50 days. We've offered Salad Bowl for years because gardeners still love its wonderful mellow flavor. This one is a prime candidate for early spring sowings in a cold frame or even unprotected in the garden. Grows very rapidly for early spring salads and resists bolting when summer arrives. Frilly, deeply cut leaves frame large, lime-green rosettes. OP
Mascara Lettuce
Organic. 48 days. A very uniform, dark red oak leaf type. It is the standard that all red oaks must go up against, and it's hard to beat. In trials, Mascara retains its color during the hottest parts of the summer, when others tend to fade. Combines well with regular green leaf types to make beautiful mid-summer salads. Very bolt resistant; mild, non-bitter flavor. OP
Lactuca sativa: The purpose of our ongoing lettuce evaluations and seed productions is to enable the home gardener to grow tasty salads year-round with minimal effort. By utilizing different varieties of lettuces and different cultural practices, a fresh salad is never farther away than your garden.
CULTURE: Most lettuces are hardy, cool-season crops that can be planted as early as the soil can be worked. Many do best when the air temperature is between 60-70°F, and will germinate well at soil temperatures as low as 40°F. Choose heat tolerant varieties for summer plantings. Lettuce can be sown either directly into the garden or started indoors and transplanted. With succession plantings every 3 weeks, you can enjoy fresh salads all season. A cold frame and cold-hardy varieties can stretch the spring and fall growing season into the winter months. Optimum soil temperature range for germination: 40-75°F. Days to emergence: 2-15.
TO DIRECT SOW: Sow seed 1/4-1/2 inch deep, 1 inch apart, in rows 16-18 inches apart. Cover seeds lightly and firm gently. As soon as 2-3 true leaves have formed, thin loose-leaf types 10-14 inches apart and icebergs, bibbs, and romaines 12-16 inches apart.
FOR TRANSPLANTS: Sow 3-4 seeds per inch in sterile seedling mix 3 weeks prior to planting out. Transplant individual plants into pots or cell trays 2 weeks after sowing. Before planting outside, harden off for 2-3 days by reducing water and placing outdoors in a sheltered location. Leafy green vegetables require a moderately fertile soil. One cup of our complete fertilizer per 10 row feet will provide adequate nutrition.
INSECTS/PESTS: Most lettuce grows quickly, so pests aren't a problem. Aphids can be washed off with a strong spray of water, and slugs can be controlled with diatomaceous earth, slug baits, or traps.
HARVEST: During the warmer seasons, lettuce remains in prime eating condition for about 3 weeks. While picking individual leaves helps extend the season somewhat, all eventually become tough and bitter as they begin to bolt. We've found that rinsing lettuce under warm tap water can help reduce bitterness.
SEED SPECS: Minimum germination standard: 80%. Usual seed life: 3 years. Sampler will sow 15 row feet. Approximately 800 seeds per gram; 28 grams per ounce.
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WHEN TO PLANT: Loose leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa) grows so quickly in the cool days of early spring that few gardeners start it early indoors, although if you have a the space to do so, you can beat the season by a week or so or up to a month if you set plants out under protective cloches or tunnels. Plant seeds of leaf lettuce as soon as the ground can be worked. Romaine and butterhead types, which mature a bit later, may be either started indoors or direct seeded.
HOW TO PLANT: Plant seeds no more than 1/4" deep. Although lettuce seeds you sow indoors usually germinate within a week, early outdoor plantings in cold soil my not come up for two weeks. Thin the plants to 3" apart. In another two or three weeks, I pull alternate plants for salad, letting the rest, now spaced 6" apart, grow to soft head or full leaf size.
GROWING CONDITIONS: Lettuce plants will bolt once they're fully developed, not matter what you do, but heat and long days can hasten bolting. Mulch to keep the soil cool and try to shield plants from light at night, such as that from yard and porch lights.
SUMMER PLANTING: Since lettuce doesn't keep and can't be canned, plant short rows or blocks every two or three weeks all season, using one of the slower bolting kinds like Anuenue, Orfeo or Little Gem for summer plantings. One experienced gardener says, "Plant 10 lettuce seeds a week". I've read that you can even scatter seeds on bare ground during a winter thaw for record early May lettuce. I haven't tried this yet but it makes sense, because volunteer lettuces usually appear quite early.
Summer heat sometimes sends lettuce seeds into dormncy. To get around this, and raise the lettuce to go with your tomatoes, you can expose the germinating seeds to light, refrigerate the seeds for a week or two before planting , or use old seeds, which are less likely to maintain dormancy in hot weather.
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SALAD BOWL
PURCHASED: 1g from Territorial Seed Co. Jan '09. $2.35
STARTED SEED: 2/5/09, 9 pm - one batch with heating mat (82° - consistent) one without (72° / next morning 62°). Seeds germinated much better in the cooler flat maybe 80% or so. The hotter mat had a rate of about 20% or less! Though both were showing signs of life by 2/7 - 2 days - not bad! Salad Bowl sprouted about 10 hours before Mascara.
HARDENED OFF: 3/15/09: One hour in the cold frame. Added an hour each day for a week or so till finally I left them out over night in the cold frame. Planted in the garden the next day.
TRANSPLANTED IN GARDEN:
DISEASE ISSUES:
INSECT ISSUES: 3/27/09: Noticed that something ate one of the starts to the quick. Will investigate this evening.
HARVEST YEILD & DURATION:
OTHER NOTES:
2/8/09
2/23/09
03/02/09
03/16/09
03/23/09
03/30/09
MASCARA
PURCHASED: 1/2g from Territorial Seed Co. Jan '09. $2.85
STARTED SEED: 2/5/09, 9 pm - one batch with heating mat (82° - consistent) one without (72° / next morning 62°). Seeds germinated much better in the cooler flat maybe 80% or so. The hotter mat had a rate of about 20% or less! Though both were showing signs of life by 2/7 - 2 days - not bad! Salad Bowl sprouted about 10 hours before Mascara.
HARDENED OFF: 3/15/09: One hour in the cold frame.
TRANSPLANTED IN GARDEN:
DISEASE ISSUES:
INSECT ISSUES:
HARVEST YEILD & DURATION:
OTHER NOTES:
2/23/09
03/02/09
03/16/09
03/23/09
03/30/09
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