By George Boyhan
University of
Georgia
Gourmet salad greens don’t have to cost a fortune. You can
easily grow your own.
Most salad greens are cool-weather crops. Depending on where you
garden in Georgia, you can start sowing salad green seeds in
August and continue every week through late October.
Seeds of salad greens are sold as mixes or separately. The mixes
may contain any combination of lettuces and greens. Some are
tangy. Others are mild or bitter. Combine them with a zesty
dressing, and the salad is no longer something that’s just good
for you.
Arugula has a toasty, pungent
flavor and is a favorite for mixes. It’s rich in beta carotene
and higher in vitamin C than almost any other salad green.
Endive is in the same family as
lettuce. With smooth, pale, long heads, it has more flavor than
many lettuces. Curly endive, sometimes called chicory, has curly
edged, green leaves.
Escarole has broad, wavy green
leaves with a pleasant, slightly bitter flavor.
Radicchio, or red chicory, adds
color and mildly bitter flavor to salads.
Mache, also called corn salad,
has velvety leaves and a mild taste.
Watercress has pungent sprigs
that look like parsley. Cresses have a peppery flavor, while
mustards “bite” your tongue.
How to grow them
Plant salad green seeds a quarter-inch deep in rows 18 to 24
inches apart. You can space them as close as 6 to 12 inches if
you plan to harvest young, immature leaves.
To keep those fresh salads coming, plant about 5 feet per week
through the fall.
Salad greens can be grown in semishade but do best with at least
3 to 4 hours of sun. Fertilize your greens moderately with one
side-dressing. The growing season for lettuce varies with the
cultivar. Most will be ready to harvest within 40 to 60 days.
Head lettuce will take longer to form a head.
Harvest the greens with scissors when they’re young. Cut the
young leaves a half-inch to an inch above the soil and the
leaves
may regrow for a second harvest. Or cut them at ground level for
a single harvest.
Seed sources
Here are some seed companies that offer gourmet salad-green
seeds for home gardeners:
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 955 Benton Avenue, Winslow, Me.
04901 (207) 861-3900 (www.johnnyseeds.com) - Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 Old Salem Road NE, Albany, OR
97321-4580 (www.nicholsgardennurs
ery.com/) - Territorial Seed Company, P.O. Box 158, Cottage Grove, OR
97424-0061 (800) 626-0866 (www.territorial-
seed.com/stores/1/index.cfm) - The Cook’s Garden, P.O. Box C5030, Warminster, PA 18974
(catalog $1) (800) 457-9703 (www.cooksgarden.com)
(George Boyhan is a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences. Wayne McLaurin, professor emeritus of
horticulture with UGA Extension, contributed to this article.)
