Salad Greens

This week CNN's website featured an article on our food supply and listed salad greens as the leading cause of illness to consumers. Of course the release of this data immediately caused an outcry from growers. As the same applied, to lesser degrees, to cheese, dairy products, berries, and other items, the same outcry arose from the producers of those items. Not surprising in the least.

A few years ago I became very ill after having eaten spring mix salad greens, and I don't think I would ever like to know what was on the greens to make me ill, as most likely it was very disgusting.

For the most part I avoid eating salad greens today, unless I grew the greens myself. If not, when I do have a salad, I prefer head lettuce. My rationale being that whatever they spray on the plants will be peeled off with the outside leaves, except perhaps a smaller amount absorbed by the plant. It may be stupid, but that is my theory...

Salads are high on my favorite menu items being a vegetarian, and I have been looking forward to the cool weather of solar autumn to begin growing salad greens for my table.

To that end I began starting small batches of a variety of lettuce seeds three weeks ago. Each batch consists of three or four cubes which are germinated on a heat mat under low light levels using 24" T12 grow lamps. Following germination the cubes are placed in a small growing tray and I use the AeroGarden lights to progress the seedlings to the point that they have at least one pair of true leaves. At that point the seedlings are moved into the greenhouse where they receive a combination of natural light and fluorescent light to achieve a photoperiod of at least 14 hours. When they have two or more sets of true leaves and roots are protruding from cubes the seedlings are planted into net pots and placed in the ebb and flow system.

Insolation is a term used by meteorologists to define the amount of sunlight that falls on a given location during a given period. In my neck of the woods during this time of year we can expect about 11 hours of light, however we will only forty percent of that. To compensate I am again using T12 48" fluorescent 6500K lighting to achieve a photoperiod of 14 hours. The above photo shows Burpee Bibb lettuce seedlings three weeks from the day the seeds were started. Needless to state that I am well satisfied with the results of my efforts so far.

Rarely has it been necessary for me to use an insecticide, and if I do, I use insecticide soap, which can be applied right up to the day of harvest. Going forward for the next several months I will know exactly what was used on my salad greens.

For my birthday I received two books on greenhouse gardening, and although they concerned gardening with soil, I did glean a good deal of information regarding growing methods and timing from the books. However, I am more than ever convinced that if I had to deal with the problems of gardening with soil, I would not even bother. Both authors recommended natural methods of insect control including using predator insects, and even lizards and snakes in the greenhouse. Like hello, get rid of the dirt, you get rid of the bugs, mostly. I am still of the opinion that the only good bug is a dead bug....

Please pass the salad dressing.