Propagating Romaine Lettuce on a Dish or Does Anyone Want A Teeny Tiny Salad

I did this as a laugh.

There are all these helpful hint sort of pictures of things flying around.  How you can have infinite vegetables but you just have to jump through hoops.

First of all, the hoop I have to jump through is to make sure that the iguanas can't get to my plants.  It's Florida and we're infested with these ugly green dinosaurs that don't know how to share.  If we have any sort of plant and they get to it, they will leave you with nothing.

If I get to the iguanas, I have a few dark thoughts for them.

So planting these in the garden is a non starter.

However, Onions work like the Lettuce does, and Iguanas seem to ignore Onions.  Lop off the greens, use them in your salads, and stick the root in the soil.  Wait and you have more onions.

I had incredible luck with Green Onions or Scallions.  

As in Scallions the size of a golf ball.

So now, on Aunt Betty's plastic table on my porch I have a pot.  It has a single Romaine Lettuce growing out of some soil.  I thought that it would be a bit more Lizard Proof than if I stuck the silly things in the ground.

All you need to do is to eat your salad, and leave about 1-2 inches of the hard white core for propagation.  Shave the brown bottom off the end of the stalk, and keep it wet.  When it begins to grow, put it in a pot.

Since I live in Florida, and house plants are a stupid idea unless you like hosting Ants, I have to figure something else to do.

The other problem I have here is that that plate of water will host Mosquitoes, and doing that inside your kitchen is not something you want.

It takes about a week to get some growth and these are about two weeks along.

I have a salad about every other day so you can see the growth pattern of these weird little things.

Mind you that this is "Bolted" Lettuce.  It is trying to go to seed.  You will not enjoy this romaine since it will be bitter, but I will grow it to seed.  Why? 

• I am curious.
• I am stubborn.
• I have never seen lettuce flowers.

Finally, I will save the seed and grow it later in the year when the conditions are more amenable to getting Human Grade Food.

You see it's too hot for the little things and they are trying to go to seed and flower.  It is late June at this writing and it is already into the low 90s peak afternoon.   In fact, I was out having a workout yesterday and had to cut it short by a couple miles because I had run out of ice water and was really feeling "punished" by it.

If I am wilting, I'm sure my Lettuce will feel the heat too.

No worries, I'm fine with it, but if you want a Teeny Tiny Salad, wait for the cooler weather