Erin's (callisto9's) Salad Greens in the AG SS6 - Started 4/13/09

[PCTutor]

    Erin,
       Your lettuce looks awesome, kudos to you.

Thank you!

It seems half of it produces well and the other half produces these tissue-thin pieces of lettuce. I really am enjoying it though! I have lettuce all the time now!

I've found that if I pluck the leaves and put them in the fridge for a while that the chilling seems to give a little more body to the lettuce.
Joel

[callisto9]

I've found that if I pluck the leaves and put them in the fridge for a while that the chilling seems to give a little more body to the lettuce.
Joel

Cool! I'll have to try that! Thanks for the tip.

[Ellen]

Yes, I agree with Joel, Erin. If you pop them in the fridge about a half hour before eating them they crisp right up!

[callisto9]

Well, I retired the salad greens garden yesterday. There was mold at the base of some of the plants and overall, the lettuce was tissue thin and wilty. I was using some of the AeroFalls nutrients, but I don't think that was the problem. I think I had too many plants per pod and they choked each other out.

Overall, this kit was good, but the really good lettuce was short-lived. If I were to do it again, I might thin the plants per pod.

Overall time in AeroGarden for this kit: two months.

[Moontiger]

Erin, that's about how long my salads greens lasted, too.  I didn't have a mold problem, but it just bolted.  I started it in January when I got my first Aerogarden, an AG3.  I enjoyed the lettuce, but it was never very hardy.  I think it's just the kit.  If anything, I would have liked to have seen more seeds per pod, not less.

My overall opinion of the kit is that it just wasn't worth the time and effort for the amount of lettuce I got out of it.  I am doing much better using my own seeds.

Good luck with your new garden -- it's always exciting to start something new.   

Joel, that was a great tip.  Think I saw it in another thread where you had posted.  But anyway, I tried that when I did my first harvest from my new lettuce garden, and it worked great.  It really does give the lettuce a little more body and crunch.  Thanks for the tip!

[callisto9]

Thanks for posting your thoughts moontiger. I appreciate it. 

I looooved having fresh lettuce in the kitchen, so I'm giving it a go again, but with my own seeds (romaine). Hopefully this one will turn out better.

How do you know when the lettuce has bolted? Mine was still growing, sort of, but everything was so thin and wilty.

[Moontiger]

How do you know when the lettuce has bolted? Mine was still growing, sort of, but everything was so thin and wilty.

When you see the conditions that you described -- thin and wilty -- it has bolted.  It will still grow and you can still get some harvests from it, but the quality is not as good as it was in the beginning.

[callisto9]

When you see the conditions that you described -- thin and wilty -- it has bolted.  It will still grow and you can still get some harvests from it, but the quality is not as good as it was in the beginning.

Wow, if that's the case then, my stuff didn't last too long!

[Andrea J]

Early lettuce stays compact with the leaves close together and it is hard to see much stem between the leaves. Bolting is what happens when the stem between leaves suddenly lengthens.  The stems go from less than a 1/4 inch between leaves to 1 or more inches between the leaves (sometimes less with an AG compared to outside gardens). Bolting is the stage before flowering/seeding and is very noticeable.  Temperature is a strong influencer of when lettuce bolts.  Lettuce is a cool season crop and warm weather brings on bolting. There are bolt-resistant lettuce varieties that are slower to bolt in warm weather.  It is still fine to eat bolting lettuce, it just falls all over the sides of the AG instead of staying in tight compact bunches. 

Hope this helps,
Andrea

[callisto9]

Early lettuce stays compact with the leaves close together and it is hard to see much stem between the leaves. Bolting is what happens when the stem between leaves suddenly lengthens.  The stems go from less than a 1/4 inch between leaves to 1 or more inches between the leaves (sometimes less with an AG compared to outside gardens). Bolting is the stage before flowering/seeding and is very noticeable.  Temperature is a strong influencer of when lettuce bolts.  Lettuce is a cool season crop and warm weather brings on bolting. There are bolt-resistant lettuce varieties that are slower to bolt in warm weather.  It is still fine to eat bolting lettuce, it just falls all over the sides of the AG instead of staying in tight compact bunches. 

Hope this helps,
Andrea

Thanks so much for the info! That helps me greatly. It would seem that most of my lettuce that came from that kit had 1 or more inches between the leaves most of the time I grew it.

Kudos. 

[Andrea J]

What was your indoor temp during most of the time?  The lettuce I started in january (65-67 degrees) did great while the lettuce I started a month ago (75 or so), not so well. The other issue may be not enough light. Make sure you are keeping the hood low enough or the lettuce will always be growing up to reach the light and get spindly.

[callisto9]

What was your indoor temp during most of the time?  The lettuce I started in january (65-67 degrees) did great while the lettuce I started a month ago (75 or so), not so well. The other issue may be not enough light. Make sure you are keeping the hood low enough or the lettuce will always be growing up to reach the light and get spindly.

I would guess the average temp in my home was low 70s most of the time.

I couldn't keep the light as low as I wanted as a few of the plants were pretty tall. The rest of them were hanging over the edge and two or three of them were 6"+. 

[bab43]

Someone mentioned in another post about AeroGrow released that prototype SS6 with copper accents. Now THAT I'd go for. I have copper accents in my kitchen. That would be cool.

Hi Erin,

I just noticed the new AG catalogue today at "http://www.aerogrow.com/retailresource/catalogs.php" and was checking out what's new.  It looks like they decided against that copper one...

[callisto9]

Well poop! 

[bab43]

Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your day.     Let's hope they do release it later.

[callisto9]

Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your day.     Let's hope they do release it later.

I think my initial excitement about the AGs is wearing off. I hate to admit it, but it's true. I mean, I'll still plant the three I have (one's at work now), but I don't think I'll be purchasing a fourth.

[bab43]

Well at least I didn't shatter your day - glad about that.

I do have four but I think that will be it.  We don't have a lot of extra room with five people living here.  I'm still excited about it - learning a lot really because I never was a gardener so don't know a lot about plants.  I retired in the spring and so that gives me time to do things at my leisure, which makes a big difference.

Anyway, I'm glad you'll still be using the ones you have.  I always wondered when people leave the forum, do they continue to use their AGs? 

[callisto9]

Well at least I didn't shatter your day - glad about that.

I do have four but I think that will be it.  We don't have a lot of extra room with five people living here.  I'm still excited about it - learning a lot really because I never was a gardener so don't know a lot about plants.  I retired in the spring and so that gives me time to do things at my leisure, which makes a big difference.

Anyway, I'm glad you'll still be using the ones you have.  I always wondered when people leave the forum, do they continue to use their AGs? 

I'm a member of so many forums, so it's hard to keep up with all of them.

I imagine I'll use my AGs until they one day poop out on me. I just don't want to buy any more of them.

I was initially excited about the VeggiePro, but in the 9 months I've watched AeroGrow (the company), they can't seem to get their marketing together. It's been very disappointing. Love the product, don't really care for the company.