How often do you notice that nature helpsovercome some difficult, or rather unfavorable periods, for example, associated with spring avitaminosis! To combat it, she created an amazing vegetable (although many people think that it is grass) - a salad.
This is a fast-growing annual plant -real pantry of nutrients. The plant salad is indispensable for decorating and harmoniously complementing the taste of any fish, cheese, meat, vegetable dish. 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. The summer residents who have collected the first harvest, can immediately proceed to re-sowing.
To date, there are more than two hundredspecies of this amazing culture, and breeders continue to work on the creation of new varieties, hybrids, as well as on new varieties. They are very interesting to grow, but you need to know some features.
Varieties and types
Green leaf lettuce is the oldest vegetablea culture that belongs to the genus Lactuca. Currently, there are more than two hundred species in the world, which differ in shape, taste, color, and maturity, although several years ago only some of them, no more than two dozen, were used in vegetable production. In our country, the species Lactuca satival has gained special popularity and popularity. It is found in Asia Minor, Southern and Central Europe.
Seed lettuce can be divided into five categories:
- disruption;
- sheet;
- Roman, or Roman;
- stem;
- head out
Green leaf lettuce has only leafoutlet, heading does not appear. Leaves are used in food. This species includes varieties with strongly dissected and incised and leaves. It differs from other species by multiple ripening terms.
This species does not tolerate long-term storage and long-term transportation. The most common are the following varieties: Bonus, Golden Ball, Kitare, Constance, Levistro, Concord and others.
Leafy salads: lettuce
This view can be divided into two groups.
Head Out
Lettuce leaves form a dense head,resembling cabbage. Salad is used as food after a short heat treatment, and in its raw form, for the preparation of vegetable salads. Boiled leaves are great for cooking cabbage.
Sheet
This variety does not head out; it has loose sockets. Today, varieties such as Lollo Biondo and Lollo Rosso (coral) are popular.
Arugula
Most recently became extremely popular (in our country). It began to be mentioned in all popular culinary programs, including almost all salads.
Arugula - salad, the benefit of which has long been proven inthe course of research. This variety grows as individual 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 as food, since later, over time, bitterness appears in them.
Arugula is much more widely used in the Caucasus(salad). The benefits of young shoots and seeds have long been noticed by cooks. The shoots are consumed fresh, and the seeds are used in the preparation of mustard. Arugula leaves are perfectly combined in salads with tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Often arugula is used in the preparation of the seasoned pesto known and loved by many.
Beneficial features
Arugula favorably affects the gastrointestinal tractdue to the biologically active substances contained in the plant. Mustard herb has diuretic and lactogonic effects. It successfully fights against viruses and pathogenic bacteria, increases the hemoglobin index in the blood, strengthens the immune system, lowers blood sugar levels.
Chicory
Не удивляйтесь, это действительно тот самый chicory, which many people know as a coffee substitute. But for this purpose, the root of the plant is used, and the leaves stewed in butter give a spicy taste to any dish.
The cabbage varieties of chicory - Radicchio red, as well as Escariol, Radicchio, Italian chicory - are cultivated for culinary purposes. This species is especially popular in Western Europe.
Radicchio
The plant (salad) Radicchio has a beautifulreddish purple color. Stems are painted ivory. It has a nice peppery, slightly bitter taste. It goes well with sharp leafy vegetables. Gives an interesting taste with garlic, thyme, onion. It is stewed in a little oil or in red wine, after chopping the leaves with a thin straw.
Radicchio has a beneficial effect on the digestive system and gives elasticity to blood vessels.
Salad stall
This variety is represented by varieties withsolid, slightly incised plate, with a wavy edge. The stem is covered with large non-curing leaves. In height can reach eighty centimeters. Varieties of this type are good because they are suitable for step-by-step cleaning. First, the outer leaves are cut off, the inner (young) leaves are left for further growth.
Canyon
Mid-season, the growing season of whichabout forty five days. The socket is large, (diameter is about thirty five centimeters). Green lettuce leaves anthocyanin, wavy, heavily rugged. Weight rosettes up to seven hundred grams. The variety is resistant to most diseases of lettuce. The taste is very reminiscent of the cabbage species, but it also maintains its presentation and freshness for much longer.
Stem Salad (Asparagus)
The stem lettuce plant has a fleshy stem,just below the rosette, the leaves are quite tough, with a well-marked central vein. In cooking, use and leaves of the plant, and the stem. The first domestic variety of stem salad - the Driver. It has leaves of gray-green color, elliptical shape, medium thickness, upright. The length of the stem is about forty centimeters, a leaf - thirty centimeters, the weight of one outlet is more than seven hundred and fifty grams. Variety gives high yields in any weather.
Head lettuce
Данная разновидность представлена сортами с crunchy, oily leaves of rough texture. The heads of cabbages are round or flat-round in various sizes. The leaves are broad, rounded, bubbly. Popular varieties: Dude, Senator, Tsud Laravera, Major, Voorburgu, Lento. Etti.
Senator
Early ripe variety, vegetation period - aboutseventy-five days. Forms large, rounded, slightly flattened shape, dark green cabbages of high density. Possesses excellent taste, gives high yields, unpretentious to the conditions of growth.
Romaine
Crispy Romain (or Roman Salad) Combinessome heading varieties. This view has a vertically located outlet. Leaves back oval, elongated, somewhat harsh. A large, loose, oval-shaped head of cabbage is tied in the center of the outlet. There are forms and half-smoked. Dandy, Skarb, Roger, Mishutka, Limpopo are the most popular in Russia.
Loose and elongated head of Romain is formedartificially. It is beautifully stored. It is usually grown for the autumn harvest. Sowing is carried out in mid-July, in boxes for seedlings. Approximately four weeks after the shoots appear, the seedlings are transplanted into beds.
Growing lettuce in the open ground is possible if the beds are empty at the time of sowing. The distance between the bushes is not less than fifteen centimeters.
Beneficial features
According to the content of vitamins, the plant salad is one of the leading places among vegetable crops. Its leaves contain:
- B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin and pyridoxine;
- tocopherol;
- carotene;
- folic acid.
In addition, the composition of the salad includes minerals:
- potassium;
- calcium;
- magnesium;
- phosphorus.
Growing lettuce in the open field
Leaf varieties are sown in the beds since the beginning of May, withintervals of about twenty days, until August. In May, they are often used as a compaction culture: they sow several seeds between bushes of tomatoes and other heat-loving vegetables. Salad will have time to grow before the main culture grows. Lettuce is harvested fifty days after sowing, when seven leaves appear on the plant. It should be noted that they are tasty and useful even to achieve marketable ripeness.
Убирать посевной салата необходимо утром, после how dew dries when the maximum amount of nutrients accumulates in the leaves. Lettuce, which is intended for storage, should not be removed after watering - moisture in the center of the outlet must dry before the plant is cut. Otherwise, wet leaves will deteriorate very quickly.
Cabbage varieties are sown on the same dates asleafy. But they need more space. This variety cannot be a compaction culture. Cabbage varieties must be thinned twice during cultivation: when two true leaves appear, it is necessary to leave five centimeters between shoots, after six weeks the distance between sockets is increased to twenty-five centimeters. Harvesting heads carried eighty days after germination. Such salads are stored better and longer than leafy ones.
