By gisette
Coleus & Snapdragons & Lettuce
Submitted on Thu, 2008/10/30 - 1:25pm
Last updated on Sun, 2008/11/09 - 1:19pm
Posted in
Around August 20th, I planted coleus and snapdragons in a Park Starts block, set between my minis. These plugs are similar to the AG3/6 bound-peat sponges, and work as replacement sponges. At that time (and maybe still not in stock at this time), there was no such thing as a Master Gardener kit for the mini. Anyway, these are slow-growing ornamentals, so wanted to keep my old flower garden until the replacement plants grew a bit.
The lettuce gardens really have nothing to do with the coleus & snapdragons, except proximity. I've grown a lot of lettuce gardens, though.
This first set of images is the products at Park Seed.
Then transferred them to the mini... Easy transfer, since the starter plug simply replaces the sponge in the pod holder.
9 weeks from seed, both snapdragons are in full bloom. These pictures are after cutting half the spikes off and putting them in a vase. (I let the plants get too big because I wanted the spikes.)
Sun, 2008/11/09 - 1:38pm
#2
11 weeks: Coleus / snapdragons still going strong. I picked 3 flower spikes to bring to my mother in the hospital, so fewer flowers this week. Also, there isn't room to keep 2 snapdragon plants much longer. I cut the front plant way back, for it to concentrate on blooming its current spike. When I pick that flower spike, I'll prune out that whole plant. The rear coleus is getting kinda stunted from crowding. And I haven't really found the right nutrient mix for them yet.
Greens, 3.5 weeks: I'd been plucking individual mustard greens leaves, but the lettuce reached first harvest. These plants very happy with their nutrients! Oh - and removed one of the mustard green plants. For some reason, that one plant had very spiny leaves, while all my other mustards are smooth. Don't really care to munch on the spines.
Pro100 greens, 2.5 weeks: Coming along. Floppiness due to life in warm kitchen.
Fri, 2008/11/14 - 7:33pm
#3
11.5 weeks: The snapdragons sorely needed pruning - I was just waiting for a flower spike to bloom. It bloomed, all flowers picked, one snapdragon plant removed, and pruned all remaining plants:
Pro100 greens, 3 weeks: Yes, first harvest time. 
But I didn't need that much lettuce, so only picked half the pods. 
I've got a few brassicas growing nicely in Peat/BB's new salad formula, including some nice komatsuna! Actually, there were several arugula too. Hate those. Blech-ptui. Removed. 
The rest was delicious.
The lettuce is floppy because it's too warm in the kitchen. It's happy enough... Just won't last long. Have an embarrassment of riches in lettuce at the moment - 2 AG's full, plus 2 growboxes outside. But I need to harvest all the growbox stuff on Sunday - forecast says every night will drop below freezing for 5 nights after that.
Sun, 2008/11/16 - 5:06pm
#4
12 weeks: Nothing exciting. The remaining snapdragon is growing new buds.
3.5 weeks, pro100 greens: Also unexciting.
Finally planted the houseplant seedling project that was sitting next to the pro100 though - nice to have my counter space back... This is coleus (the big 2 from cuttings, the seeds didn't work out so well), and stevia.
This week's Picasa album.
Sun, 2008/11/23 - 9:09pm
#5
13 weeks: snapdragon starting to bloom again - both these gardens are in cruise mode.
From the houseplant project, the stevia seedling died, and the coleus seedling isn't looking too good, and none of the seeds sprouted. But the clones are happy enough, I guess.
It's gotten really cold here suddenly, which may have a lot to do with the lackluster performance of the plants this week.
Strangely enough, the twinkle phlox clone I planted outside, from my very first mini garden, still lives. (Though not for long. ) Despite 20's at night and harsh wind, and railing planter soil frozen solid, the plant isn't quite dead yet. No wonder it alone thrived in my cold office last winter. 
Sat, 2008/11/29 - 9:13pm
#6
14 weeks: snapdragons back in full bloom. I let the lettuce mini grow with only minor nibbling for a week, and it gave enough lettuce by itself for 3 of us for Thanksgiving dinner - it's quite happy! 
In the pot, the one unpromising looking coleus seedling is still alive, and has been joined by 2 more nearly invisible seedlings. Those things sure start slow... And the clones are growing. Both clones are from the front coleus in the mini.
5.5 weeks: Since the downstairs lettuce mini is nicely productive, and the upstairs one looked really straggly, decided to retire the kitchen pro100 lettuce garden early to start another project. Actually, this lettuce garden looked far better this week than last week - the last nute flush & fill did it a lot of good. But - I wanted to do something else anyway.
Sat, 2008/12/06 - 6:53pm
#7
15 weeks: Coleus and snapdragons badly in need of pruning again. I switched back to using one Aerogrow Master Gardener Large a week ago for the coleus & snapdragons (still using liquid nutes for the happy, happy greens). It wasn't my imagination - the colors are way more vivid using the AG nutrient tablets. Compare the older and younger snapdragon blossoms below. It's harder to tell, but the coleus is more vivid and growing way faster with the AG Large tab, as well.
I found some other people on the net growing coleus in an AG. They like the small nutes for this, no doubt fearing the coleus will bloom. But - it's easy to prune off a flower head on the coleus, and this variety is bolt-resistant, anyway. Snapdragons will grow on either nute regime too, but seem to really like the Large! And I like the jewel-tone vivid colors.
Sat, 2008/12/06 - 8:04pm
#8
These plants are looking resplendent, you must be really satisfied with how the have turned out. I'm not much of a flower person myself, but these could convert me.
Sat, 2008/12/06 - 8:32pm
#9
Oh, thank you! Yes, I'm very pleased with these. Though I wish I'd managed different-pattern snapdragons and coleus, instead of dumb luck supplying matching snaps and near-matching coleus. 
Wouldn't one brilliant green-and-yellow coleus, and another of these crimson-and-gold, look nice together? I'm still trying in a pot in the living room, but those aren't doing too well... Also not enough light.
Sun, 2008/12/07 - 12:49am
#10
Absolutely gorgeous! I'm sure you'll figure out something, the potted coleuses - coleii? are getting some nice color to them.
Sun, 2008/12/07 - 1:38am
#11
Thanks, but actually I think they're losing color... The bigger ones were clones from the vivid pink guy in the mini. 
Sat, 2008/12/13 - 6:51pm
#12
16 weeks: Pruned coleus & snaps way back again, and put clippings in vases - the coleus make a nice cut "flower", if the stem is trimmed... Maybe some of them will root.
9.5 weeks: Lettuce: The mustard greens were slowing down, so decided to replace that with 2-week-old fragrant choi I'd started in the pro100, since I didn't really have any more good outrider locations. The middle is the komatsuna outrider, likewise transferred today from the pro100.
Sat, 2008/12/20 - 3:01pm
#13
17 weeks: The snapdragons are already in full flower again. The cut coleus is rooting - I just moved it near my Deluxe to get more light than the dining table offered. The front coleus plant needs pruning rather a lot these days - it's gotten aggressive. The back coleus gets a whole lot less light and more competition from the snaps, but it's also pretty.
10.5 / 3 weeks: Replacing the mustard greens with the now-3-week fragrant choi may not have been a good idea. The choi doesn't seem to compete well. Flavor's alright, kinda boring. No jasmine fragrance has kicked in yet. I may pluck out a few plants to see if it grows better. Will probably replace the water/nutes on all lettuce AG/outriders today - snowmelt water plus Flora nutes. This mini would probably do just as well on AG salad nutes now that the mustard greens are gone, but the brassicas (the komatsuna outrider between) seem to do better on the Flora nute recipe. Production still seems OK on the rear lettuces, though they're 2.5 months old now and slowing down. They don't get leggy, though, in the winter-cold downstairs, and that romaine is especially sweet and delicious.
Bruce - you can see my window shrinkwrapping job. Definitely needed today - snowing all weekend, with overnight lows in the teens... This inspires me to browse seed catalogs.
Sat, 2008/12/20 - 3:16pm
#14
Still looking pretty and lasting really well.
No snow here, we don't see it very often - just rain. 
It would be great to wake up on Christmas day to see everything white outside, but then the whole of our region would grind to a halt as this would be out of character!
Sat, 2008/12/20 - 3:34pm
#15
Yeah, the coleus/snapdragons are probably semi-immortal in this configuration. I've had snapdragons overwinter a year outside on a mild winter, and the coleus seem happy to grow back from whatever shape I clip them down to. I wonder how long it'll take me to get bored with them. But I'm not bored yet. I like 'em.
The greens - who knows. They look good for another 4-6 weeks at least.
Connecticut is unpredictable with snow. White Christmases are rare. We always get snow in winter, but some years it falls, then rain melts it, and the winter mostly toddles along in the 40's (F ). Other winters... bad winters... we have the first immobilizing blizzard in November, and it's still at it in April. So far this seems to be a medium-type winter. Yesterday was the first school snow day (school cancelled). For a medium-type winter, most likely, January and February will remain mostly frozen, plenty of black ice, and March pretty much constant rain alternating with large falls of sodden snow, and spring in April.
It snowed in Bedford the only time I was in England in December. Very pretty - I was staying in a manor house at the edge of town. I don't think it lasted or anything... But I did play in the snow before work one day.
Sun, 2008/12/21 - 4:20pm
#16
They are gorgeous and a great color combination, besides I've always been partial to coleus and snapdragons. Maere loved your pictures! So the big NE storms aren't hitting you, huh? Some friends in Maine have had a terrible time. Hope you miss it all.
Don't remember if I mentioned it but Maere had two big boxes of window wrap she bought 4 or 5 years ago. Wish we could use it but the house is "adobe style" and most windows don't have a place to put the tape unless I stick it to the stucco wall. We're having a mild winter so far, only a few inches of snow that melted away in a few hours, a total of 0.24" of moisture for the month (5.4" for the year) and the worse lows have been mid 20s so far. Stay warm!
Sun, 2008/12/21 - 7:41pm
#17
Oh, thank you! I love snapdragons. Hadn't ever really grown coleus before. But up close and personal in the mini, I thought showy foliage would work well, and kinda tide the garden over no-blooms times.
Look again at the picture of the coleus vase upstream, and look through the window. That's my street... School was cancelled Friday due to blizzard, yesterday was frigid with occasional snow, today it warmed up for a while and turned everything to slush, but now it's below freezing again with the roads full of water and the storm drains snowed over... Tomorrow's high is supposed to be around 22°. Perfectly hideous driving conditions. Today we dropped by the supermarket for guinea pig chow, and I nearly fell three times walking across the parking lot. That was during the 3-hour warm spell (38° and raining) where driving wasn't so bad.
Methinks last-minute Christmas shopping has been suppressed for the Northeast.
We get around 45" of rain a year, with "dry" months averaging over 3". Nice. Bit humid...
Are your window wells stucco inside and out? My shrinkwrapping is done from the inside, to plastered wall. The windows are recessed (as you can see above) so I can actually get it behind the shades. But one could also tape around the window frame. You're probably already feeling warmer from your new roof, though. It's just that my place has 6 windows, a door, and two 9' giant slider glass doors, all looking out at the nice view from the top of a ridge. A lot of cold-iators....
I think I've only been to NM in February-April timeframe. Lovely...
Sat, 2008/12/27 - 1:19pm
#18
18 weeks : Coleus-snapdragon still happy. Lot of blossoms this week, but picked 4 spikes + coleus sprays to give as Christmas dinner gifts, then pruned the plants. Recipients appreciated. Despite picking 4, there are still 2 flower sprays left.
Wanted to give my rooted coleus as gifts, but decided they should survive transplant to soil for a couple weeks before giving them to anyone.
11.5 week : rear lettuce still happy, though slowing down.
4 week : The fragrant choi (mini front) is growing well enough, but just isn't the right shape for close-spaced growing. After thinning, it's growing bigger, but it wants all its long thin pointy leaves to lie flat on the ground, and they really can't compete with the more solid rear lettuces. Flavor and scent is eh. Won't bother growing it again. The komatsuna outrider in the middle is growing well.
Sat, 2009/01/03 - 3:07pm
#19
19 weeks : coleus-snapdragon garden doing OK. Removed a lot of dead leaves at the bottom of the snapdragon, which is kinda contorted by the space, but still flowering nicely. Added an AG Large tab today, hopefully that will perk it up.
Placed the potted coleus next to the Deluxe again, as it was languishing in the cold western solstice light in my room. These are really easy to propagate from cuttings (all the big ones), and very slow / difficult from seed. Those seedlings are two months old. Not thriving. I just wanted some of the other patterns from the seed mix, much as I like the stunning gold-edged red ones. Unfortunately, some fruit flies came down with this pot... trying to kill them.
12.5 / 5 weeks : Lettuce and fragrant choi still doing fine, munching away. Production slowing down, especially on the Simpson Elite (right rear), but for 3 months, still quite good. The fragrant choi in front are starting to look a little more robust... But not especially.
Fri, 2009/01/09 - 10:27pm
#20
20 weeks: it may be nearing time for coleus-snapdragon garden renewal. The snapdragon plant lost its leaves on the bottom 8" or so of stem, and the plant is kind of flattening downward instead of growing up. Snapdragons do that... Kinda go horizontal on you. But, it's still flowering, and still fairly pretty, if looking a bit less elegant than it used to. One of the potted coleus' seed-started plants is finally looking like it might amount to something someday. Maybe a "tartan" patterned coleus.
13.5 / 6 weeks : The 13.5 week old lettuces are going great, still yielding well, one of the oldest productive lettuce gardens I've ever had. Winter in my office is a good temperature for them. They're heatwave and Simpson Elite - both heat-tolerant lettuces. The 6-week-old fragrant choi is doing better in the sense that it has more substantial leaves. Not so good, in that it's semi-bolting - adding a inch of base stem height for each new leaf. I don't recommend fragrant choi for Aerogarden life... Will need a new plant in there soon.
Sat, 2009/01/17 - 2:24pm
#21
21 weeks: Coleus-snapdragon garden continues to decline. Today I'm going to try dumping its nutrients as one last shot at salvaging this ailing snapdragon, but if that doesn't work, it's time to renew.
On the houseplant coleus project, I tried replanting the tiny no-grow no-die seedlings in little nests of seedling starter mix. This worked well - they're finally growing. (Still slowly, of course.) One of them is a 3-leaved mutant, so I'm not sure it's ever going to be successful. (Like, even on the seed leaves, it has sets of 3, not 2 leaves. Kewl. But possibly not viable.)
14.5 / 7 weeks : The old romaine is still doing beautifully. The young fragrant choi is impossibly gangly now, and the back Simpson Elite/etc. pod is also getting unproductive. Because I don't want to terminate the romaine, I may steal two 2-week-old pods from my amaranth garden to replace the ganglies here.
Edit: Moved a couple plants from my pro100 amaranth-greens garden to renew the mini lettuce garden, and heavily pruned the coleus/snapdragon garden and changed its fluids.The replacement plants in the mini lettuce garden are 2-week-old mustard greens and AG mesclun pod.
Tue, 2009/01/20 - 9:50pm
#22
21.5 weeks: end of original snapdragon-coleus garden. Note mark-of-zorro stem on the snapdragon - it just wasn't structurally sound anymore. And the coleus were prettier when they were shorter. Re-primed mini with some coleus cuttings (one from my daughter's room - haven't shown that pattern before). Also starting some snapdragon / coleus seeds in a Park Starts block, primarily to plant outside. Depending, may transfer one of those snapdragons into the mini later. For now, coleus cuttings will do.
Sat, 2009/01/24 - 2:51pm
#23
15.5 weeks romaine: 3 weeks mesclun and mustard greens, 8 week komatsuna, few days on the new coleus cuttings. Jury's still out on whether this is going to be another coleus-snapdragon garden, pure coleus, or maybe coleus-monkey flower. (Mimulus = monkey flower grow to flowering size a lot faster than snapdragons, and stay short.)
Sat, 2009/01/31 - 3:56pm
#24
I give up trying to track the ages of this mismatched array. Or even name this mismatched array by what it's growing... Another week in the life of the modified minis & ornamentals :
The drawn-butter cup on the lettuce mini is attempting to germinate my very last mesclun pod. One of those three long-term heavily productive romaines is starting to bolt. The coleus cuttings all rooted very nicely, but I may replace one or two of them with flower pods. (That was the plan, actually, I just didn't want to grow coleus or snapdragon from seed in there, because they take forever to look like anything. The cuttings are prettier.)
Sat, 2009/01/31 - 7:40pm
#25
They are looking really nice but your lettuce got my motor revved for some action! I'd love to have a little flower 3 podder for Maere but that's out. She's gone nuts about the destitute tomatoes I rescued and they're doing great under her care and a few whiskey bottles of diluted bloom mix. We'll have half a dozen full size tomatoes in a week or so and as many every week it seems.
Mesclun - a gormet greens mix. Help me here, I found a 2009 pack from Lowes lying around that includes (I quote) Arugula, Endive Green Curled, Kale Red Russian, Lettuce Red Romaine, Lettuce Parris Island Cos, Lettuce Salad Bowl & Lettuce Lolla Rossa all in one pack. Is it worth trying in the lettuce or herb AG? I'm afraid the herb garden is getting a bad dose of white fluffy stuff that doesn't want to go away.
Sat, 2009/01/31 - 8:05pm
#26
AG's still selling the ladybug-mini-with-salad-greens... You might get forgiven for a Valentine's Day salad-maker gift.
Your Lowes pack sounds good! Definitely worth a try. Beth was talking about trying to grow endive, too, wasn't she?
Yes, all white fluffies should get bleached ASAP to maximize their whiteness. 
Before it spreads... I'm thinking all my recent mold problems began with one pod of red amaranth I made the mistake of trying to salvage instead of Bleaching Immediately.
Sat, 2009/01/31 - 9:08pm
#27
Yep, Beth's and your posts about endive were the reason I brought up this seed mix. Can't hurt to try it, my luck (not skill) has been beyond belief and we'll have an empty AG one of these days. Nope on Valentine's day/Christmas presents, we both know exactly what we want and we get it ourselves so there's no disappointment. However when one of us finds something that the other just might like, we buy it as a Valentine's present no matter what time of year. She hates the ladybug mini, BTW. Go figger but year-round Valentine's day isn't bad.
Bleaching? Are you talking about H2O2 or real bleach? We do like our whites white. I've added 3% peroxide to the herb garden water with no results and am about to pour some over the stuff to see what happens. Between Maere's machete and white fuzzies the herb garden is looking a little ragged but we've had it going almost 6 months and the two basils, mint and chive just won't quit. I put some Greek oregano in it and it's flowered and not going anywhere.
We could definitely use another AG. Would you attend my funeral?
Luuv having the lightboxer back.
Sat, 2009/01/31 - 11:13pm
#28
Heh. I wouldn't want the ladybug mini either. Unfortunately, it's the only mini they sell that includes salad greens. The others give your choice of herbs or flowers...
H2O2 hasn't been very good at getting rid of my fuzzies of late. Six mos is good mileage for an herb garden...
That lettuce looks gorgeous! I gave up yesterday on trying to use the AG tabs for the pro100. I figured it would be ok, since that garden didn't have much in the way of brassicas, but... Since replacing its nutes with the standard lettuce mix you and Peat worked out for me, it's grown a lot already. Just works better... Anyway, hopefully it will look near as good as yours someday!
Sun, 2009/02/01 - 8:42pm
#29
Finally made up my mind what to do next with the ornamental mini. Probably... Moved in a 12-day-old snapdragon pod from my seed-starting block, and planted a new pod of monkey flowers (aka mimulus). I've been wanting to try that, because they're supposed to bloom so fast in the AG. (Two months in dirt, maybe 30 days in mini?)
Of the two gold-edged-red coleus cuttings, moved one into the lettuce mini for safekeeping. (Yes, another mesclun pod failed. But I dunno how much longer that romaine's going to last, anyway - it's 4 mos old now. That's a long time for lettuce!) The other one got planted with two other vase-rooted cuttings to make a Valentine's gift.
I hope the snapdragons aren't both candy-corn colored again. Those are pretty, but I kinda want to see other colors...
Sun, 2009/02/08 - 6:27pm
#30
New ornamental garden coming along. Lettuce mini reaching its end.
10 weeks: A week ago I replaced all the nutrients with variants of Bruce & Peat's Flora series nutrient recipes. Didn't really know what to do on the snapdragons&coleus, though, so used (for a half gallon of water), 4.3 ml each micro/grow/bloom.
And I used their exact recipe for lettuce : one gallon, 6.3 micro / 10.6 grow / 2.1 bloom. The mini greens loved it!!! In fact, I'd about given up on the mustard greens (front), because they kept yellowing and weren't growing fast. (Much like my usual "baby greens kit" results - those pods just won't grow for me.) Now even the mustard greens look very happy! This garden about ready to eat.
Meanwhile, upstairs, I started yet another lettuce garden 1.5 weeks ago, with AG salad series starter nutrients. Several of the pods were kinda stillborn, just like the mini lettuce pods were - added a bunch more seeds from my heatwave lettuce blend stock, plus a couple ml of grow and micro along the way. Now they're established, and ready for stronger food. Replaced their nutes yesterday with the same liquid nutes formula above.
FWIW, the Park Starts block on the younger lettuce garden, is growing coleus cuttings, coleus seed, and trying to start a stevia plant. All for houseplants.
Thank you, guys!!!