This is how it looked on Sunday:
It's now over two feet tall. You see those bare stalks? That's not because the plant got leggy. It's because I've been eating the leaves. Romaine grown in the Earthbox has been one my most successful crops this year. It's also been extremely easy.
But we may be hitting the end of it. There are tiny flower at the tops of the stalks.
Leafy vegetables grow flowers to produce seeds to make more plants. In other words, once it flowers fully, its genetic destiny is done. The best way to stretch the growing season is to remove those flower early -- literally nip them in the bud.
When you do that, hopefully, the plant will focus on producing leaves for dozens of salads yet to be eaten.
The more immediate result, though, is the Romaine milk. Sap, really. When you pull or pinch off the flowers, the sticky, thick, white liquid oozes up out of the stem.
Here's a tip. Don't eat the liquid. The Romaine flavor is strong in liquid, but so is the bitter, sour flavor that apparently evolved to discourage small, woodland critters from eating the stalks.
Regardless, it's great to have a fresh head out on the deck at all times. I can head out there to water the plants, munch on a strawberry, a string bean, and the tear off a lettuce leaf, all without going to the grocery store.
Next year -- even more greens.
Past Life in the Garden posts are available here.
3 comments:
wowww your earthboxes are doing great. that's what I think I'll do next year on my patio. It looks like the soil mix was perfect. what did you use in the boxes - formula wise ? Good Work Cromley. that's a great gourmet paradise.
Thanks. I just used the Earthbox standard recharge/fertilizer kit. The main soil is most likely year old Miracle Grow that I used last year. There were a couple of other soils I used last year and this year, depending on cost and availability.
I took a bunch of soil I used last year in a bunch of different containers, mixed them together and redeployed it in this year's garden.
I know, it's terribly unscientific, but it seems to have worked out okay.
That is some nice looking romaine lettuce! I am going to have to looking into earthboxes. My containers have been a bust with the heat wave we had.
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