One of the best gardening books I’ve read in a long time is “Garden Secrets” by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent and Diane E. Bilderback. Most garden books tell you about how to grow plants which this book does. It goes beyond that though by including information on how day length and temperature affect germination, blooming etc. For instance, some varieties of lettuce grown near street lights can bolt before they normally would as the light from the lamps fool the plants into ‘thinking’ the days are longer than they actually are. I sought this information out after reading someone’s bitter lettuce tale on one of the garden boards I frequent. It reminded me of my own bitter lettuce that was started under lights last year. I had the lights on for 15 hours a day thinking the longer days would mean larger plants. While it probably did it also meant bitter plants.
The 90+F weather outside has me wanting some lettuce and I have a nice cool basement that should work fine. I used a 72 cell float tray and a plastic container from WallyWorld to hold the water. I will need to get another light which is one reason why I only seeded 4 rows (3-4 seeds in each cell, hoping for 2 to sprout) in the float tray and even that was pushing it. Once I include the second light I can seed the outer rows and will have staggered plantings. I set the one light I do have on a 12hrs on / 12hrs off schedule as per the book above. Keeping my fingers crossed
7 responses so far ↓
1 Kerry's Garden // Jul 12, 2005 at 5:36 pm
Lettuce Under Lights – Week 2
Two and a half weeks ago I seeded some lettuce in a float tray under a 4′ florescent light in my basement. About a week ago I added a second light with two Phillips ‘Natural Sunshine’ bulbs. The first light had one cool white and…
2 Kerry’s Garden // Jul 13, 2005 at 8:42 am
[...] I was just checking on the lettuce under lights in the basement and found some mosquito larvae in the water. It was no surprise, I had been expecting them. I dumped the existing water and filled with fresh. I couldn’t find the fish tank air pump I had planned on using there so I guess I’ll have to procure one soon. Not sure that will work but since the femailes prefer to lay their eggs in standing water perhaps I can get enough circulation in there to make it unattractive. [...]
3 Kerry’s Garden » - Lettuce Under Lights - week 3 // Jul 18, 2005 at 12:09 pm
[...] Week three of the lettuce experiment. I swapped out the string holding up the lights with linked chain and an s-hook on each. It makes moving the lights up or down as needed much easier. I am having to move the lights up about 2-3 times a week as the plants grow. Later this week or early next I will harvest the larger leaves and move the lights back down. I did taste one yesterday and they are very good. No bitterness, very sweet and crisp. The basement stays a fairly constant 68F. [...]
4 Kerry’s Garden - Lettuce Under Lights - week 4 // Jul 27, 2005 at 9:35 am
[...] This was our first harvest taken last Thursday. It was enough for two large salads with dinner and a round of blt sandwiches for lunch. It was crisp, not even a hint of bitterness. I was very pleased. [...]
5 Kerry's Garden // Aug 2, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Lettuce Under Lights – wk 5
Week 5
Not much new going on. I ended up not harvesting last week and this was the result. I harvested just after taking this photo and got a large bowl full, probably about 1/2 lb in all. I took either leaves or entire plants where there there…
6 Kerry's Garden // Aug 10, 2005 at 5:44 pm
Lettuce Under Lights – wk 6
Week 6
Not much new to report. It has pretty much regrown from the last harvest. I move the lights up as the leaves grow into them. The water has evaporated to a point where I should add some more soon.
You can see that the water is getting …
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