Next time try mixing alfalfa meal in with the soil. That is a slow release Nitrogen that won't burn your root system or elongate the lettuce like some of the synthetic nitrogens that don't hang out long enough...

Oh, and I have my lights on 16 hours a day now...

Hi Salads,

Count me among the light proponents. I'm running lights from 4am-9am and 5pm-10pm on my toms, peppers, carrots, lettuce. The light is angled toward the lettuce and you can appreciate the lettuce leaning that way a little bit, so I think the lights would help you.

You can always go over to the Growing under Lights forum and get totally confused. :-)

SB

Thanks, weebus and stressbaby. Wish I'd known about the alpalpha meal. I have a lot of compost mixed into the top few inches of soil in the raised bed, though. Doesn't that act like a slow release fertilizer? As for the lights, I'll do 16 hours now. I had to smile at your comment about the Growing Under Lights forum, stressbaby. I had searched their archives and was too confused to even ask a question. Some people there say that lettuce will bolt with more than 10 hours of light.

MJ

You can still make an alfalfa tea. Put a handful in a 5 gal. bucket of water let it sit for a few days then use it to water your plants. Warning! Has a strong odor but goes away. Water your plants well afterwards.

Cactus, why water your plants well afterward? Aren't you just leaching away the nutrients you put into the soil with the compost tea?

That's just what I have read. You could dilute it before hand and water twice as much. I guess just to get the soil really saturated with the tea. Some people tend to put just a cup or two of water on plants at a time instead of giving them a really good soaking. Depends on your style of watering. I'm a soaker my husband's a dribbler. I have to go back and water after he's finished. LOL

Just so everyone knows, you should always water 110%. If it doesn't come out the bottom, you haven't watered enough.

ROFL, weebus, thank you, thank you. I have to show this to my DH who doesn't understand why I water things until they leak.

Cindy

Tell him because weebus said so, he'll truly be impressed. No, really, it is because salts will build up in your soil and burn the root system. Wash them through. When you fertilize, do the same. The root system will have taken up most of the nutrients by the next you water so you don't have to worry about wasting fertilizer...

Laura

Off topic...Weebus (Laura?) raises a good point about salt buildup. Some greenhouse plants such as citrus are extremely sensitive to salt buildup. I'm sure that I have killed plants because of this. Citrus and maybe others can benefit from soil flushing...water four times the volume of the container, and do it every three months. I now use RO water rather than well water on my citrus to reduce the salt buildup.

Robert (SB)

If you water 110% everytime you water, you don't have to worry about it...That means water ALL the way through, and then water some more. I have never heard of 4x the volume of the container. If you do this during Fall/Winter and even Spring, you may either drown your plants, or invite molds mildews and various disease problems because the soil cannot dry out enough to create air pockets...

"Just so everyone knows, you should always water 110%. If it doesn't come out the bottom, you haven't watered enough."

Salt buildup?

Not an issue on this thread. From birth to slaughter house is about 40 days for a poor winter lettuce. Sad but true.

Having said that then all the above is true if you are growing lettuce in a raised bed that you will want to grow other things in afterwards. (just wondering how you know when water is running out the bottom of a raised bed.....)

So Chris, did you have anything constructive to add. or are you just behaving as the thread police, letting us know we strayed off topic?

Weebus,

I could ask what type of lights Salads_R_Us is using, but, nah, if that was important a professional would have asked it already.

I actually did add something to the topic but you missed it. I didn't say the word exactly but as the discussion was talking about salts and fertilizer and build up and water, a seasoned pro would have jumped in and casually mentioned that hydroponics word.

P.S you did stray way off topic didn't you... you strayed into your comfort zone.

Salad didn't ask about what type of lights he needed to use. He asked what else he could do to speed up the process. Salad also is not set up for hydroponics, so NO a seasoned pro wouldn't have metioned it, as there is no need to. If you are insinuating that I do not know everything there is to know about growing in every Gh in every situation with every available means of growing, You just may be right. But then again, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again.

Wow, I wish my lettuce would be ready in 40 days...I don't think I'm even close, not in the winter.

And wow, everybody got cranky overnight...

Off topic...Weebus, I had a hard time believing it, too, but containerized citrus benefits from thorough watering and thorough drying in between, with quarterly flush using four times the container volume in water. Citrus media (is that the right term?) is/are very quick draining, often using CHC or sand as a main ingredient. Washing the water through the soil doesn't harm the roots any more than a 110% watering.

As for salt buildup, I think I'll start another thread.

As for lights, that's too big for another thread, lights requires a whole new forum! Will anyone care to agree with me that fluorescent lights will work but they have to be VERY close to the tops of the plants, like 3-4 inches away? HID will work...for lettuce MH may be a little better than HPS. HPS is supposed to be better at triggering flowers. MH gives a balanced light, good for foliage and photosynthesis, and therefore it should be good for lettuce.

Ah, now we're back on topic, sort of.

First let me say, you are absolutely right about flushing the container. I am just questioning the 4x the container capacity. It just seems a bit extreme to me.

In all reality, in the winter it shouldn't be as much of an issue anyway since there is less watering and fertilizing.

Ther are salinity meters that are used to measure the salinity in the leachate. The only gripw I have aobut them is that they measure the leachates and not the soil salinity.

It seems supplimental light during the day is required and it appears from reading several university research papers that the optimum day length is 10 hours. Extending the day period may trigger your lettuce to bolt.

Leaving your lights on all day and not trying to lengthen the day may be the way to go.

35 day lettuce. The growing medium is not a raised bed but the lighting and temperature details remain the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell lettuce

Chris, very cool link, thanks. Check it out, folks.

I just learned that the lights for my toms, which like a 16 hour photoperiod, followed by 8 hours of dark (see link below), may not be the best for my lettuce. Intuitively I guess it makes sense...cool season crop, shorter day length, warm season crop, longer day length.

Off topic, again, sorry folks...http://www.actahort.org/books/1/1_2.htm...This reference to an older 1959 study which looked at timing of light for toms. The way I read this, the worst outcomes were for toms given light 8pm-2am, presumably because this disrupts the dark, 8 hour respiration period described in the first article.

Anyway, thanks again, Chris.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydroponic tomatoes