Planting lettuce in pots from home is a perfect method to have fresh, green leaves at your fingertips, no matter if you live in an apartment or a house! Learning how to plant lettuce in pots from home is ideal because then the pots can easily be brought inside during cooler months, then taken out outdoors when the weather becomes warmer. In fact, lettuce is often considered to be one of the easiest vegetables to plant from home. This is because there really aren’t any specific techniques needed for successful indoor or container vegetable gardening. What it does mean is that the basics of planting, preparation and then just enjoying the fruits of your labor are all done from your own home, in your kitchen. Container or pot gardening is not only cheaper than traditional outdoor or backyard gardening methods, but it also is a lot more convenient!
When it comes to preparing your vegetable plants for planting in pots, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. First of all, the pots should be well drained. This will ensure that the water that they need will be able to get to all of the roots. When you decide to use plastic pots, then you will want to make sure that the pots have a lip on the bottom to keep excess water from draining away from the soil.
The drainage holes in the bottom of your pot also play a very big role in how quickly your plant will grow. Without drainage holes, the water will soak right up into the soil of the pot, which could potentially stunt your plant. However, with proper drainage holes in place, water will drain out so easily and the roots will get a chance to develop properly. You will also want to choose a pot size that will fit comfortably inside your window. For smaller plants that you plan on bringing indoors for the long term, you may want to consider an indoor plant pot instead of a portable one. These pots will be much smaller than the typical outdoor ones, but they will still provide adequate room for your plant to spread out and get the proper amount of sunlight.
In addition to making certain that your pots have the right drainage holes, you will also want to make sure that they have the proper type of potting soil. For most starter plants, you should go with a medium quality potting soil. For some varieties of lettuce, however, you may find that medium quality clay pots work better. However, no matter what you end up choosing, remember that your final product is only as good as the soil that it is prepared with, so make sure to water your plants carefully and evenly.
When you bring those newly transplanted plants home for the first time, be prepared to give them plenty of extra water. While this may be counter-intuitive to your plans, the fact is that the plants will tend to more water themselves when they are warmer. That is why many gardeners wait until the plants have just come out of their winter hibernation in the fall to water them. This is a very bad idea. As the plants are warmer, they will also need more water to hydrate themselves, so wait until the very early spring to water your plants.
The next concern that you will have to address when you are trying to get plants to grow successfully in containers is that of common problems. One of the biggest problems that most new gardeners face is that of poor growth. Many people start off with nice healthy green plants, but they fail to sustain any kind of fruit or color due to a variety of reasons. One of the best ways to overcome this problem is to simply prune your young plants after they are initially grown.
It is important to remember that if you plant lettuces in a small pot, you will have to do a lot more watering. In addition to watering them every couple of days when they first come out of their pot, you will also have to water them every day when they are in their newpots. If you do not do this, your plants will eventually stop growing altogether because they will not have any water to sustain themselves on. You have to keep in mind that the biggest container that you can put them in is a six inches deep pot, because anything larger than this is not going to provide them with enough water to stay alive.
Another common problem that many people face when they try to grow their plants in pots instead of in the ground is that their leaves will burn up quickly if they do not receive enough moisture. There are a variety of different ways in which you can increase the amount of moisture that your plants get, including introducing some type of moisture retaining soil material into the pot. If you are just going to be putting some type of top soil in a pot, you can easily do this by soaking some peat or perlite into the pot and then placing it in the bottom and gently working it into the soil. Just make sure that you place some sort of support for your plants as you do this, so that they do not topple over.