Nothing really specific to lettuce or other greens at all. I grow all my veggies (and herbs and fruit) in containers and have never had an issues with greens. Other than a preference for cooler temps and plenty of water, greens are no more tricky to grow in containers than any other veg.

The 'water table' you refer to is a perched water table or that portion of containerized soil that never fully drains and remains saturated. If the table is high or high enough for plant roots to penetrate easily, that is NOT a desirable situation and leads very directly to root rots and plant failures. A PWT is a pretty much an inevitable situation with any kind of container gardening and one you want to minimize as much as possible with the consistency of your potting media.

Thanks all. OK, so not sure why it's not working so well for me. Maybe time to give up on the lettuces and try something else instead. The one lettuce or green that I have had good luck with, consistently, is Mizuna, but no other greens....

What other conditions are you giving them? I like to grow lettuces, etc, in window boxes. I avoid exposing them to full sun and we don't generally have hot / sunny summers here.

Mine are full sun, full southern exposure, in window boxes, in 5:1:1 mix,

fertilized with FP 9-3-6.

I use 2 boxes. One half of 1 box is seeded the first week, then a half box is seeded each week for the next 3 weeks. I never run out. When the first half is used up, I pull the roots, top off with fresh soil, and reseed that half for the second go'round. Lettuce is like potatoes and blueberries in that it likes lots of water, but isn't all that tolerant of wet feet.

If you can't grow it well, it's likely soil choice at blame. You can fix that by using a wick and tilting the box steeply after you water. I hate to see you give up when I know you can do it!

Al

I'm posting a photo of my leaf lettuce garden. The pot is 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide. I only pick and use the bottom leaves, which allows the plant to continue growing. The pot gets moring sun and afternoon shade.... which is important in my California garden where the afternoon sun is brutal. Eventually they will put out a flower and go to seed, but that's OK since I'll lose them all to the summer heat fairly soon.

Oh, I use bagged organic potting soil. And there are a second crop of baby radishes, etc. growing under the leaves. I didn't expect the plants to last this long. I'm enjoying a large salad everyday and will deffinetly do this again next winter... CA's uniques growing year.

Thanks all. Here's the thing.... ;-) One thing I've learned/decided after years of gardening is that...if something doesn't work for me, it wasn't meant to be. I don't try to fight things too much...I go with the flow. I mean, let's face it...it's enough just trying to keep plants sufficiently watered in the summer....pruning... refreshing the potting soil with new amendments.... potting up as needed etc. I'm not one to try and change soil pH, etc. If something doesn't work after a valiant effort, I try something else. That's why I like perennials for the most part... once I know they work in my situation, there's little work to do.

Also, I have the unfortunate situation of not having the option for a garden hose. So I have to water all my plants (on my small balcony) and up on the roof (where the building owner allows me to keep a few plants) by schlepping watering pitchers back and forth, up and down, and on a daily basis in the summer.

I can easily get fresh greens at my local market. So I'll stick with the mizuna (which works for me) and maybe the persian cucumbers (which also worked well for me).

Tku!