What happened to my lettuce??? And what do I do about it?

[drewskimac]

I planted my lettuce last saturday, and today it looks like this. It almost looks as if something nibbled the top leaves off of the sprouts? It also could have been the rain we had last night. What do I do about this? Do I need to re-seed the lettuce bed and start over or will they somehow come back?

 

[Sterileduckboy420]

I think it's the rabbits. If it's just a little bit of nibbling then you don't need to re seed it. But you should fence in your garden to protect it from the rabbits

 

[drewskimac]

It could be, but I really don't have any rabbits around my house. 3 rat terriers keep them at bay and i haven't seen one in several years. They have eaten the tops off of almost every seedling which is why i'm wondering about reseeding, don't they need those inital leaves to survive?

 

[lazy gardener]

Where did you plant the lettuce? It's very leggy. If you planted it outside, was it covered? I'm guessing it either got lodged b/c of overwatering, or it got frosted (not likely in your area!!!) or a fungal infection.

 

[drewskimac]

Where did you plant the lettuce? It's very leggy. If you planted it outside, was it covered? I'm guessing it either got lodged b/c of overwatering, or it got frosted (not likely in your area!!!) or a fungal infection.

Lazy, I seeded it directly to the soil in the garden. There were a couple of bouts of frost but the lettuce had not yet breached the soil at that point. We had some fairly heavy rain yesterday, and they just sprouted from the soil yesterday. I'm suspicious that the rain was too rough for them and beat them up because the sprouts that were covered by leaves or rocks were fine. The sprouts are only about 1cm long, the picture is just zoomed in.

 

[drewskimac]

Lazy, I seeded it directly to the soil in the garden. There were a couple of bouts of frost but the lettuce had not yet breached the soil at that point. We had some fairly heavy rain yesterday, and they just sprouted from the soil yesterday. I'm suspicious that the rain was too rough for them and beat them up because the sprouts that were covered by leaves or rocks were fine. The sprouts are only about 1cm long, the picture is just zoomed in.

Oh, and it was not covered.

 

[lazy gardener]

That's a logical explanation.