How often do you notice that nature helps to overcome some difficult, or rather, unfavorable periods, for example, associated with spring beriberi! To combat it, she created an amazing vegetable (although many people think it is a herb) - lettuce.
This fast-growing annual plant is a real pantry of nutrients. The lettuce plant is indispensable for decorating and harmoniously complementing the taste of any dish of fish, cheese, meat, vegetables. It is very important that this crop can be grown throughout the year, and not just in spring and summer, even on the kitchen windowsill. Summer residents who have harvested the first crop can immediately start re-sowing.
Today, there are more than two hundred species of this amazing culture, and breeders continue to work on creating new varieties, hybrids, as well as new variety types. They are very interesting to grow, but you need to know some features.
Varieties and species
Green leaf lettuce is an ancient vegetable crop that belongs to the genus Lactuca. Currently, there are more than two hundred species in the world,which differ in shape, taste, color, ripening time, although a few years ago only some of them were used in vegetable growing, no more than two dozen. In our country, Lactuca satival has become especially widespread and popular. It is found in Asia Minor, South and Central Europe.
Sowing lettuce can be divided into five categories:
- stall;
- leafy;
- romaine, or Roman;
- stem;
- headed.
Green leaf lettuce has only a leaf rosette, no head of cabbage appears. Leaves are used for food. This species includes varieties with strongly dissected and incised leaves. It differs from other species in multiple maturation periods.
This species does not tolerate long-term storage and long transportation. The following varieties are most common: Bona, Golden Ball, Kitare, Constance, Levistro, Concord and others.
Leaf salads: lettuce
This species can be divided into two groups.
Headed cabbage
Leaves of lettuce form a dense head, reminiscent of cabbage. Lettuce is used as food after a short heat treatment, and raw, for the preparation of vegetable salads. Boiled leaves are great for making cabbage rolls.
Leaf
This variety does not form a head, it has free rosettes. Popular varieties today include Lollo Biondo and Lollo Rosso (coral).
Arugula
Recently became unusually popular (in ourcountry). It began to be mentioned in all popular culinary programs, included in almost all salads.
Arugula is a salad whose benefits have long been proven in scientific research. This variety grows in separate leaves, and its appearance resembles dandelion leaves or radish greens. The taste of this salad is very bright, spicy and spicy. Young leaves are used for food, because later, over time, bitterness appears in them.
Arugula (lettuce) is much more widely used in the Caucasus. The benefits of young shoots and seeds have long been noticed by culinary specialists. The shoots are consumed fresh, and the seeds are used in the preparation of mustard. Arugula leaves go great in salads with tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Arugula is often used in the preparation of pesto, a well-known and beloved by many.
Useful properties
Arugula has a beneficial effect on the digestive tract due to the biologically active substances that make up the plant. Mustard grass has diuretic and lactogenic effects. It successfully fights viruses and pathogenic bacteria, increases hemoglobin in the blood, strengthens the immune system, and lowers blood sugar levels.
Chicory
Don't be surprised, this is really the same chicory that many people know as a coffee substitute. But for this purpose, the root of the plant is used, and the leaves stewed in oil give any dish a piquant taste.
Headed varieties of chicory - Red radicchio and alsoEscariole, Radicchio, Italian chicory - grown for culinary purposes. This species is especially popular in Western Europe.
Radicchio
The plant (lettuce) Radicchio has a beautiful reddish-purple color. The stems are ivory colored. It has a pleasant peppery, slightly bitter taste. It goes well with spicy leafy vegetables. Gives an interesting taste with garlic, thyme, onion. It is stewed in a small amount of oil or in red wine, after chopping the leaves into thin strips.
Radicchio has a beneficial effect on the digestive system and makes blood vessels elastic.
Strip lettuce
This variety is represented by varieties with a solid, slightly incised plate, with a wavy edge. The stem is covered with large non-coarse leaves. It can reach eighty centimeters in height. Varieties of this species are good because they are suitable for phased harvesting. First, the outer leaves are cut off, the inner (young) leaves for further growth.
Canyon
Mid-season variety with a growing season of about forty-five days. The socket is large, (diameter about thirty-five centimeters). Green lettuce leaves are anthocyanin, wavy, heavily indented. The mass of the outlet is up to seven hundred grams. The variety is resistant to most lettuce diseases. It tastes very similar to headed species, but at the same time it retains its marketable appearance and freshness much longer.
Stem lettuce (asparagus)
The lettuce stem plant has a fleshy stem, just below the rosette, leavesrather rigid, with a well-marked central vein. In cooking, both the leaves of the plant and the stem are used. The first domestic variety of stem lettuce is Pogonschik. It has leaves of gray-green color, elliptical shape, medium thickness, erect. The length of the stem is approximately forty centimeters, the leaf is thirty centimeters, the mass of one outlet is more than seven hundred and fifty grams. The variety gives high yields in any weather.
Head lettuce
This variety is represented by varieties with crisp, oily leaves of a rough texture. Heads are round or flat-round in different sizes. The leaves are wide, rounded, bubbly. Popular varieties: Dude, Senator, Tsud Laravera, Major, Voorburgu, Lento. Etty.
Senator
Early ripe variety, growing season - about seventy-five days. Forms large, round, slightly flattened, dark green heads of high density. It has excellent taste, gives high yields, is unpretentious to growing conditions.
Romen
Crunchy Romaine (or Roman lettuce) combines some head varieties. This type has a vertical outlet. The leaves are obovate, elongated, somewhat harsh. A large, loose, oval head of cabbage is tied in the center of the outlet. There are forms and semi-headed ones. In Russia, the most popular are Dendy, Treasury, Roger, Mishutka, Limpopo.
The loose and elongated head of Romaine is artificially formed. It is well kept. It is usually grownfor autumn collection. Sowing is carried out in mid-July, in seedling boxes. About four weeks after germination, the seedlings are transplanted into beds.
Growing lettuce in the open field is possible if the beds are free by the time of sowing. The distance between the bushes is at least fifteen centimeters.
Useful properties
In terms of vitamin content, the lettuce plant occupies one of the leading places among vegetable crops. Its leaves contain:
- B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin and pyridoxine;
- tocopherol;
- carotene;
- folic acid.
In addition, the salad contains minerals:
- potassium;
- calcium;
- magnesium;
- phosphorus.
Growing lettuce outdoors
Leaf varieties are sown on the beds from the beginning of May, at intervals of about twenty days, until August. In May, they are often used as a compacting crop: several seeds are sown between bushes of tomatoes and other heat-loving vegetables. Lettuce has time to grow before the main crop grows. Lettuce leaves are harvested fifty days after sowing, when seven leaves appear on the plant. It should be noted that they are tasty and he althy even before reaching commercial ripeness.
It is necessary to harvest the lettuce seed in the morning, after the dew has dried, when the maximum amount of nutrients accumulates in the leaves. Lettuce, which is intended for storage, cannot be removed after watering- Moisture that has got into the center of the outlet should dry before the plant is cut. Otherwise, wet leaves will deteriorate very quickly.
Headed varieties are sown at the same time as leaf varieties. But they need more space. This variety cannot be a compacting crop. Headed varieties must be thinned twice during cultivation: when two true leaves appear, it is necessary to leave a distance of five centimeters between shoots, after six weeks the distance between rosettes is increased to twenty-five centimeters. Heads are harvested eighty days after germination. Such salads are stored better and longer than leaf ones.
