[LouiseG]

A friend recently introduced me to this idea. He buys a tray of living salad leaves from the salad counter for £1 takes it home and then replants them all individually in the green house and let's them grow on and heypresto 40 - 50 new lettuces with not a lot of effort.


Had to share this cause I thought it's really clever. 

[Bionic]

I've bought the living salads before but haven't thought of replanting them. 

[darkbrowneggs]

I've done it for a few years now, but being a cheapskate bought Lidl ones 

[Ina]

I've heard of people doing it with the potted herbs, too.

[suziequeue]

Are they around now or is it too late in the year? I could do with planting a few more out as mine are beginning to go over a bit now.


I am useless at successional planting and can't seem to get single seedlings (the seeds are so tiny and the I'm too soft to thin them out once the little blighters have struggled out of the soil  )

[Ina]

Are they around now or is it too late in the year? I could do with planting a few more out as mine are beginning to go over a bit now.

Have seen some quite recently.
For salads you really have to sow them in a seed tray first and then prick out into modules - that way you don't have any waste. There's still the danger of sowing too thickly in  the seed tray, of course!

[doganjo]

A friend did this and gave me her excess - I have 15 lettuces outside in pots of varying varieties and I just take off leaves as I need them.

[suziequeue]

For salads you really have to sow them in a seed tray first and then prick out into modules - that way you don't have any waste. There's still the danger of sowing too thickly in  the seed tray, of course!

Yes - I can't get them thinly enough in the seed tray. Next year I am going to mix the seeds with alot of sand so they are more thinly spread.... but even then I haven't got the heart to prick out the ones I don't need - pathetic I know.....

[Lesley Silvester]

I'm the same. Even when I plant in pots everything gets a chance in the garden, not matter how weak-looking they are. This year I actually sowed my salad leaves one seed at a time to avoid having too many and needing to thin them out. It was fiddly but it is doable.

[Bionic]

Lesley, I did the same with my salad seeds this year, one by one. I put them in a grow bag up at waist height which made it easier 

[suziequeue]

I think I might try that next year.


All my little gems have now bolted and they look beautiful but the leaves are very bitter.

[Greenerlife]

I did that with half a tray full and it did provide some salad leaves - but I found that the types they use go tough and leathery very quickly.  Not so much the red leaved ones, but particularly the green.

[ellied]

I'm another one that over seeds the tray and then can't separate them or bear to thin them 

Orchard group told me to knock or cut off excess apples to allow the leader to grow bigger and sweeter, more what folk want to buy, and I've done what I can within reach but it really goes against the grain to waste fruit that might grow and be used..

I was also summer pruning the plums and took out some pieces that turned out to be growing fruit I hadn't noticed til I pulled them free     Felt like a complete waste 

[suziequeue]

I noticed at our local market the other day that they were selling salad stuff in little square 2" modular pots. One plant in each pot. All immaculately packed together in a box. Looked lovely. Why can't I get mine to look like that. How do they do it?

[Connor]

I sow most of the stuff i grow and i will sow an extra few trays and sell them to people!