I let 2 of the lettuce plants (1 butter bibb and 1 red leaf) bolt and go to seed (flower) for the purpose of being able to harvest and save the seed. Both types did so well, I thought why not try and saving some of the seed to plant for next year. Below are a few facts about lettuce seed that I learned with some pictures. Do know, I don't know all the facts and am not sure I did this 100% right, but there is still some useful info here.
- Lettuce has to bolt (starts growing up with a stalk, instead of putting off leaves and growing out). This happens when the weather starts getting hot, as lettuce is a cool weather plant.
- Once lettuce has bolted, it will start forming bud-like pods as it prepares to flower (go to seed).
- Before the the buds open they will have yellow sticking out the end and once they have opened and been pollinated they will close back up and plump and white fuzzy material will be sticking out the end. So that's how you know which ones have been pollinated, look for white and plump instead of skinny and yellow. See pics below:
- Lastly, the buds/flowers may only open for as little as 30 minutes, so don't count on seeing the flowers for long...if at all.
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| Butter Bibb lettuce that has bolted and "gone to seed." |
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| Same bibb lettuce plant as above while the flowers were open. |
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| Notice the skinny/slim buds with yellow sticking out the top, this is before they have opened and been pollinated. Also in the picture are closed pollinated buds...look for the plump buds with just a little bit of white sticking out the top. |
An enemy of the squash / zucchini plant is the Squash Vine Borer. They enter into the stalk close to where it enters the ground and eat the plant from the inside, making it's way up the stalk. Evidence of the insect is saw-dust looking material on the vine (see pic below). This is where they have bored in. Most of our squash and zucchini plants have these tell-tell signs, so we planted some more today. So if we lose the plants we have, no biggie, we've got more on the way. Not to mention we've been harvesting these plants for about 2 weeks now.
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| There are 3 vines on this mound, one going out to the left, and 2 to the right. Notice the left vine, it has the saw-dust looking material caked on it. You can't see it from this angle, but there is actually a noticeable hole also. The vines on the right show no signs of being infected. |
Lastly, the wife and I planted some Catnip (from the mint family) and Cilantro (coriander) this morning.
