 |  | Better Farming Series 19 - Market Gardening (FAO - INADES, 1977, 56 p.) | ||
 |  | Salad plants | ||
|  | Salad plants are leaf vegetables | ||
| | How to grow salad plants | ||
| | Harvesting | ||
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45. There are many other leaf vegetables, for example spinach or cabbage, which are looked after in the same way.
What varieties are most grown in Africa?
46. Head lettuce
Head lettuce grows very fast and produces a lot. Its leaves are soft. It is very nice to eat, but is easily attacked by snails and little worms (eelworms), and it does not stand up well to transport.
Curled endive
Endive grows less fast; it is picked 12 weeks after transplanting. Its leaves are bitter and hard; it is not easily attacked by snails and eelworms. It stands up well to transport, but rots easily.
Batavia lettuce
Batavia lettuce produces a lot. It is picked 10 weeks after transplanting. Its leaves are a little hard, but it is resistant to diseases and stands up well to transport.
Head of lettuce
Curled
endive
47. Leaf vegetables are grown for picking and eating the leaves.
So it is important to produce a lot of leaves of good quality, leaves that are soft and nice to eat, leaves that are not spoilt by diseases, snails or eelworms.
To produce these leaves, the soil must be well prepared
48. Salad plants do not have a large root system, so they need a fine and rich soil.
For this reason it is best to grow salad plants at the beginning of the rotation.
Then the roots can take their nourishment from the mineral salts added by manure.
If the soil has been well prepared, salad plants can make better use of fertilizers and water, and grow faster.
Salad seeds must be sown in nursery beds
49. Disinfect the soil of the nursery beds with boiling water.
When you buy seeds, be careful not to buy old seeds. You can mix the seeds with a little sand, but in that case the sand must also be disinfected.
Do not push the seed deeply into the soil. Firm the soil well with the tamper. Water. Five days after sowing, the seedlings come up.
Salad plants must be transplanted
50. Lift the seedlings from the nursery bed when they have 3 or
4 leaves, about three weeks after sowing. When you take them out of the earth,
be very careful not to damage the roots; the roots are very
delicate.
Transplant at once; the plants must not dry out in the sun.
It is best to transplant in the evening, when the air is not hot any more.
Leave 30 centimetres between rows, and 30 centimetres between seedlings.
For salad plant varieties that grow to a large size, leave greater distances.
Pack the earth down well around each plant, and water it.
Salad plants must be well cared for
51. Leaf vegetables need above all water and shade.
Water your salad plants oftenevery morning and every evening.
Do not water when the sun is hot.
Do your watering gently, so as not to damage the leaves.
It is best to pour the water on the ground between the salad plants.
Shade.
Make a shelter over the salad plant beds (see paragraph 26), so that the sun does not burn the leaves and the heavy rain does not tear them.
When the plants are bigger, give them less shade.
Hoeing.
It is very important to remove the weeds often. They take the nourishment of the plants out of the soil. Hoe twice a week.
At the same time, remove any snails and eelworms and take out and burn diseased plants.
Salad plants must be protected against snails and eelworms
52. Snails eat the leaves of salad plants; they must be picked up and removed.
Eelworms are tiny worms which attack the roots, and then the young salad plants die very quickly.
To control eelworms you must use a good rotation of crops.
Before sowing, disinfect the soil with boiling water. Once a year, cover the beds with straw and burn the straw.
53. A few days before picking, tie the leaves of each plant of curled endive together with raffia. Like that the leaves remain white and soft.
Do not tie up the leaves when they are wet, because in that case they may rot. If it rains when the plants are already tied up, take off the raffia and begin again.
Do not pour water on salad plants once they are tied up; water only on the ground between the plants.
Pick salad plants in the morning or the evening, when the sun is not hot. Do not pick salad plants when they are too wet, because in that case they may rot during transport.
Remember
- Salad plants have to be picked at the right time.
When they start to boltthat is, when they grow a stem from their basethey are not tit to eat
Salad plant that has bolted
Curled endive tied
up
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