GROWING EDIBLE GREENS

Learn to Grow Salad Vegetables

• Lettuce and other edible leaves
• Edible flowers
• Sprouts

While a lot of plants are edible and tasty, others are not palatable because of taste or texture.

A lot of plant leaves contain toxins which can upset the human body, cause illness, long-term damage or death.
Every human who grows or eats leaves (i.e. most humans) should know how to differentiate between palatable, edible, nutritionally beneficial leaves and those that are not those things.
Some plants also produce edible flowers. Sometimes flowers are mixed into leafy salads to add colour and to provide different tastes.

This course teaches you what to grow and how to grow it.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. LESSON 1 DECIDING HOW TO GROW
   • What leaves are edible?
   • How to grow leaf vegetables
2. LESSON 2 PROPAGATING LEAF VEGETABLES
   • Sourcing seed
   • Seed propagation
3. LESSON 3 HARVESTING, STORING & USING
   • Harvesting vegetables
   • Extending the shelf life
   • Creating a salad
4. LESSON 4 LETTUCE & ITS RELATIVES (Asteraceae)
   • Lettuce
   • Types of lettuce
   • Lettuce relatives
   • Chicory
   • Radicchio
   • Endive
   • Dandelion
5. LESSON 5 SPINACH & ITS RELATIVES (Amaranthaceae)
   • Spinach and chard
   • Spinach
   • Chard or silverbeet
   • Amaranth
   • Orach
6. LESSON 6 CELERY & ITS RELATIVES (Apiaceae)
   • Celery
   • Coriander
   • Parsley
7. LESSON 7 BRASSICAS
   • Growing conditions
   • Cabbage
   • Watercress
   • Garden cress
   • Land cress
   • Wasabi
   • Rocket
8. LESSON 8 MICROGREENS (Sprouts)
   • What they are
   • Types of sprouts
9. LESSON 9 EDIBLE FLOWERS
   • Flowers as food
   • How to use edible flowers
   • Some edible flowers to grow
10. LESSON 10 OTHER LEAF SALAD VEGETABLES
    • Chenopods
    • Salad burnet
    • Summer purslane
    • Warrigal greens
    • Pigface
    • Corn salad
    • Ice plant
    • Malabar spinach
    • Sorrel
    • Final Assessment

What You Will Do

• Here are some of the leaf vegetables you will encounter in this course:
• Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) – Butterhead, Iceberg, Loose leaf, Romaine, Celtuce, Summer Crisp
  • Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
  • Radicchio (Cichorium intybus var. foliosum)
  • Endive, Cichorium endivia,
  • Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
  • Spinach (Spinacea oleraceae)
  • Chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris)
  • Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.)
  • Orach (Atriplex hortensis)
  • Celery (Apium graveolens)
  • Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)
  • Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
  • Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata)
  • Watercress (Nasturtium officinale)
  • Garden cress (Lepidium sativum)
  • Land Cress (Barbarea verna)
  • Wasabi (Eutrema japonica
  • Rocket (Eruca vesicaria
  • Microgreens – sprouts from Legumes, Cereals, Pseudocereals, Oilseeds, Vegetables and Herbs
  • Edible flowers – e.g. Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis), Caper (Capparis spinosa), Elderberry (Sambucus nigra), Lavender (Lavandula sp.), Nasturtium (Nasturtium officinalis), Sweet Violets (Viola odorata), French Marigold (Tagetes patula), Borage (Borago officinalis), Chamomile, German (Matricaria recutita), Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), Roses (Rosa spp.)
  • White Goosefoot (Chenopodium album)
  • Beetroot (Beta vulgaris)
  • Salad Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba)
  • Summer Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
  • Winter Purslane (Claytonia perfoliata
  • Warrigal Greens (Tetragonia tetragonoides)
  • Pigface (Carpobrotus sp.)
  • Corn Salad (Valerianella locusta)
  • Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum)
  • Malabar Spinach (Basella alba)
  • Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

What Do You Know about Lettuce?

Do you realise there are many different types of lettuce, and many different and varied cultivars within each type; and that is just lettuce!

Butterhead cultivars are varies of lettuce with soft leaves that have a buttery texture. Leaves are delicate and loosely folded on top of one another, green on the outside and creamy to light green in the centre. Butterhead rarely tastes bitter. Head weights range between 0.3 and 0.7 kg. Butterhead is easier to grow than the crisp head types and has a greater tolerance to temperature extremes. Butterhead is also less likely to bolt. It matures in approximately 55 to 75 days. Butterhead may be harvested by removing only the outer leaves or the entire head. 

Iceberg Cultivars (var. capitate) (also known as crisp head) has a tight firm head of crisp leaves.  It is a popular but more difficult to grow lettuce variety since it is susceptible to heat, water stress and rotting. 

Loose Leaf Lettuce Cultivars (var. crispa) (also known as leaf lettuce), speciality, fancy or European lettuce, does not form a head or heart. It is considered the easiest type of lettuce to grow and is often grown in hydroponic systems. Loose leaf is heat-tolerant and slow to bolt.

Romaine or Cos Lettuce Cultivars (var. longifolia) is upright in form and grows up to 30 cm tall. The leaves are spoon-shaped and tightly folded with thick ribs. The outer leaves are medium green and sometimes tough, while the inner leaves are greenish white and tender. The flavour is sweeter than the other types of lettuce. It matures within approximately 70 days.

Summer Crisp lettuce is a large, flavoursome lettuce that does not bolt. It has thick, crispy exterior leaves. The heart has a sweet, slightly nutty flavour. Summer Crisp matures within 55 to 60 days.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

• Market gardeners and farm hands
• Home gardeners
• Hydroponic farmers.
• Fruit and vegetable traders
• Cooks
• Anyone with an interest in broadening their knowledge of growing and using salad vegetables.