Imagine harvesting lettuce from your garden and its leaves are so small you can’t even make a whole lettuce wrap.
Pretty catastrophic, isn’t it?
The same also goes for salad, sandwiches, and stir fried recipes. Lettuce has many varieties and none of them looks good with small leaves.
There are a lot of reasons as to why your lettuce is only producing small leaves and each of these will be discussed in this article one by one including the symptoms and remedies.
Causes of small lettuce leaves
- Too little or too much soil moisture
What to look out for:
Wilted leaves, poor plant growth, soggy soil
What to do:
Unregulated soil moisture can highly affect the overall growth of your lettuce plant. For instance, when there is insufficient soil moisture, there is a huge tendency for your plant to wilt and manifest poor growth, including production of small lettuce leaves. On the other hand, excessive soil moisture may result in root rot which is also one of the common causes of leaf discoloration.
To fix this, make sure to plant your lettuce in rich, moist soil with good drainage and water it regularly, about an inch every week, to avoid drought and overwatering.
- High temperatures
What to look out for:
Thin leaves, slow leaf production
What to do:
Since lettuce thrives better in colder temperatures, extreme heat can adversely affect its growth, particularly the leaf production. When exposed to too much heat, not only will the leaves wilt, but the entire plant will also reduce its leaf production, with a possibility of producing smaller leaves. So, the best thing to do is plan your planting season ahead and grow your lettuce only during the cool weather, or if you insist on planting even during the summer, choose a heat-resistant variety.
- Nematodes
What to look out for:
Distorted leaves, swollen roots/twigs, leaf discoloration
What to do:
Nematodes are pests that feast on lettuce plants by burrowing through the soil and infecting the roots. When not prevented, this infestation will crawl up to the new growth, affecting the plant’s leaves. Results can vary between producing thin, smaller leaves, wilting, and die back. Some of the troubleshooting that you can do is by watering your lettuce regularly, applying ample amounts of fertilizer, or totally removing the entire plant at the end of the season to prevent the nematodes from spreading.
- Fungal disease
What to look out for:
Leaf drop, poor plant growth, stem and root rot
What to do:
Sclerotinia minor and Sclerotinia sclerotioru are two of the most common fungal diseases that affect lettuce plants. These fungal diseases cause rot or withering of roots, stems, and leaves which then lead to slow and poor plant growth, and eventually collapsing and dying. To fix this, start by removing the infected leaves to avoid damaging other lettuce leaves and then transfer the entire plant into a better garden bed with good drainage.
Other growing problems and diseases
Growing your own lettuce in your own garden guarantees you an abundant food supply. You can make it into a salad, add crisp to your sandwich, make some lettuce wraps for lunch, and many more. But, not only us human beings enjoy this green, crunchy crop. Pests, fungi, and other diseases also tend to thrive on this plant.
Here are some of the problems and diseases that you may probably encounter when growing your own lettuce plant.
- Sunburn
Sunburn does not only happen to human beings, but apparently to lettuce as well. Since lettuce thrives better in colder temperatures, it easily gets sunburned when exposed to too much full sun. To protect your lettuce from extreme sun exposure, you can cover it with shade cloth or plant it in a bed that has more shade.
How will you know if your lettuce is sunburned? Observe the leaf tips. If they turn brown and basically look burned, then it is clearly a sign of sunburn.
- Snails and slugs
Aside from bunnies and turtles, do you know who else loves lettuce? Snail and slugs. But, unlike bunnies and turtles, these two molluscs are actually considered as pests that feed on growing lettuce, causing them to leave trails of silver slime and leaving the crop half eaten.
To be able to get rid of these snails and slugs, you can initially clean up your garden and make it debris-free so they don’t have a place to hide. Next is set up a shelter-trap; or you could also attract and drown them with a shallow dish of beer with lip.
- Downy mildew
Downy mildew is a fungal disease that spreads from one plant to another by airborne spores. You can easily spot if your lettuce is suffering from downy mildew when you notice some pale yellowish spots forming on the surface of the lettuce leaves and grayish purple molds on the undersides. Since this fungal disease rapidly spreads not only within the crop but also across other plants, it is important that you get rid of it the quickest time possible.
Improving air circulation and keeping your garden debris-free can greatly contribute to minimizing the spreading of downy mildew. Moist environment also increases the chances of your lettuce from getting the fungal disease so it is recommended that you water your plant in the morning so it has enough time to dry out during the day.
- Aster yellows
Another lettuce disease transmitted by leafhoppers is the Aster yellows. When infected, the leaves at the center of the heads are twisted, stunted, narrow, and yellow. While there is no available treatment for this disease yet, the least that you can do is eliminate the infected plant to avoid the disease from transmitting to other plants.
- Mosaic virus
Another commonly encountered virus that attacks on lettuce is the Mosaic Virus. This virus is mainly caused by aphids and leafhoppers that makes the lettuce leaves slightly spotted and turns the leaves yellow and stunted. What’s hard about this virus is that when your plant already showed symptoms, there really is not much that you can do to control it from spreading but to get rid of the infected leaves.
To avoid this from happening in the future, you could add some aluminum mulch on your soil to disorient the aphids. It will also be helpful if you make your garden free from weeds where aphids and leafhoppers nestle.
Read more about Lettuce
How To Harvest Lettuce Without Killing The Plant?
17 Fastest Growing Vegetables From Seed
Tips on growing lettuce properly
Lettuce can be quite picky when it comes to its growing environment, thus you have to make sure that you meet all of its growing requirements to be able to harvest good quality and best tasting lettuce. While there is no guarantee that you will be able to avoid all types of growing problems and diseases that may destroy the quality of your lettuce, you can still follow these useful tips to help you manage your lettuce plants properly.
- Keep the soil cool and moist
Adding organic mulch at the surface of the soil will keep it cool and moist which is beneficial to the overall growth of your lettuce plant. Especially during the warmer weather, it is important to still grow your lettuce in its preferred growing condition to avoid it from wilting or producing poor quality leaves.
- Provide a steady supply of nitrogen
3 weeks after transplanting, it is necessary that you feed your lettuce with nitrogen rich fertilizers for it to continue to grow. If it happens that your soil is not high in organic materials, you can make do with it by adding plenty of compost and slow-release fertilizers. Also make sure that the soil is well-draining to minimize the possibility of root rot.
- Water only when necessary
While lettuce thrives well in moist soil and cool conditions, it does not mean that you need to water it frequently. To avoid the possibility of root rot, only water your lettuce when deemed necessary particularly if it shows signs of wilting. Ideally, lettuce only needs watering once twice a week or every 5 days.
- Sow additional seeds
For you to maximize your lettuce harvest all throughout the season, it is recommended that you sow additional lettuce seeds every two weeks so you can continue harvesting your crop before the season ends. Make sure to plant your lettuce in shaded areas or underneath the taller crops where it can be protected from direct sunlight.
- Companion planting
Part of providing a good growing environment for your lettuce is to master companion planting. For instance, since lettuce is prone to aphids infestation, it will be beneficial if you plant it near the garlic and chives as these two are known as great aphids repellent. Similarly, marigold is also a good option to help keep bugs away from your lettuce.
Other crops and vegetables that are believed to be great companions of lettuce are carrots, asparagus, strawberries, tomatoes, spinach, beets, sunflower, coriander, etc. On the other hand, be cautious not to plant lettuce near cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.
Benefits of lettuce leaves
Aside from being a good main ingredient in vegetarian and vegan recipes, lettuce leaves are also known as a good source of a lot of health benefits. Take a look at this comprehensive list below.
- Contains anti-inflammatory properties
- Flushes out body toxins
- Helps impede insomnia and control anxiety
- Regulated and increased metabolism
- Provides protection against cancer, heart complications and other diseases
- Generates cells and refreshes skin
- Helps lower cholesterol level
