Common Lettuce Growing Problems: How to Identify, Diagnose, and Fix Them If your lettuce is struggling, you’re not alone, and it is rarely one big mistake. Lettuce is a cool-season crop with shallow roots, so it reacts fast to warm soil, uneven water, and a bed that stays soggy. Those three sit behind many of…
Why Is My Lettuce Turning Red or Purple? Causes and Solutions Purple lettuce sends a lot of gardeners straight to the fertilizer aisle. Hold on a minute. You’re not alone in worrying, and in most beds this is a color change, not a disease. Lettuce most often turns red or purple because it makes anthocyanin,…
Why Is My Lettuce Wilting? Causes and Solutions Nothing says “something’s wrong” like a bed of lettuce that was perky yesterday and limp today. The good news: lettuce wilting is usually fixable if you catch the cause early. Let’s figure out what’s going on. Why Is My Lettuce Wilting? The Quick Answer Lettuce is about…
Yellow Lettuce Leaves: Causes and How to Fix Them Pick the yellowest plant in the bed and squeeze a handful of soil from around its roots. If it drips, or stays cold and slick in your fist a day after you last watered, you may already have your answer, and it isn’t a fertilizer problem….
Why Is My Lettuce Not Growing? Causes of Stunted Growth and Fixes Pull one plant out of the row and squeeze the root ball. Healthy lettuce roots come up pale and fibrous, and the soil crumbles away from them. Roots that are brown, soft and slipping apart in your fingers are a different problem, and…
Why Is My Lettuce Bitter? Causes and What to Do Ask one question before anything else: when did the bitterness start? A bed that tasted sweet last week and sharp today points to weather or water. Leaves that grew sharper as the plants aged point to maturity. Lettuce that has never tasted right points to…
Lettuce Bolting: Why Lettuce Grows Tall and How to Prevent It Lettuce that shoots up a tall stalk from the center is bolting: the plant has stopped making leaves and started making flowers and seed. Lengthening days start the process, and heat and dry soil speed it up. It cannot be reversed, and the leaves…
Dark Green Patches in Grass: What They Mean and What to Do Extra nitrogen is the most common reason for dark green patches in grass, but it isn’t the only one. A patch of naturally darker, coarser grass growing in a lighter lawn can look much the same. The extra nitrogen often comes from dog…
Squash Vines Suddenly Wilting With Frass at the Stem Base: What to Do A vine that wilts fast, with a small hole near the base of the stem and sawdust-like frass piled beside it, almost always has a squash vine borer larva tunneling inside. Slit the stem lengthwise to confirm, lift out the larva, and…
Seedlings Not Growing True Leaves? Check the Roots First Seedlings that sit on their seed leaves for weeks are usually held back below the soil. The common causes are a root zone that is too cold or too wet, fertilizer salts in the mix, fungus gnat larvae feeding on roots, or a mix with so…
Leggy Seedlings Even Though the Light Seems Fine? Here’s What’s Really Going On Seedlings turn tall, thin and pale under “good” light because that light is usually weaker than it looks, not because it’s missing. A bright window, or a grow light hung a little too high, delivers far less than a seedling needs, and…
Zucchini Plants Producing Only Male Flowers: When to Wait and When to Act Find a zucchini plant covered in blooms but short on fruit, and most gardeners reach for something. They feed it, water it harder, or start blaming the seed. More often than not, the better first move is to do nothing and take…
