There are some vegetables, which are consumed uncooked state and are called salad crops. Salad crops are now more popular because of their food value in the diet. The Carrot, Tomato, Spinach, Onion, Cabbage and are also used in preparation of salad. Besides these the important salad crops used are lettuce, celery, endive, chicory, parsley, and chervil, leek and cress.
Lettuce is the most important salad crops. It is a native of Europe and Asia and
introduced in India by the Britishers. Lettuce is an annual and belongs to
family composite. The leaves and heads are used as salad. There are about
150 varieties, of which only about 20 are important.
Types
There are four distict types of lettuce.
The head lettuce is divided into two classes – crisp head and butter head.
Both Butter head and crisp types have cabbage – heading varieties and
Bunching varieties while the COS type have Spatulate – leaved varieties;
Lanccolate – leaved varieties and Lobed – leaved varieties. I.C.A.R
recommended Great Lakes (crisp head), Chinese yellow and Slow Bolt (leaf
type). Lettuce requires cool growing season. The temperature between 550
to 600F is best. Very high temperature accelerates bolting. It
requires 70 to 120 days to harvest.
Planting
The seeds are sown in the nursery bed from August to October. The seeds should
be treated with Ceresan (2q/kg seed). 1gm seeds produces 800-900
seedlings. About 500gm seeds are required to transplant seedlings for one
hectare. The seeds germinate 6 to 8 days after sowing. 5 to 6 weeks old
seedlings are transplanted. Depending on climate and soil the seedlings
should be transplanted at a spacing of 45 x 45cm or 45 x 30cm. For
transplanting the soil should be prepared well by incorporating 100-125
quintals of compost of F.Y.M., 80kg Nitrogen, 60kg Phosphorus and 60kg
Potash per hectare. Half of the Nitrogen may be applied after two weeks.
Fully
developed heads are harvested for market but for home consumption even
young leaves are harvested.
Yield
The average yield of lettuce is 80 to 120 quintals per hectare.
Pest
The Cabbage lopper and Aphids are two insects harm the lettuce crop. Therefore
Malathion (0.01%) should be sprayed regularly at an interval of 7-10 days.
The head and leaves should be harved after 10 days of spraying.
Diseases
Botrytis
rot, Bacterial rot and mosaic diseases also affecting lettuce plants. The
rot is due to soil fungus and bacterial rot occurs during storage and
marketing. Mosaic is a virus disease and transmitted by Aphids.
Distribution
Celery is an important salad crop and is grown in Punjab, U.P., Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and Maghalaya. It is used also in soups
and stews.
It is
a biennial plant but grown as an annual crop. It belongs to the family
Umbellifereae. The flowers are small, white and in compound umbels. It
grows to a height of 60 to 90 cm. It contains high amounts of protein and
minerals.
Soil and climate
It
requires cool climate with well distributed rainfall and enough sunshine.
A good well-drained deep and fertile loam, silt loam or sandy loam soil is
considered as ideal for celery. The temperature between 15 to 210C
is suitable. It is growing well between pH 5 and 6.5. In high acid soil
lime should be applied. The roots of celery are shallow. Therefore good
preparation of soil is necessary. The surface of the soil should be
smooth, even and compact.
Varieties
There
are several varieties. The IARI recommended the following varieties;
Standard Bearer, Wright Grove Giant, Fordhook Emperor. Emperor Jeen and
Giant Pascal are also good varieties.
Planting
Seed
may be sown in boxes or pots for early sowing. A few weeks old plants are
transplanted to well prepared nursery bed 4-5cm apart. Seedlings of 45 to
55 days old are finally transplanted 15 to 20cm apart in rows and 60-75cm
between row to row. The seeds can be directly broadcasted in nursery bed
but thinning is necessary. Germination requires 15 to 20 days. Seeds may
be sown from July to September but in hilly areas February to April. It is
best to grow celery in trenches. Trenches of ½ meter wide, 30-35cm beep
and length according to situations should be dug. The surface soil should
be placed along each side. It is now filled with compost of F.Y.M and
mixed thoroughly with the soil. Tramp lightly to firm the soil. Now celery
plants are transplanted in two rows. Water should be provided as and when
necessary and lateral shoots should be removed as they appear. When the
plants are fully grown the outer leaves should be removed, earth up to
their base and this should be repeated every week until only leafy tops
are visible. By this the heads are blanched. However, celery can be
transplanted to well prepared beds without trenches also. It responds to
light hoeing. Weeds should be removed. Herbicides like TOK E-25 at 5
lit/ha or Basalin (1lit/ha) as pre-emergence is quite effective.
The
blanching as stated above is done to make the celery attractive. It means
the loss of green colour i.e. chlorophyll in the petioles. The light
should be excluded in that portion. Paper, boards and soil are employed to
blanch celery. Boron deficiency results in cracked stem, which can be
corrected by applying Borax to soil. Chlorosis occurs when magnesium is
deficient or unavailable to plant. Spraying the plants with magnesium
sulfate eliminate chlorosis.
Harvesting and yield
Celery
is harvested in 120 to 140 days from sowing. Harvesting is done by cutting
the plants below the surface soil with knife. Average per hectare yield is
230 to 250 quintals.
Parsley
is a herb whose leaves are used in salads and also for garnishing and
flavouring. It is a biennial of the Umbellifereae family. It contains
iron, vitamin A and C. Parsley seeds germinate slowly and therefore it
should be sown in boxes or in very well prepared nursery beds. The seeds
should be sown from August to October. To raise seedlings for one hectare
about 1.5kg seeds are necessary. Seedlings of 10 – 15cm in height are
transplanted. The planting distance is 30 x 10cm or 20 x 20cm. There are
two kinds of parsley. The plain-leaved and the curled leaved. There are
several varieties. The recommend varieties are Moss Curled and Hamburg.
Other varieties are Fern-leaved, Curled Dwarf and Extra Double curled.
Parsley leaves are bunched for market. The outer and larger leaves are
first removed. The plant is allowed for further growth and thus several
pluckings are done.
Pest
The
Cabbage lopper and Aphids are two insects harm the lettuce crop. Therefore
Malathion (0.01%) should be sprayed regularly at an interval of 7-10 days.
The head and leaves should be harved after 10 days of spraying.
Diseases
Botrytis
rot, Bacterial rot and mosaic diseases also affecting lettuce plants. The
rot is due to soil fungus and bacterial rot occurs during storage and
marketing. Mosaic is a virus disease and transmitted by Aphids.
Endive is not much grown in India except home gardens. It is sometimes used to replace lettuce. It belongs to compositae family. Endive has a bitter taste. To reduce this the centres are blanched. Blancing is done by close planting or by tying the outer leaves at the top. Method of sowing, transplanting seedlings and distance of planting and cultural methods are similar to those used for lettuce. The crop should be fertilized for quick growth. There are two types of Endive, the curled leaved and the broad-leaved. The curled type is better for salad. The varieties are Giant Fringed, Green curled and White curled. To harvest the plant, it is cut off near the surface soil.
Garden cress is an annual of the cruciferae family. It is cultivated in India.
The young leaves are used in salads. It needs cool weather and rich soil.
Sowings may be done once a week in Boxes or in nursery beds during winter.
The leaves are ready for use in 6 to 8 weeks from sowing.
Cress
is planted in rows 25 to 30cm apart. Thinning may be necessary. At hills,
it should be sown form March to september. The Water Cress (Nasturtium
Officinale) is a different perennial, prostate, trailing plant of
cruciferae family. It is growing wildy North-west Himalaya, West Bengal
and Assam. The leaves are used in salads. It grows in ditches, ponds and
near streams. However, it can be cultivated in beds supplied with water
from channel. Plants can be raised from seed or by planting pieces of old
plants during October to November. the tops of water cress are harvested
at a length of 3-4 cm.