Living salads

[Primrose]

Today I purchased a very generous sized punnet of mixed "living salad" plants from Lidyl supermarket for 89p. They appear to be planted in a thin layer of compost so I'm wondering if there is any reason why they won't transplant out satisfactorily under cliches and produce some fine mixed salads. It seems amazing that I would have to pay about £3.99 for a far smaller strip of a similar item from a garden centre. I haven't yet started sowing any salads because of the cold weather and am hoping these will give me a head start.

Has anybody tried them? They will obviously need a little hardening off first but I can't see any other season why they shouldn't thrive.

[Westi]

Hi Primrose

I planted these last year & they did well as were quite a large size when split apart. I've got some more on the window sill at the moment as certainly planning for a repeat this year. The only thing is they are all quite soft - not a lot of crunch but I mixed them with other lettuces & herbs & was very satisfied!

Now for the temp to increase so can get them in! (There must be nearly 80 in each tray if not more but I went for the more established ones & got about 5 or 6 10ft rows).

Westi

[PLUMPUDDING]

They usually transplant very well and you get lots of plants. I'm just eating the last five in the greenhouse that I planted in November. They last for ages if you just pick one or two leaves. They don't put any growth on until late February and then grow quite quickly to a good size. It is my cheat if I forget to sow some in late summer/autumn. They can go a bit coarse if you leave them too long though.

[richard p]

i sometimes split a pack in three and plant each third in a supermarket mushroom tray and grow them on a bit on the window sill.... it just seems to give them a bit more space to spread and of course more compost to feed from as the plants get bigger.

occasionally see them n sainsburys as well