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Organic Gardening

Salad greens planted and growing in the garden identification

8 years ago

I am fairly new to gardening. I planted organic mesclun mix seeds which are growing. Problem is, I don't know which plants are from the seeds I planted. I took photos. Would someone help me identify each of these plants and whether they are edible? Thank you!

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Comments (6)

maxjohnson
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
The top purplish one could be yam, I'm not sure. (edit: could be malabar spinach as mentioned below).

Second one is bokchoy, edible.

Third one is arugula, edible.

The last one are tomato seedlings with septoria leaf spot fungus (I would get rid of them).

Also the crawling plants growing all around are creeping charlie, it's an herbal plant.

I don't see mesclun lettuce anywhere. Lettuce seedlings can be fragile, I think it's better if you grow them in seed trays and transplant them. I think the ground in the photos look a little rough or clay-like for lettuces to grow. You want to have a good soft topsoil for them and/or add good compost to your soil. On top of that I would mulch to prevent weeds from coming up.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
The crawling plants could be the perennial Glechoma Hederaceae, Creeping Charlie, but I think they are much more likely to be the annual Lamium purpureum, Red Dead Nettle, a much commoner weed in cultivated ground.

Mesclun is a salad mix, not a specific plant, and it is quite possible to have a mesclun mix which contains no lettuce.
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Yellow dock (aka Rumex crispus, Curly Dock) and horseradish do look similar and it was hard to see all the details in your picture. I just went out and look some pix of horseradish and yellow dock so you could see and compare (below). If you do dig up the plant, horseradish has a white root. Just like the jars of horseradish you will see in the super market. While yellow dock in a plant this size has a beautiful rich yellow color to its root - hence the common name I prefer. Come next spring it will be obvious which plant it is. While sprouting, horseradish kind of looks like it is from "outer space" whereas dock sprouts look pretty normal. I included a picture of my variegated horseradish sprouting this Spring. FataMorgana Horseradish Yellow Dock Horseradish Sprouting (variegated)
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Bill, Interesting you bring this up. I grow plenty of lettuce which has bolted and gone to seed which I save. A week ago Monday I started some of the seeds indoors and just moved em out yesterday to harden before I try to find a shady spot to plant them and see how they do. Many lettuce varieties do not germinate in warm weather, thats why I started them indoors. I will let you know how they do, but, I will be gone for about a week and not able to water them etc, sooo I have high hopes, yet low expectations. Tony
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Looks like you are off to a good start. My first year I grew the same mesclun mix, and it was great. I now buy the types individually so I can grow more of my favorites. This year I'm planting my favorites from previous years Bulls blood beet Mustard mizuna Mustard ruby streaks Red sails lettuce Salad bowl lettuce Royal oak leaf lettuce Butter crunch lettuce Bok choi Arugula And I'm trying mustard spinach (brassica rapa) for the first time. I too have hit and miss luck with spinach. I have had it do great some years, but the last two, it failed miserably. I wonder if it needs more cold than we usually get? The year it did well was unusually cold. Anyone tried the mustard spinach? If so, how spinach like is it? Thought I'd give it a try since brassicas seem remarkably tolerant of our poor soil and nematodes. And the biggest surprise of all was that sorrel did great! Not only did it do well in the cool weather, but it seems to be able to be perennial here and came through the summer fine! As for timing, planting my winter greens garden by direct sowing in late October seems to work well. Good luck! So fun to grow a salad in winter!
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It depends some on just what size balcony, how high up, how windy, how much sun does it get in the summer? Is is on the precipitation side of the building, or are you going to have to water it a lot? If you have the space for it, perhaps one of those mini-greenhouses? Footprint is 2x3 I think, and about 6 feet tall when assembled. Has 4 shelves, comes with a clear plastic cover, some come with shade cloth covers too. If you go this route, invest in a chunk of styrofoam insulation to sit as the base of the greenhouse to help with drafts from below. You can ask about scrap at the local big box store. Otherwise, at least lay down a mat of some sort to help block out under breezes. This isn't going to give you a lot of protection, but it will help some. If you want to go whole hog and enclose your balcony... If you can, get a whole sheet of Styrofoam insulation and do the whole floor and bottom foot or so of your balcony rail- however high up the bottom rail is on the vertical. Make sure you leave a niche cut out on the bottom vertical to leave you access off the porch if/when needed. Then put up a wind block of some sort from the top of the bottom rail to the bottom of the hand rail. I've used cheap quilters cotton in light colors when it's been on clearance to block the bottom that way. Colorful and useful as a wind block if needed. And can allow some extra privacy depending on how your balcony is situated. Then from the balcony roof- if you have one- hang clear plastic shower curtains that you can pull back as needed. This gives you more flexibility year round. What you use as fasteners to hold it closed depends on what your balcony is made of. If you can, use square pots. If you or someone you know has cats, you might be able to get free litter jugs or buckets, and those make great planters. If you get kitty jugs, spring lettuce and fall lettuce can be planted in with a summer tomato- and use a full sized cage, Or a small bean or cucumber pole. The kitty buckets are almost perfect square foot gardening for anything. If you need late spring into summer extension for tender greens from sun and wind, try using lightweight fabric curtain instead of plastic shower curtain.
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gardenfan1
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you Max Johnson and Floral_UK. These are the seeds I planted so I am confused seeing these other plants growing. Anyway, thanks. I will not give up on growing lettuce organically!
MrClint
8 years ago
The top one looks a bit like malabar spinach. I agree with the other IDs.
maxjohnson
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Since you're new to gardening, I recommend germinating them in seed trays, and then transfer them to a larger container. You can use organic compost as the grow medium. Once you get good result in container you can grow in soil. To have good success growing in soil you may need to prepare and build up your soil, with good compost and organic matters, and mulching. The biggest mistake I made when starting out with growing organically was not understanding the soil and using poor quality "organic" soil from hardware stores.

You should try growing the malabar spinach, since they're very easy to grow and not as fussy about soil quality.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
Having seen the packet, you should have some lettuce in there. (Lactuca sativa) The third named plant is Arugula (Eruca sativa). Brassica rapa covers various cultivated forms including Turnips and Napa cabbage. But the use of 'Lettuce mesclun' as a title is misleading.

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