What nutrients are you using, and how are you mixing them? Also what water are you using? What type of lettuce are you growing? This may be a dumb question, but are you familiar with that type of lettuce and how it normally tastes? Or trying new varieties?

P.S.
Have you tried soaking the leaves in cold water for a while after you pluck them? I've found that even bolting lettuce taste fine after soaking the leaves in cold water for about 20-30 min.

Hey homehydro,

I'm using a 16-4-16. I mix a concentrated batch with warm water then after it is fully dissolved I add it to well water with a base ppm of 177.

I'm growing Romain and Buttercrunch both of which I have eaten in the past grown with soil and they tasted fine.

The soaking in water idea is a good one, I will try that to see how that helps.

I may also try pulling one of the heads out of the system and putting it in another system with either very low nutrients or just plain water to see how it compares.

Thanks for you help!

What brand and line of nutrients are you using? Is your well water filtered?

General Lettuce Recommendations
pH--(5.5-6.5)
EC--(0.8-1.2)
PPM--(560-840)

Aren't some varieties more susceptible to taste bad with too much light?

My first suggestion would be to cut back on the chemicals.

I'm no expert, but I can't help but wonder if cutting way back on the chemicals before harvesting might help purge the plants ???

What chemicals????? You mean the nutrient solution??? Flushing before harvest is useless unless you were over feeding in the first place. Even then the results will very minimal and the results of overfeeding cant be undone by flushing.

Sounds like too much nitrate is a possibility. Agree with soaking them in cold water for a period of time. I have also had thyme have zero flavor because of bad genetics. Where did you get the seeds?

Does the lettuce taste bitter? Could be harvested too late? What additives are you using?

Thanks for the replies everybody. Sorry I've been out of town. I just wanted to give an update on things.

The well water is not filtered. Seeds seem to be good. I bought them locally at a retail store and they had a near perfect germination rate. I have not heard of a lettuce variety that taste bad with too much light so that is news to me. As for additives I haven't added anything other than the main nutrients.

I was going to pull a head out and put it in another system with lower nutrients, but the roots are too tied together currently to get it out.

I did however try soaking the leaves as homehydro suggested and they tasted much better, though there still was a slight taste of chemicals.

I ended up doing a complete system nutrient change dropping them down to 475 ppm and then ran the pump continuously for 16 hours to get them to uptake and hopefully flush out the chemical taste. There is still a slight taste in some of the leaves but it is considerably improved.

I'm going to run it at this level for the next few weeks and see what kind of result I get. I appreciate all the responses. Thanks.

What is the temp in the room?

What is the temp at the top of the plants?

Go lean on the nutes...very lean. Lettuce does not require much. The only time I get poor taste is at the very end of the growth cycle OR if the temp gets above 70 in the growing area.

I use CNS on 1/2 nutes for the entire cycle. I've detailed the journal in the blog and it has become time tested after several cycles.

Hope that helps...bad lettuce sucks!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Hydroponic Adventure

My hydroponic lettuces taste very good. The problem is not getting big enough even complete full circle like I have seeing in some hydroponic sites. Another thing is I'm growing outside in a pad under sunlight .the pad is 40ft x50ft. The lettuces are romaine, rose, red romaine, mascullen,arugula and several batch of mix lettuce.. They are not big and soon its harvest it wilt very fast. Any help will be greatly appreciated. What kind of fertilizer are you all using or recommend ?

I store my hydroponic lettuce the same way I do my store bought lettuce. I use a large air-tight Tupperware container. My lettuce lasts well over a month that way. First I wash it and let it soak in cold water for a while. Then I let it drain off and fold a couple of paper towels and put them in the bottom of Tupperware container to soak up any residual water that may drain, then place the lettuce in it.

Even after cutting all the leaves off my hydroponic lettuce (butter lettuce to be exact) so it's not a head of lettuce anymore, but rather just a bunch of individual leaves, they would last at least a month in the fridge that way.