Would you sow lettuce seeds direct now?

[R0ckl0bster]

?

I sowed my first ones a month ago, and the second lot last week. They’re coming up lovely.

I direct sowed yesterday. I've never grown lettuce before, tried last year and the seedlings got nommed by slugs after starting well.

I watered the soil, made a drill, filled that with water, let it drain, sowed far too many seeds probably, covered them, watered them gently (so they didn't wash away) and put a plastic cloche over them (mainly to keep leaf miners off the beetroot seedlings that were planted next to them).

Apparently they're more prone to bolting in warmer weather, especially if not kept watered. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

I did some in a little bed on stilts, which has a plastic cloche lid. Last week but nothing up yet.

I did in a trough in my greenhouse about 3 weeks ago and its coming through beautifully

Yes

Yes.

I sow every couple of weeks or so into September, if it's still relatively warm.

I am failing miserably with salad leaves this year, and I don't know why.

I'm just not getting any germination-and that's from loads of different packets, some oldish yes, but some brand new. Different soils, warmth, covered, uncovered.

Please can a good salad leaf grower tell me how they succeed?

I just bung them in! I usually grow a few different varieties, and most come up.

If lettuces aren't successful for you, maybe try other leaves such as chard, spinach, etc. We have rainbow chard and standard chard that comes back every year. We're eating it every day at the moment!

Edited to add, could slugs and snails be the problem? We use slug pellets after finding all the other remedies don't work. (Coffee grounds, egg shells, beer traps, etc).

Take a small pinch of the seed and sprinkle it on damp kitchen paper, seal inside a clear plastic bag. After a few days you should be able to see if the seeds are actually germinating. If they are you'll know it's not the seed.

My husband did ours at the weekend, romain lettuce, doing a second round in 2 weeks.
If they come through do we cover to protect from slugs?? If so with what? First time trying lettuce, in the past it's only been potato, strawberry and tomato.

Yes, need to prep my beds, but wanted to do it last weekend.

Never sow direct here too weedy and too many slugs and snails, I start them in seed trays thin into small pots then plant out when a big enough so you can weed (hoe) around them, tiny seedlings just get overwhelmed, and then surround with slug pellets (non-poisonous to birds, etc).