Romaine Ultra Garden [11/30]

Day 4:

Everything has sprouted except the "Baby Romaine". Love how fast lettuce gets going. 

Day 7:

Took domes off most of the pods. All is looking well....the Baby Romaine still has not germinated. May give it a few more days and replant some seeds.

20201208_113416 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

Day 14    ~

Nutes added today. The Baby romaine still has not germinated, so I cut the sponge open some to let the seed get some more room. I see small seedlings starting to emerge. If nothing happens in the next few days, will replant/replace.

2020-12-14_01-07-28 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

Possibly   16 days seems like a long time. In any case, I will likely replant. The seeds are just sitting in there. 

Day 35~ 

Have not updated in a while, so thought I can post some photos! 


2021-01-04_03-40-50 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

2021-01-04_03-41-20 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

The baby romaine never germinated after 2 attempts, but finally is starting to sprout (slowly) on the 3rd attempt.


As I mentioned in another thread, I am noticing slower than normal growth. Usually by day 35 I would have to harvest a few times. I will probably harvest some this week, as next Monday is time for next round of 'nutes, so will harvest leading up to that. I suspect the basement temperature is sub-maximal (it is about 61 degrees ambient temp and about 64-65 under the hood). I do not know water temp. Things are growing, so not too worried. I am tempted to put a space heater, but am wary of the cost and impact (it is a huge area....will it really warm?). The bench where all the AGs are located is beneath the heating duct and near the washer/dryer, so while it is not the warmest part of the basement, figured it was not the coldest. Overall, happy with how things are going!

Beautiful lettuce!

Day 42~

Nutes added today. Lots of 'gardening' was done today.  I added nutes to all my machines and did an R&R on all but one  (as I mentioned in my Kratky thread). The lettuce is/was looking good...here are some "before" and "afters":


20210112_122054 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

20210112_123507 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

And here is the haul:

20210112_123526 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

This is about 6oz bulk weight and filled an entire glass serving/salad bowl. So doing a take on a salade nicoise tonight.


There was a little leaf burn/brown edges here and there. From not harvesting, some moisture had causes some of the inner pods/leaves to get gross and slimy. With all my hand-wringing over the temperature and other things, I suppose I should harvested some.

As some may recall, I measured the water over the weekend and found really low numbers (about 108 ppm/.2EC) with water temps over 70. The crop is looking fine, if not slow growing, but still very low numbers (lower than my tap water). Food for thought.

I am getting a shipment of CalMag tomorrow. I have never used on any plant before, but I am seeing all this board and other spaces online that hydroponic lettuce can benefit form this for leaf burn...which I have always gotten small amounts of during my AG adventures. Looking forward to dinner tonight! 

So the lettuce is really looking nice...not that it ever wasn't but it is growing nicely now. 


20210123_122051 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr



CalMag was added last week. There is still some light leaf burn/brown tips here and there, but way less than I normally see. It is hard to remember to harvest small amounts for salads since the machines are all in the basement. Previously, in my old apartment, it was right next to the sink so I could harvest constantly. My fiance is also not a huge "raw" veggie person, so it usually lunch salads solo for me.