Romaine lettuce, two week in

[TommyTexas]

This is my first try with the ag. I've been lurking for a couple months now just soaking up the wisdom and getting jealous of the great veggies so many of you are getting!

Planted a Romaine Lettuce kit on 1/13 and used the two "starter" fertilizer tabs into the silver classic.

1/27, put in two "regular" fertilizer tabs.

1/28, noticed quite a lot of growth just in that one day, seemed like an inch of growth in a day.

Should I expect it to continue that rate of growth?

Question: Is it ok to keep it next to a south facing window (blinds closed and an insulated auto windshield cover between it and ag)? Should I go ahead and open the blinds during the day to let in more natural light?

[bab43]

Welcome to the forum!

Your romaine is growing quite nicely!  Within the next two weeks you should start harvesting. 

I do notice a little yellowing edge around the leaves which could be an indication that nutrient levels are high or that your tap water (if you're using tap) has high mineral content.  I'd suggest keeping the water level at maximum over the next while and if it continues slow down the feeding a bit.

Sorry, can't answer your real question about the light.  My father-in-law grew his herbs by a large window and they did very well - just don't know if it was a south-facing window.

Glad you've joined the forum and look forward to updates on your garden. 

[TommyTexas]

I do notice a little yellowing edge around the leaves which could be an indication that nutrient levels are high or that your tap water (if you're using tap) has high mineral content.

I'm using distilled water bought at the grocery store which is around 000 ppm according to my meter.

I'd suggest keeping the water level at maximum over the next while and if it continues slow down the feeding a bit.

Do you mean above the "full" indicator or just to the "full" line?

I don't know if this is critical or not but here goes. I added the nutrients on the morning of the 27th but the add nutrient light didn't come on till late that night (around 10pm) at the same time as the water level low light came on. Or at least they were both on when I checked on the ag at 10pm. It was past my bedtime so I didn't add water but waited till around 2pm today to top off the water level. Oops!

Next time I'll wait till it tells me to add nutrients. 

[Grasshopper]

I think Marianne is suggesting that you add as much water as possible to your AG for the next little while and not wait until the add water thing lights up.  This will help to dilute the nutrient concentration and give your lettuce a chance to recover.

I never wait until for the add water thing to light up - I add water daily or every other day or whenever the plants need it.

[bab43]

Sorry - I meant to the full line, but I actually do put it above the indicator when I think nutrient levels are high and keep it there for a while.

It's better if you add the water before the nutrients but I don't imagine it has done any harm.  The add water light comes on automatically when the nutrient light comes on just to remind you.  It doesn't always need water.

I really just wanted to alert you to the yellowing edge so you can try to avoid issues.  Some of my salad plants turned crispy brown - nutrient levels were way too high and I needed to switch to distilled.  You're already using distilled so that's a plus.

I just noticed you said you have a meter - maximum EC for lettuce should be 1.2.  (The chart at "http://www.aerogardengrowers.com/index.php/topic,2619.0.html" also gives the TDS values for the two types of TDS meters.)  A measurement of your nutrient solution should indicate whether it's too strong or not.

Edit:  Thanks Grasshopper - a much better way of putting it. 

[Grasshopper]

Marianne,

Thank YOU for all your helpful and informative posts!  One can learn a lot just by reading through all the old posts and looking at the pictures here! 

[bab43]

Grasshopper, I retired in April and I have to confess I really got into this hobby and read all the posts here and at "http://www.aerogardenmastery.com/drupal/".  There's so many excellent tips I expect I've forgotten more by now than I remember. 

[kempette]

I haven't done salad greens (though I think I will next) but my herb gardens have always been near a big window & they seem to do just fine.  In fact, they are quite happy.  My flowers are not near a window since it specifically says they need some dark time but my herbs don't ever see darkness- I keep the AG light on at night as a night light & the window gives them a little light during the day (though I live in New England so this time of year they don't get much sun from it).  In fact, for one of the gardens I tried to keep the AG lights on during the day so they would get the dark at night & that garden didn't do nearly as well as the other two I've run that had "continual" light.  So I'm back to lights on all night- sun during the day for my herbs.  Don't know what I'll do with the salad but unless it specifies that it needs a dark time, I'll probably go with the same system just because it amuses me. 

[bab43]

Salads don't need dark time.  I have mine running in a hydroponics unit with lights on for 24 hours.

[TommyTexas]

Thanks for the tips - and the plant ph/ppm info!

I went ahead and filled the ag bowl almost to the brim with distilled water. I hope that will correct the problem. A few of the leaves had already gone from yellow to dark brown along the edges by the time I got to watering. It's just like a dark line outlining the leaf. I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not.

[Grasshopper]

That sounds like nutrient burn from the nutrient concentration being too high.  Those leaves will remain dry/crispy along the edges but, hopefully, with the lower nutrient concentration, your new growth will be fine.

You might want to look at "Signs of Stress" on page 16 of the Master Gardener Guide.  http://www.aerogrow.com/community/images/stories/file/English%20Guides/507314-0AA_MGGde_web_US.pdf

[TommyTexas]

Thank you Grasshopper for the great info.

I have a lot to learn and browsing this site will take me a good way toward that end. I appreciate all the knowledgeable help here!

PS, I tried to check my nutrient strength in the bowl but found out that my ppm meter battery has died! Talk about bad timing!

[TommyTexas]

Just an update on my original post for the romaine lettuce in ag silver classic. I used only the ag nutrients that came with the seed kit the whole time.

This was a great experiment and a wonderful learning experience. I first thought I would go ahead and start harvesting early in February but then decided to wait because none of the leaves were very large at all. Also I was curious to see what would happen if I just let it go on its own. Over the weeks I had to raise the light until I couldn't raise it anymore and the romaine grew into the lights. That answered one of my questions as well, that being what would happen if plants touch the lights - I found out that those suckers get hot and will burn the tender leaves. At least I did manage to pick off the dead or dying leaves when I got the chance.

Yesterday I finally had enough experimenting and picked the first harvest. Meaning I ran out of store-bought lettuce and wanted a salad. While it was yummy the romaine was quite leggy after a month of wild growth. None of the leaves got as big as romaine from the grocery store, not even a quarter as big. Many of the leaves on the sides just lay down on the top of the ag and never grew bigger than about silver dollar size. These eventually died and were picked off one by one. I don't think the exact size of the leaves really matters to me but that is one of the questions I wanted answered - just how big will it grow.

Next time I'll use the nutrients suggested in this thread to see if plants grow differently. Early on I had nutrient problems which I believe would not have happened had I premixed a nutrient solution and used that exclusively. I'd start off a seed kit using 1/4 strength solution then slowly build up to full strength.

[bab43]

Thanks for the update! 

I don't think lettuce in the AG would ever get as big as lettuce bought at the grocery store - with seven pods and multiple seeds in each, there just isn't enough room, IMO.

You get the most harvest out of the lettuce plants by harvesting continuously - a salad every couple of days for two to three months or so.  As you harvest there's room for more leaves.  I found that my AG loose leaf lettuce did lay down on the deck sometimes but the romaine never really did.

It sounds like you're going to try the experiment again but with different nutrients?

[AeroKnipp]

Salads don't need dark time.  I have mine running in a hydroponics unit with lights on for 24 hours.

In simple terms, I had always thought that all plants needed a little bit of darkness in order to take all that sun/light energy and manufacture the necessary building blocks for optimum growth. Here is what I have found on the web.

THE EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ON THE GROWTH OF LETTUCE

Lettuce was grown in a hydroponic system under various light conditions such as intensity, day/night cycle and the ratio of light to dark period. The relation between light conditions and the quality of lettuce was discussed focusing on light energy requirement. The result showed that day/night cycle ranging from 6 to 72 hr had little effect on lettuce growth


http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=230_40

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Yes, plants do need darkness to grow.
First, in the photosynthesis process itself, there is a reaction known as 'dark reaction' pathway or lately known as 'carbon reaction' pathway where the free energy of ATP and reducing power of NADPH, are used to fix and reduce CO2 to form carbohydrate. This is very important process to release Oxygen into the air. This happened in the dark or at night.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081227074534AAwpH2C

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It has to block the light 100% since lettuce needs short daylight hours and complete darkness at night or it'll bolt sooner. 

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lights/msg0919190118205.html

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[bab43]

AeroKnipp,

I've started a new thread "http://www.aerogardengrowers.com/index.php/topic,3454.0.html" since this new topic may not be of interest to the OP.