaining how to grow lettuce at home.
How to grow salad at home using your leftovers
As you know, lettuce is one of the plants that can grow back from residues (also see more plants that can grow from a food waste). Here’s what you need in this case:
- A head of lettuce
- A plastic container or a bowl (relatively small)
- Water
After buying a head of lettuce, remove the outer leaves and cut the bottom of it to start growing. Get a container and soak the base of the tuft you cut off previously and put it in in about a centimeter. Place the bowl next to a window that receives enough sunlight and after 15 days you should see the first leaves and roots. Remember to replace the water in the container once a day.
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When the leaves are big enough move the sprouting plant in a jar with enriched soil and place it next to the window again The first large leaves of lettuce grown since the waste will be ready within a few days.
Each of these techniques should guide you in your journey to growing 100% biological lettuce directly from your home with little to no effort.
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