Kitchen Garden Forum

I have some salad heads in plug trays and im wanting to put them in the groung in either my greenhouse or polytunnel and was wondering if anyone could tell me what size thay should be before i plant them? At the moment the biggest seedling is just less than an inch high. Also what temperature would the soil outside have to be before i cant plant them out? any advice would be great.

I normall wait until my seedlings are at least three inches high. By then they seem to be a little more sturdy and survive the planting out process better. If each plug size is a reasonable size and there's plenty of soil in which the roots can expand you can probably leave them a little longer if the weather is unsuitable.

Hi Geacher,
I would wait until you get a root show from the bottom of the module. Module grown Lettuces do not suffer from root disturbance and can be planted out at quite an early stage. The joy of using module growing lettuces is that you can delay planting out for a considerable time.
In the past I have had a finished product before the entire tray have been planted out.
Please tell me the size of the module you are using especially the depth.
With regards to ground temperature it is the temperature of the soil you are going to plant in not the outside soil temperature that is relative.
Lettuces are hardier than you may think and will tolerate lowish temperatures just so long as they do not become frosted. This means that even in a tunnel when low temperatures are forecast they would best be covered with a light fleece.
JB.