Baby Leaf Mix 'Frilly Leaf Salad Mix'

The Frilly Leaf Salad Mix contains:

• Mustard Red Frills - Vibrant red leaves.
• Mustard Green Frills - Deeply indented green leaf.
• Kale Red Russian Deeply indented leaf with red veins.
• Cress Greek - Dark green, flat dissected leaves.
• Rocket Dentellata - typical wild rocket leaf shape.

The Frilly Leaf Salad Mix is a new blend that contains an attractive blend of salads with frilled or indented leaves, an explosion of tastes and colour that is perfect for micro leaf or baby leaf production. They can be eaten in salad or cooked in stir-fry dishes. Juicy, crisp and fast-maturing, they can be grown all year and are a welcome green leaf in any winter kitchen garden. One of a series of blends which provide a wide variety of colourful and tasty salads. this leaf mix have been selected from varieties with comparable growth rates and compatible textures and flavours to provide interesting and tasty baby leaf salads which are ideal for home growing and ideal for stir fry or salads. They can be grown all year round, for a continuous supply of tasty and nutritious baby leaves. They can be grown in the home, on windowsills or raised in pots in glasshouses or polytunnels in cooler areas for winter early spring crops.

Sowing: In autumn and winter seed can be sown into pots or seed trays which can be grown on the kitchen windowsill or in a heated conservatory/greenhouse. Sow 20 to 30 seeds into a 10 to 12cm pot using a free draining compost and cover seed lightly after sowing. For spring and summer crops, sow direct into prepared seed beds in the kitchen garden or greenhouse border, and this is the best growing technique for spring and summer crops. When sowing outdoors sprinkle seeds 12mm (½in) apart in a 2 to 4in wide row covering lightly or broadcast sow. Tip a small amount of seed into your hand, take a pinch and spread thinly along the trench. Cover with soil, label and water. If birds are a problem in your garden, spread netting to prevent them eating the seed. Sow every two weeks for a continual supply of tender young leaf.

Cultivation: The best tasting leaves come from plants which are grown quickly; this means a temperature of 15 to 19°C (60 to 70°F). Under optimum growing conditions a crop of salad leaves can be ready for picking 3 to 4 weeks from sowing. Slower growing crops can become more fibrous and hotter flavoured.

Once cut the plants should have sufficient energy for regrowth to provide a second or even third crop of leaves, giving a regular supply with "little and often" sowings.

Harvest: This cut and come again crop can be harvested at any stage from 4 to 13cm (1½ to 5in) high. Depending on growing conditions, this could be within three weeks of sowing. Two or three further cuts should be possible. A headed crop (often ready after six weeks) can be lifted entirely or cut 2.5cm above ground level and left to re-sprout.

Storage: Less likely to go limp than lettuce, though not as firm as a good hearting cabbage, pak choi is best kept cool and eaten within a week.

Pests and diseases: Sadly susceptible to the entire barrage of brassica ailments: flea beetle, aphids, cabbage whitefly, caterpillars, root fly, slugs, snails and birds. Thankfully, though, this brassica doesn't hang about, so don't be put off growing.