Topic: Lettuce suggestion?

[Gillian]

Hi,

I posted this over in Pests and Diseases but didn't get any replies.  Can anyone help here?

I have a small garden that I want to grow lettuce in. However, last year they were attacked by root aphids. I've heard that there are some lettuce varieties that are immune to root aphids. Does anyone know which ones? Or have any nuggets of advice on how to deal with them (organically).

Thanks

[RSJK]

Gillian there is a lettuce in the Moles catalogue called Mohican that is resistant to root aphid, also one called Sunny, hope this is some help to you

[Robert_Brenchley]

Lettuce root aphids spend most of their time on poplars; are there any around?

[saddad]

If the soil isn't already full of the little blighters then would those brassica colllars work?  Not a bug specialist but again fine mesh fleece or something to stop them getting at the lettuce...
 ???

[jennym]

Try growing lettuce in pots - although I've got plenty of space for vegetables, I found that I could get decent sized lettuce from a 10 -12 cm pot, and also grew cut & come again lettuce, red & green leaf in larger pots, about 30cm. The reason I did this was that they keep cleaner, we tend to eat more if they're close to the house and they dont get attacked by slugs. I shouldn't think the root aphid would get to them if you use clean compost.
The other crop I had more success with in containers (seed trays in this case) was radish, really I think because they need to grow quickly and like a lot of water, and I can't give the ones on the allotment as much as they need. This was a tip from Georgie, who grows everything in pots!

[Gillian]

Thanks for the help! I'll check out those varieties in Moles and maybe use some collars too. Pots sound like a good idea too. Thanks again.