Growing Lettuce

2025
July 17th
The 8 small seedlings have now been moved into the ground. They had all developed a couple of true leaves.

I don’t love using egg carton trays for transplanting seedlings — the young roots tend to stick to the cardboard. I think it would be better to either plant the seedlings in newspaper pots (which can go directly into the ground), or germinate the seeds in plastic seedling pots and let them grow a bit more before transplanting.
June 20th - The remaining 4 seeds have not germinated. The 8 seedlings have grown a little more but are still not really showing their true leaves. I’ll hold off putting them into the ground for the moment as I’d like to wait until they have some true leaves.
June 12th — Another three seeds have germinated, bringing the total to 8 out of the 12 planted.
June 11th — Another 5 seeds have germinated.
June 10th — One seed has now germinated.
June 1st — I have planted out 12 more seeds in seed-raising mix. I used an egg carton with one seed in each egg cup. I have left this outside to see if they will germinate outdoors.
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June 1st — This seedling isn’t really looking good. It hasn’t grown since being put in the ground. Our river birch trees are dropping their leaves, and the leaves often cover the seedling, which may be hindering its growth.
May 19th — Nearly all of the lettuces were eaten by slugs. I managed to save one and have planted it in the herb garden.
May 4th — The final seed has now germinated.
The seeds seem a bit leggy. I have checked online and they may not be getting enough light in the attic, so the seedlings are ‘reaching’ for the light. I have put the seedlings outside to see if they become hardier.
May 3rd — 3 of the seeds have now sprouted.
April 29th — Planted 4 seeds and placed them in the attic. No heat mat and not covered with a greenhouse.