Fall Greens

With all the news recently about yet another outbreak of leafy greens food poisoning, I figured maybe other people would like to learn how to grow leafy greens nearly year round for themselves. Either in the ground or in a pot on your porch, greens grown in your own dirt have only the fertilizers and pesticides that you decide to use on them. I'll go into some of the fertilizers and pest control methods I use on mine, since there are plenty of critters which like lettuce just as much (if not more) than I do.

Kale, living the dream even in snow

Greens are very versatile. Most are cool weather crops, meaning that although it's possible to grow them in the heat of August, they may not taste as good when exposed to hot weather. Lettuces and other greens tend to get bitter in hot weather. It's much easier to switch over to veggies like cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes when the going gets hot. These plants thrive in warm weather.

The months between September and January, and then between March and July are the best to grow leafy greens for your salads here in Zone 6-7 (Maryland-ish). If you grow your lettuces in pots under a grow light indoors, though, nothing is stopping you from eating lettuce in February!

To grow nice healthy greens, start them in small containers (like paper cups with holes punched in the bottom) with fresh from the bag potting soil and a soil temperature at around 70F. This prevents the tender young seedlings from getting fungus or mold infections from the soil that may cause "die off" where they just wither up. If you have problems getting your soil that warm try putting the cups in a sunny window sill or getting a seedling heating mat for your indoor grow light setup.

Lettuces ready for transplant into a permanent home

After the plants have 4-6 leaves go ahead and transplant them into wherever they will be living while you harvest them. When you harvest, harvest the oldest, outer leaves first and don't take more than half of the leaves off of a single plant at a time. You may want to start a second batch of leafy greens a few weeks after planting the first to get a nice staggered harvest of plants.

Some lettuces and other leafy greens are bred to do well in hot weather. Look for "slow to bolt" varieties such as Buttercrunch Lettuce.

Some greens are bred to do better in cold weather, or are naturally more frost-tolerant. Kales are very cold hardy, with some varieties able to withstand below-freezing temperatures for multiple days. My Blue Curly Kale was fine in a pot on my porch down to about 20F! Red Russian Kale that I have growing in my garden seems to struggle with more than a day of freezing weather though. Spinach and lettuce do well at temperatures hovering around freezing, but many don't survive a frost. Weirdly this year the Buttercrunch lettuce is doing fine with a frost or two. Buttercrunch has got to be one of my favorite salad greens of all time.

You'd also be surprised what other veggies have edible greens. Turnips produce a big turnip root but also edible leaves which taste best when par boiled and then added to soups. They can also be sauteed in oil and herbs. Beets also have edible greens, though I don't like the taste of those personally.

mmm....Turnips

There ARE some pests that love leafy greens, especially cabbages and kales. Cabbage loopers and other caterpillars are my number one pest on greens. I personally pick them off and squish them until they get too bad, then I use a bacteria called Bt which is sold as a stinky green concentrate at the garden center. It's organic, since it is a naturally-occuring bacteria that only affects caterpillars and has a lifespan of about 24 hours after being applied. It decays in sunlight, so I try to spray on overcast days when it's not expected to rain for at least a few hours. I've also tried neem oil as an organic spray, but that works better on mites and aphids than on caterpillars.

Cabbage Looper

Rabbits and deer are a pest in our neighborhood, so I will spray the garden with deer and rabbit repellent every few weeks. I also put netting over the tender greens so they don't get nibbled on. It seems to help, as it's less effort to go eat the plants without netting. :P You can also put up a fence if they get too bad.

For slugs I will occasionally put a dusting of diatomaceous earth around the lettuces, but I don't do this often, as the sharp points of the diatomaceous earth cut up everything indiscriminately. I don't want to deter bugs like earthworms or bumblebees in my garden because they brushed up against something intended for slugs. Luckly as soon as it rains it dissolves the sharp points of the diatoms and renders it useless.

Fertilizing my garden currently consists of turning compost into the soil with a pitchfork every time I pull things out and re-plant a vegetable bed. It seems to be working so far, though I have had to add extra calcium in the way of crushed up Tums for my tomato plants. Greens seem to do well in less fertile soil.



I hope this helps in your quest to not get e.coli poisoning from your next salad! Growing your own salad greens is rewarding and salads just taste better when you are proud of growing them yourself.