Our friend Felipe (from San Martín de la Vega, Madrid) sent us a few pictures again. On this occasion, these pictures are about a crop we don't know, nevertheless we eat them every day: lettuces. As you can see in his pictures, lettuces are really nice and pictures are pretty great.
There, you can see pictures about the whole life of lettuces, from tillage soil in order to plant them (he uses his new Agrotron and his classic Deutz-Fahr) to harvesting works, going by irrigation tasks during campaign. Lettuces are planted in August and they are harvested in November. As you can see, they need a good seed bed (they use a power harrow). Besides, phytosanitary treatment is carried out before harrowing to make all rows (they are at 90cm) where lettuces will be planted. Finally, they use a plain roller to level rows with the aim of planting lettuces easier.
This crop is planted in two rows (at 40cm). Plants are fixed near water because they will need a bit amoung of water but not in excess. The distance between lettuce is about 40 cm (the goal is not to touch each other and grow without problems).
Planting works are performed by areas. Every 5 days, one new area is planted (about 66 trays as you can see in our pictures). It is the same sort to harvest them because harvesting tasks are done according to the market needs (lettuces are carried directly to Mercamadrid... about 400 boxes of 8 lettuces are produced by each harvesting area). Harvesting works for each area take normally them about one week.
Felipe, this is a really interesting crop!!!... we have learnt a lot with your notes. Therefore, pictures are very nice...Great job and thank you very much for your contributions!!
Versión en español.
