Shall we grow lettuce on an apartment balcony?

[Dog News = journalist Lee Mi-young] The Rural Development Administration (RDA) has provided information on lettuce varieties and seedling specifications suitable for growing balcony gardens in apartments where sunlight is limited.

An apartment balcony garden is a great space for cultivating a garden indoors. It has the advantage of being usable even in early spring, late autumn, or winter when it is difficult to maintain a garden outdoors.

However, no matter how much sunlight a balcony receives, it is often insufficient for plants to grow, making the amount of sunlight the biggest limiting factor for balcony gardening.

As sunlight passes through the balcony windows, the ultraviolet spectrum is blocked, making plants prone to leggy growth; in the case of red leaf lettuce, the red color may not appear properly, making it look like green leaf lettuce.

As a result of examining the growth of 16 lettuce varieties developed by the RDA under low-light conditions, 'Jangsu, ', 'Chunpung Jeokchukmyeon, ', 'and Hacheong ' were found to be suitable for balcony garden cultivation.

These varieties showed a certain level of growth and excellent visual quality even with low amounts of light. These three varieties were developed by the RDA for wraps or salads. 'Jangsu 'and 'Chunpung Jeokchukmyeon 'are red, 'while Hacheong 'is a light green lettuce with a good crunchy texture.

The RDA explained that, at the time of its 2016 announcement, seeds of these three varieties were commercially available.

In addition to lettuce, various types of crops such as leafy vegetables or herbs can be grown in balcony gardens. It is advisable to select crops considering the amount of sunlight entering the balcony.

For balcony gardens with little sunlight, crops such as tatsoi, endive, chicory, minari (Oenanthe javanica; water dropwort), whorled mallow (Malva verticillata), garlic chives, and jjokpa green onions are suitable. For balconies with moderate sunlight, garland chrysanthemum greens, bok choy, leaf broccoli, and celery are advisable, while for sunny spots, kale, red-stemmed Swiss chard, mustard greens, spinach, and godeulppaegi (Crepidiastrum sonchifolium) are suitable choices.

To grow a balcony garden, it is recommended to use seedlings raised in 50-cell plug trays for about 30 days (around 20 days during hot periods, 30–35 days during cold periods, when 3 to 5 true leaves have emerged) when purchasing leafy vegetable seedlings like lettuce.

If seeds are sown and seedlings are raised in a typical household, they are prone to weak, leggy growth due to insufficient sunlight and improper environmental conditions.

Using purchased seedlings offers many advantages, such as reducing the effort required to raise them and ensuring the use of sturdy seedlings.

When growing lettuce outdoors, it is generally recommended to use 128-cell plug trays for head lettuce and 200-cell plug trays for leaf lettuce.

However, for balcony gardening where conditions like sunlight are poorer than outdoors, it is better to use seedlings raised in 50-cell plug trays to account for the environment. These grow better and are easier to cultivate compared to seedlings raised in existing 128-cell or 200-cell plug trays.