Lettuce Transplants

Tom has been busy today.  He transplanted lettuce plants into a bed in the hoop house.  A couple of weeks ago he started lettuce seed in "plug" trays.  These trays are made of plastic and look a lot like egg cartons, only for tiny eggs, like robin eggs.  The indentations (where the eggs would go) are called "plugs".  You can get plug trays of varying sizes.  The ones he used had 12 rows each with 6 plugs.  So, each tray contained 72 plugs. You fill the trays with potting soil and deposit 2 - 3 lettuce seeds in each "plug".  Tom has a lot more patience than I do.  When I do this, I end up with 10-12 seed in each plug.  Once the seed are planted, you keep them watered and when the lettuce plants are an inch or so tall, then you can transplant them into the garden.  Below is a picture of the bed after Tom was finished transplanting.

It is still January.   So, even though lettuce plants are fairly cold-tolerant, we cover them with a "row cover".  This is a very thin, light and airy fabric that is put over the bed.