Topic: Woohoo for early poncy salads

[chriscross1966]

I think I've set a new personal best for earliest date for salads..... Last night all the green salad I ate was home grown, as were the radishes.... and I can't remember ever managing that in April before,,,, it's mostly down to sticking a few strips of mixed saldings into the propagators and some deep pots of radishes into the hot bed when I had space a few weeks ago... the saladings are now in a trough in the GH, the radishes in boig pots and troughs outdoors, but I'll have to do them like this again. Got several more strips of mixed salads too.... As to what they are I don't know, there's some rocket in there, and as the leaves are very clean I've been adding the radish tops to the salads too (delicious IMHO)...I reckon next year I'll try and make an earlier start on it as the seed costs next to nothing for tons (cheapo salad mixes bought in the 50p sale all mixed together), but I go through several quids worth of "poncy salad" a week

[BarriedaleNick]

Good going! - Im not quite there but not too far off and Ill be better prepared next year.  I have some radish but planted the wrong variety - I planted some Chinese ones which have taken an age to bulk up despite lots of leaf.  French breakfast should be quicker I guess.  I have some over wintered lettuce which may be ready in a week or so and some other not far behind. 

[Digeroo]

Well done.  How have you made your hot bed?

[galina]

Same here.

I have overwintered celery, rocket, cress, real lettuce, lamb's lettuce and landcress.  Seeds casually tossed into the greenhouse over winter, will sprout on their own accord when conditions are right.  Sometimes they will grow to tiny plants and overwinter, then put on a lot of growth in early spring.  At the moment there are also tiny leaves from chard in the garden and three-cornered leek, perennial onions, various overwintered spring onions etc.   Some winters the celery does not make it in the greenhouse and this year the outside (cloched) rocket and cress literally drowned and perished.  The relative proportions are sometimes a bit out of whack, for example this year I have a huge amount of cress and not enough lamb's lettuce, but hey .............  Egg and cress, omelet with cress, doesn't always have to be green salad.

It is indeed a wonderful feeling!  Thank you for sharing 

[chriscross1966]

Well done.  How have you made your hot bed?

Made a sort of shallow tray 6 foot by 3 out of old decking timber, 2" thick piece of polystyrene in the bottom, covered in polythene, layer of sharp sand with a 40 foot soil warming cable and thermostat embedded in it, polythene folded over the top of that, layer of capillary matting from Lidl fed by two gravel trays acting as reservoirs it takes about 25 half-trays (convenient cos I use a lot of six cell half trays as potting on modules) plus a few smallish pots. It's covered by a mini greenhouse/cold frame by Haxnicks, and there are a couple of wooden supports that allow me to put an extra layer of plants in there if I need more space at night... It's a giant propagator that sits in the GH and goes up to around 40 degrees, though I never really bother with putting it above 25 (possibly 30 once the cukes are in it)... ATM full of stuff for the greenhouse that is still small enough to be in 6-cell half-trays...

[manicscousers]

Grew some in the poly in january and transplanted into fish boxes, bought some living lettuce and transplanted it in february, sowed radish and spring onions at the same time. We've now finished the fish boxes (sowed stuff) and are starting on the transplanted stuff, the radish aren't full sized but they taste great and I agree with you, chriscross, the leaves are tasty 

[martinburo]

Some salads are very hardy. My salads at the moment contain mostly winter purslane, mustard greens, land cress, chard, fennel and chives, all sown at least 8 months ago, no tunnel.

[Nigel B]

Made a sort of shallow tray 6 foot by 3 out of old decking timber, 2" thick piece of polystyrene in the bottom, covered in polythene, layer of sharp sand with a 40 foot soil warming cable and thermostat embedded in it..........

Hey Chris,
How much electric does 40-feet of soil-warming cable use? Do you keep count of stuff like that I wonder?

Cheers.

Nigel.

[chriscross1966]

Well the hot bed is for the tomatoes adn peppers adn suchlike, technically hardy stuff only gets space in it if it's spare, to keep it covered. if nothing else... The 40 foot cable is rated at 150 watts, but having spent a fiar time in there yesterday you can hear the thermostat clicking on and off quite a bit so I doubt it's on for more than 50% of the time.  My combined gas and electric bill last year was less than 60 quid a month, so  idon't think it' chews through it adn I don't use it in the winter proper, I live on what's in the freezer and the hardy stuff outdoors (brussels, parsnips, celeriac, savoys) or in store (onions, spuds)...I consider the salads getting an early start in it to be basically for free, I had to run it anyway for the tomatoes, peppers and chillis.... now the troughs are just in normal greenhouse space adn the GH is otherwise unheated....

[Nigel B]

Thanks Chris. I shall ponder...... ;-)

[chriscross1966]

It's the equivalent of approximately 13 seed tray sized propagators, that works out at about 11-12W per tray, which is about where the normal cheap indoor propagators are (my twin-tray thermostatic is a 40 Watt unit and the "hot" single-tray is 18W.... it stays warmer than them though on a simple economy of scale in terms of radiant surface area for the covering.... plus I trust Parasene's rating on their professional growing kit way more than I do that of the unnamed manufacturer of a DIY shed chains propagators....  for me it takes the fear out of having an unheated greenhouse.... I reckon it is in use for about ten weeks a year, March, April, a bit of May.... so I don't feel it's a killer in terms of electricity, and it's the reason I've got salads to eat at the moment........

[pumkinlover]

I love the heading for this thread!

[artichoke]

I love the heading too!

I have: french sorrel (lemony taste chopped into salads), two sorts of chicory leaves (sugar loaf and a red one whose name I forget), ragged jack, over wintering lettuces, very exuberant lovage, cavalo nero, various herbs and things (wild garlic, chives, sage, rosemary, mint), edible leaves of scorzonera, ground cress, rocket, maybe other things I have forgotten (3 cornered leek, baby leeks?) and can make a VERY poncy salad with a dressing of olive oil and my own blackberry vinegar.

Only problem: husband cannot eat it unless disguised by bought lettuces, chopped up into the mixture. Am dealing with this - new polytunnel is crammed with lettuces.

My current favourite is  Laitue Grosse Blonde Paresseuse. Originally attracted by this very politically incorrect name in a French supermarket, I love it for its fresh soft generous green leaves.

Poncy salads R us

[pumkinlover]

My OH is the same Artichoke

[chriscross1966]

He's weird.... if I can get a salad that's less than 25% lettuce then I consider it a good start.... FIrst trough is now getting a shearing four or five times a week, and I reckon the second trough will be going full-bore in a couple of weeks.... third troughs worth is currnetly just starting to show seedlings in a tray of bdding strip modules....

[Robert_Brenchley]

My current favourite is  Laitue Grosse Blonde Paresseuse. Originally attracted by this very politically incorrect name in a French supermarket, I love it for its fresh soft generous green leaves.

Fat Lazy Blonde? Mine's just coming up.

[kippers garden]

I grow overwintering lettuces and they are great (artic king, mizuna, corn salad, hardy spring onions etc).  I pick a few leaves over winter as and when we want them and they keep us going until spring/summer ones are ready.  I grow mine in my polytunnel, but all they need is a cold frame to cover them.

The hot bed sounds great.