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Post by greenpea on Jan 6, 2021 20:49:56 GMT -5
Hi all!
I'm new here and to Aerogarden growing in general. I planted a crop of lettuce 33 days ago in my new Farm 12 and today was my first (attempted) harvest. My lettuce is soooo weak and wimpy that when I washed it in a strainer in the sink it pretty much turned into a mushy lump and I couldn't even eat it. I did a lot of research and reading and watched YouTube videos before planting and was pretty confident that my first crop would turn out great. Unfortunately my lettuce leaves turned out so delicate that they tear if you even touch them. Also the Dill never became much and shriveled up so I terminated it after 3 weeks. However, the basil is thriving. Here's what I did:
-filled reservoir with reverse osmosis (ro) water
-pods: Black Seeded Simpson, Deer Tongue, Parris Island, Red Sail, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Rouge D'Hiver, Dill, Basil
-fed 1/2 the Aerogarden recommended nutrients at the recommended feeding intervals as I've seen people suggest when growing lettuce
-after approximately 3 weeks of very slow growth and weak leaves, I added 3mL of CalMag per gallon of water and began measuring and balancing the pH which seemed to speed up the growth
-the farm unit is indoors upstairs and in a location that is probably about 73 degrees F average - now that I think about it I will put a thermometer up there to check in on the temp
Can anyone guess what the problem is? Would too warm of a temperature cause thin lettuce leaves? Or maybe I should try adding the full amount of nutrients? I'm pretty bummed out that I wasted 33 days on something I couldn't even eat. Thanks in advance for any input!
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maskedsonnet
AGA Farmer
Without the burden of comparison, everything is beautiful
Posts: 1,611
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Post by maskedsonnet on Jan 6, 2021 21:24:24 GMT -5
I’ve only grown lettuce once, but from what I understand optimum temp is 60-70 degrees, and up to 80 it may flower, making it taste bitter. Higher than 80 might damage it, not sure as it’s been a while. I followed the AG nutrient bottle instructions for the machine I grew it in, and it grew very thick and tasty. Not sure about cutting back/using different brands.
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 6, 2021 23:11:46 GMT -5
greenpea , as a crunchy lettuce lover, my reaction to Aerogarden varieties is much the same as yours. Aerogarden leaf lettuces look beautiful, but I will not grow them again.
I grow Parris Island romaine. It is robust and the kind of lettuce I like.
Your temperatures should be fine for romaine. Mine routinely get up to 75 degrees.
I prefer to use stronger nutrients on my lettuce. And I always add calmag because I discovered it prevents tip burn, which romaine is especially prone to developing.
A fan gently blowing in the direction of (not directly on) the lettuce may help. But nothing is going to give those soft leaf lettuces a lot of texture.
I would suggest you try romaine varieties. (Jericho is much slower growing than the others. I prefer Parris Island.) There are also dwarf red and green varities. And don't leave more than one plant per pod to give it room to develop, although this goes against Aerogarden's recommendations.
I have had mixed results with dill. At times it has threatened to take over the Aerogarden. At other times it has keeled over and failed to thrive. I am not sure what the cause is, but others have experienced it, too.
Your growing conditions sound good, but maybe a little light on the nutrients, especially for herbs. I suggest trying slightly more nutrients, maybe 6 ml to start. You can bump it up later if the plants start looking pale.
You might enjoy buying the empty pods and using your own seeds, too. That way you can pick and choose what works for you.
Wishing you the very best, and welcome to Aerogarden Addicts! 
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 7, 2021 8:32:13 GMT -5
Without photos, it is difficult to know for sure...  I would check the water temp. If the room is low or mid-70s, the water may be getting hotter. Is is "wimpy" as in not crunchy or is it also spindly. I am wondering if the Basil and Dill are in the same machine, maybe the light hood was raised too far over and it got spindly. I have seen this with some friends I know who are very casual AG growers. I have grown many AG pod and even more non-AG from my own seeds. I like both "crunchy" (romaine, etc.) and loose leaf varieties. I have never felt they were wimpy per se (did not tear when washed), but they are not crunchy. I am really sorry to hear your first foray was less productive than you had hoped. I would second Sher 's advice re: trying different lettuce varieties. As far as nutrients, I have used both the recommended and less (and once or twice accidentally much more). I have never felt the nutrient amount produced hardier or wimpier lettuce. Nutrients (in my experience) seem to produce less or more brown tips, and the overall longevity. I have never had too much trouble with lettuce, but I can say once I started putting ice cubes in the water tank when it got warm, it really helped. I often stick a finger in the tank. If it feels warm, I will add an ice cube. |
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Post by golddustpeak on Jan 7, 2021 8:54:32 GMT -5
I see you had a pod containing Paris Island. We find that Paris Island is one of the crispest lettuces that we have grown. How was yours?
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Shawn
Administrator
Posts: 16,269 
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Post by Shawn on Jan 7, 2021 9:44:49 GMT -5
Hello and welcome to the forum. With lettuce I have found that with nutrients, less is more. I always start with 4ml and usually stay at 4ml (in a Bounty or Harvest). As for the temp of the water, I do not measure it. I just stick my finger in the water. If it feels warm I add ice cubes to it. Lettuce likes colder water. Also you should not trim or harvest lettuce the day of or two days after it has been fed. You can get a bitter taste from the uptake of nutes.
As for room temp, as long as the water is cool and there is air flow and it is not super warm they should do ok.
There are some varieties of lettuce that are delicate while others are hearty. I personally only grow Romaine types. I also never check pH. Maybe with my water I do not have to but years ago when I did it drove me nuts. I stopped and really had no issues.
A couple good things about AG'ing, is that you can plug and play. Put pods in and watch them grow. Remember that the nutrients AG recommends are not set in stone. We should watch our plants and adjust as needed. Someone in my area may need to use less while other in another place need more. Everyone variables (water, temps etc) can play into this. Lastly, we can grow all year long, we will all have projects that grow great and others that fail. With fails you can start anew. I actually love to start fresh so after a couple of month I end my herbs to begin with new ones (but that is just me  ) Please do not get bummed, When I started I had tomatoes growing that were a bust. I also chopped my basil too low. But I just got back in there and whala...I learned and grew. We are here to assist if we can so keep the questions coming if needed  As someone mentioned pictures are always helpful (and you can find how to post them in this thread.
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dianne
AGA Sprout
Excited to expand my AG farm, learn, and experiment!
Posts: 147
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Post by dianne on Jan 7, 2021 13:30:05 GMT -5
I grow lettuce continually year round in my Farm. I have always used the AG recommended amount of nutrients and my crops are always healthy ... except when I go too long without a good Rinse, Clean, and Refill.
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Jay
AGA Harvest
Hold on, I gotta' try this seed...
Posts: 264
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Post by Jay on Jan 8, 2021 9:04:46 GMT -5
In winter I've never had a problem with crispy lettuce, in the summer I toss an ice cube or two in the farm every couple of days to keep water temps low.
I've always used the recommended nute levels and I too gave up on pH. I will be adding CalMag to this crop because tip burn has become a thing for me recently.
My biggest problem is that once the plants are big and full, if I skip a harvest the leaves start bunching together and mold sets in.
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Post by greenpea on Jan 10, 2021 13:48:27 GMT -5
Wow, such great feedback! It is day 37 on my lettuce planting and I decided to terminate most of my lettuce crop and transplant my thriving basil into a pot. Shawn mentioned not being afraid to start from scratch if things aren't working out and I decided to take that advice. clumsythumbs asked if my lettuce was spindly and yes, most of it was. I think I set my light too high too soon. Also, the light was hanging at quite an angle the whole time. Today, I realized there is a screw where the cables meet that can be adjusted. I loosened it and was able to level the light and tighten it back up. I plan to leave the light low this time. Sher mentioned she thins her lettuce to one per pod against AG recommendations. I think this might help the lettuce stay lower since it won't be competing for light. I noticed the more spindly ones looked like they were trying to grow on top of each other at the base and maybe made them grow taller. I also noticed while I was running the cleaning cycle today that some of the holes get a lot of running water and some only get small drips. It seems the garden isn't level and the water isn't being distributed evenly. Since I have my Farm 12 stacked on top of my Farm 12 XL it would be difficult to level the whole thing. So for now I will keep an eye on the pods in the holes with less running water to try to tell if the water deficit is making a difference. A few people mentioned Paris Island grows well for them and golddustpeak even asked how mine turned out. It was actually one of the more wimpy spindly ones. The variety that grew the best is the Mavel of Four Seasons which are the only two pods I decided to keep. Jay , dianne , Sher , and maskedsonnet all seemed to have no issues growing lettuce with the AG recommended amount of nutrients. AG recommends 16mL of nutrients in the 12 pod gardens. Last time I used 8mL, this time I'm starting with 12mL because I'm nervous about tip burn. The CalMag I have recommends 2-4mL per gallon so I added 8mL to the 2gal reservoir since I use RO water, same as I did last time. I plan to let that settle in for a few hours before I check the pH. Out of the tap, my RO water has a pH of around 4. I ordered seeds from Reimer and sponges from Urban Leaf. Using those today, I planted Big Boson Lettuce, Winter Density Lettuce, Little Gem Lettuce, and Rougd d' Hiver Lettuce. I tried Rouge d' Hiver from AG pods and wanted to see if the Reimer seeds produced the same or if they were a little different. I'm excited for this new round and hope to have better results this time! Thanks again for all your help! |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 10, 2021 14:23:27 GMT -5
Yikes! I have never heard of tap water with a pH that low! That could be keeping your plants from absorbing needed nutrients.
Do you have any pH Down?
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Shawn
Administrator
Posts: 16,269
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Post by Shawn on Jan 10, 2021 14:54:58 GMT -5
Sounds like you have a plan greenpea. Keep us posted.
I would not even temp to guess what my pH is. Then again I have not checked pH or anything is many years. My tap water seems to be fine as that is all I use and my plants seem to do well.
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Post by greenpea on Jan 10, 2021 18:20:41 GMT -5
Sher I've been testing and balancing my pH since 3 weeks after my original planting. I tested my pH today a few hours after cleaning and refilling with RO water and nutrients and I'd call it about 4.5 - 5.0.  I added 1mL of pH up per gallon, so 2mL to the Farm 12 reservoir. A few hours later I'd call it 6.0 - 6.5.  I plan to check and adjust it daily which isn't trouble for me to do. This RO water is high maintenance but if I use my plain tap water I know the roots will turn orange and I'll get deposits in the AG system very quickly that are hard to get rid of. The plain tap water here is poor quality which is why we have the RO system already.
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 10, 2021 20:11:25 GMT -5
I normally don't bother checking my tap water because the pH of my well water is 7.0 with 38 ppm. Nutrients bring it down to 6.5.
If you can keep yours in the 6 - 6.5 range it should do fine.
I appreciate your posting your tap water reading because I find it astounding! Where are you located (generally)?
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 10, 2021 21:02:51 GMT -5
I am glad you got some answers and that it helped! Yes, I think starting over is a good idea as well. With lettuce it grows fast, so really not much lost (and a lot to potentially gain with a better crop)!!
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Shawn
Administrator
Posts: 16,269
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Post by Shawn on Jan 11, 2021 4:01:36 GMT -5
I think for anyone who wants to test, great. It is something I just do not do. My plants do fine.
I know people have different water and have to. My water appears to work well with my plants.
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Post by greenpea on Jan 11, 2021 18:31:34 GMT -5
I normally don't bother checking my tap water because the pH of my well water is 7.0 with 38 ppm. Nutrients bring it down to 6.5.
If you can keep yours in the 6 - 6.5 range it should do fine. I appreciate your posting your tap water reading because I find it astounding! Where are you located (generally)? I'm in FL. I tested my regular unfiltered tap water today out of curiosity and it was 8+ pH and 360ppm. The RO water is 4.5pH and 31ppm. It is something about the reverse osmosis (RO) water filtering process that make the pH so low. My unfiltered tap water is probably okay for growing, but like I said, the roots would turn orange and the water reservoir would get deposits very quickly if I used my unfiltered tap water. It has happened before when I was trying to keep scallions going in a glass of water in my kitchen. I did a side by side experiment of unfiltered tap water vs the RO tap water in clear drinking glasses with scallions. The glass with the unfiltered tap water got orange and gross within a week. The RO water glass with scallions stayed clear long term. We also get orange rings around our sink and bathtub drains. The kicker is that we're on city water! |
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jan 11, 2021 22:42:45 GMT -5
greenpea , the orange color might be from leached iron in your water. Or it could be a red bacteria which is often confused with mold.
I think it is probably the red bacteris. I used to get those stains in my shower until I started making sure it stayed ventilated. There was a discussion here a while back. You can search for "Pink Mold" if you want.
Also I found this:
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Post by greenpea on Jan 14, 2021 13:58:41 GMT -5
So it turns out that my water is HOT. Not warm, HOT. I had been checking it in the mornings and of course it's cold then. I finally checked it in the afternoon and made the discovery. Since I would have to put so much ice in it probably multiple times a day due to the high temperature, that is just not a feasible option for me. So I've decided to attempt making a cooling system using Peltier devices. I ordered a few things I'll need and hope to get it working this weekend. I'll make a separate post for that but I'll include the link to it here when I'm done. |
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Post by clumsythumbs on Jan 14, 2021 14:11:06 GMT -5
So it turns out that my water is HOT. Not warm, HOT. I had been checking it in the mornings and of course it's cold then. I finally checked it in the afternoon and made the discovery. Since I would have to put so much ice in it probably multiple times a day due to the high temperature, that is just not a feasible option for me. So I've decided to attempt making a cooling system using Peltier devices. I ordered a few things I'll need and hope to get it working this weekend. I'll make a separate post for that but I'll include the link to it here when I'm done. Glad you are on the trail of figuring it all out! Remind me, where is the machine located? My machines used to get hot in the kitchen during summer, but 3 or 4 ice cubes in the am kept it cool for the most part. That is a shame it is heating up so much, so fast!  Good luck on your cooling system; I look forward to seeing the setup when you are done! |
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Jan 14, 2021 14:40:54 GMT -5
Try raising the hood a little also. Someone actually fitted the top with some cooling board. I should keep those cooling envelopes tou get sometimes and trace it to the top and make one of those "blankets" for my Bounty when I get it back in rotation.
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As someone mentioned pictures are always helpful (and you can find how to post them 
