How to grow Salad Blends / Mesclun?
- Latin Family:
- Latin Genus:
- Ease of Growing: Moderate
- Growing Type: Annual
The traditional mix includes chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive in equal proportions, but in modern iterations may include an undetermined mix of fresh and available lettuces, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, mustard greens, endive, dandelion, frisée, mizuna, radicchio, sorrel, or other leafy vegetables.
Videos
Salad Blends / Mesclun History
These salads green are called Mesclun today, a French term that originally meant a mixture of tender salads that were wild-harvested to renew the blood each spring. In Italy, the mixture is called Misticanza, and contains chicories along with lettuces.
Soil Preference
- PH (min/max): 6.0 - 7.0
- PH Ideal (min/max): 6.2 - 6.8
The soil is called upon to produce a lot of foliage in a short time, so it should be fertile (with plenty of nitrogen), moisture retentive, and well drained.
How to care for Salad Blends / Mesclun?
Easy to care for, just give plant enough water and fertilization to encourage rapid growth and production.
Water
Keep the soil in your bed or containers evenly moist as that will produce the sweetest, most succulent leaves from plants that grow quickly and without interruption.
Fertilizer
Heavy feeders that prefer a rich, well cultivated soil.
Seeds
Seed Viability: 2 - 5 years
Germination Percentage: 80.0
Eventually any remaining plants in a salad bed will start to bolt. If you allow a few of these to grow up and set seed, they will provide seed for next years salad planting. See individual plants for more on collecting each type of seed.
Light
Part shade
These plants do well in part shade, especially in warmer climates.
Conditions:Cool, Warm
Season:Short Season, Long Season
Storage
Because this is a mix of different plants, some plants may begin to go bad before others. Store in a plastic bag, and use sooner than later.
Storage Req: Refrigerator
Storage Temp: 35-40°F
Storage Length: 1-7 days
Problems
Salad Blends / Mesclun Types
- Mesclun
In the US, Mesclun has come to mean any mixture of young salad greens that is sown, grown and cut all together. Despite the fact that many Mesclun mixtures are now available pre-bagged in supermarkets nationwide, nothing can compare with Mesclun harvested from your own garden.
Pests
- Wireworm
- Cabbageworms
- Caterpillars
- Flea Beetle
- Birds
- Thrips
- Leafhoppers
- Aphids
- Cutworms
- Tarnished Plant Bug
- Japanese Beetle
- Crickets and Grasshoppers
- Leafminers
- Nematodes
- Slugs and snails
- Groundhog
- Rabbits
- Gophers
- Deer
Diseases
- Aster Yellows
- Mosaic Virus (Several species)
- Bacterial Leaf Spot
- Damping Off
- Downy Mildew
- Powdery Mildew
Related Plants
Greens, Juicing
Sprouts
Seacale
Kohlrabi
Collards
Anise
Caraway
Cumin
Cauliflower
Culantro