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Vegetable Gardening

Weed or lettuce seedling??? Help!!

14 years ago

Hello all,

I am new to your forum, but I love the help I get each time I read your posts!

I have a new raised bed garden built by my wonderful DH as I can no longer garden the "old fashioned way" because of a car accident.

Anyway, as we built this garden I used some top soil in the bottom of the bed then some compost, aged manure, peat moss and some garden soil. I didn't expect to have much in the way of weeds, but I have a seedling I can't figure out...

It is in with my lettuce seedlings and I have posted a picture below. This is a mixed leaf lettuce and romaine bed. I don't know how to add a picture directly to my post, any advice for the newbie is appreciated!!

gabby

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of my baby lettuce on right and friend on left:)

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Comments (6)

m_lorne
14 years ago
Doesn't look like any lettuce seed I have ever seen, but then again I haven't seen them all.

My vote is to yank it.
rgress
14 years ago
My first thought was a spinach seedling.
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Denninmi, I thank you for taking the time to respond as do my 4 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits who are patiently waiting on this crop:) I am using cool white bulbs set about an inch above the tops. They are on for 16 hours and off for 8. I don't know about soluble salts.. Possible that they are not wet enough after reading more about lettuce water requirments.. I'll be a bit more free with the watering. Humidity could be a problem as well. I don't run the heat much in my house in winter so it's not overly dry inside. But maybe too dry for them. Do you see any problem with me misting the leaves to add humidity? Or is this likely to add to my problem? It does not appear to be dead tissue but it's hard to tell the spots are about "pinhead" sized. I keep the temp in my house at about 65 degrees, so I don't think that it's too hot.. I wondered if this was an air circulation problem, so I thinned them out to one plant per cell. I have a flat of Romaine growing next to these Bibb and I have not noticed any spots on these. Not sure what this means but interesting..
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gabbygardner
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, that was my initial thought as well. My problem is that I am torn;) It first appeared right along with the lettuce seedlings in the row, but now, as you can see below it has started coming up next to my brand new baby beets. These are about 4 or 5 feet from my lettuce rows, but in the same bed.

I have 3 other beds that have been planted, and I haven't seen this in any of those.

I am sure you are right, just hard to pull:) I am a wimp, I even hate thinning my lettuce seedlings. Which by the way, I am not sure how far to space them.

Any thoughts??

gabby

Here is a link that might be useful: baby beet and the unknown
dave_f1 SC, USDA Zone 8a
14 years ago
Looks like a spinach seedling, which is in the Amaranth family. There are alot of common weeds in that family, like pigweeds, Palmer amaranth, etc. Don;t see a reason to keep it around. Maybe it's edible though. Dave
Karen Pease
14 years ago
I even hate thinning my lettuce seedlings.

Then thin them into pots :)
gabbygardner
Original Author
14 years ago
I have been thinning them out between the rows, so I don't have to just throw them out. I had them in small rows in my squares (SF Garden) so I could progression plant in a couple of weeks. This way I can have lots of lettuce to share with my non-gardening neighbors:)

Pots are a great idea, thanks!!

Thanks for all the help. I will let these little guys go a little longer, just maybe they will be something edible:) Crossing my fingers!!

g

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