By gisette
Pure KRC Lettuce
Submitted on Sun, 2009/10/11 - 4:49pm
Last updated on Sun, 2010/01/24 - 6:19pm
Posted in
2009-10-10: Replanted my pro100 with 7 pods Korean red curl lettuce, 3 seeds per.
2009-10-16: Not germinating well... only two credible seedlings so far. Added more seeds and pushed them down - maybe they need dark. I sure hope my KRC seeds are still good.
2009-11-01: Replanted again - one last try at a pure KRC garden.
2009-11-06: Well, only 2 pods failed completely of the 7. Replaced those with heatwave mix (one pod already started, another new). The 5 KRC aren't looking great, but they are growing...
2010-01-23: Retired the KRC garden. Most pods could have kept going, but AG Deluxe base died, and decided to save the bambino eggplants instead, since I could only run 1 7-pod bowl anymore. Kept the KRC going another week under other lights (last LED spotlight), but no point in heroic measures to keep 12-week lettuce going.
Sat, 2009/10/24 - 11:47pm
#2
Hey, Beth,
Well, the silvia romaine in my mini is coming along great. At three weeks, I ate all but one romaine in each pod - they grow a lot better one per. Delish! The silvia red romaine is quite good, and sorta heat-tolerant, and one of the longest-growing lettuces I've had, maybe 4 months. (KRC is #1 - that stuff just doesn't bolt, and it seems to like heat.)
Alas, my KRC still seems kinda stillborn. Theory 1 was that I'd poisoned it with too much nutes - 0.6 EC - but now it's down to 0.3-0.4 EC, and still not germinating right, and the two that have germinated haven't taken off. Next best guesses are that the seed has gone bad, or my Park Starts plugs have gone bad. It's not clear to me how a one-year-old seed could go bad, though another packet from Evergreen Seeds was 100% bad (0% germination). The original 7 pods for this grow I soaked in water + H2O2 before planting. They do smell musty though, from having oversummered in the garage.
Maybe tomorrow I'll toss more pods, and fill out the Pro100 with more romaines...
Looseleaf lettuce / salad greens kit I've never gotten to grow for more than 2.5-3 months, and even that long only down in my office in winter (~60 degrees at night, not a lot warmer in the day). I'm sure they like white. 
Especially if it's on the warm side.
Sun, 2009/10/25 - 3:04pm
#3
The KRC garden is just not getting past the starting gate. This is dismal for 2 weeks on a lettuce garden. I've tried a number of things - lowering EC, replaced the 3 front pods completely. At the moment, I'm running a germination test on the seeds - 10 KRC, and 4 silvia romaine (which I just germinated with 100% success in the same pod sponges, similar prep, in a mini). At the moment, I really want to know whether my KRC seeds have gone bad. But it's looking like I'll have to toss this grow and start over.
Sun, 2009/10/25 - 5:38pm
#4
Sorry about the seeds, it's so annoying when they don't germinate.
I think your EC will be fine at 0.6, or below, I do everything in 0.8 to start with and have had no problems - crossing fingers rapidly...
Sun, 2009/10/25 - 5:51pm
#5
Yeah, that's what I thought, that 0.6 EC was low enough. But the two seedlings that did emerge seem to be appreciating the downgrade to 0.4. But the other pods still aren't getting anywhere.
I don't have a second source for those seeds, either. 
Tue, 2009/10/27 - 7:00pm
#6
Well... I think I started the germination test at like 1 am Sunday morning. Now Tuesday evening, almost 3 days. The four silvia romaine germinated in less than 24 hours, and I transfered the fuzzy seedlings into three of the AG pods, where they seem to be growing despite the rough start in life.
But after nearly 3 days, half the KRC seeds still haven't germinated at all. The 5 that did were much weaker than the romaine seedlings - first root a little nub instead of a strong root-with-many-root-hairs. Transfered those into pods, too, but not convinced they're thriving.
And replaced all fluids today.
Eh. This may end up being another romaine garden, but might be able to get 4 pods growing KRC. Though the 2 week old KRC's sure don't look very impressive.
Wed, 2009/10/28 - 8:29pm
#7
Hmph. Well, now 4 days on my germination test, and almost all the KRC seeds germinated. However, today, mold spots broke out all over the germinating test napkin. (Germination test = wet paper napkin, lay out seeds on it, fold it up, put in plastic tub to keep from drying out.)
So, I think the KRC seeds got moldy. And the way they kinda lag at germinating reminds me a lot of another pack of seeds I got from the same outfit (Evergreen Seeds) that never did germinate. Put all the ES seeds in a baggie, hopefully none of my other seeds got infected.
Will try a bit of less-dilute H2O2 on the pod sponges - hopefully the whole the pro100 isn't mold-infected.
Sun, 2009/11/01 - 4:51pm
#8
It would make sense to give up. My attempts to kill the mold, pretty much killed the seedlings... 
But instead, I'm trying this one last time. Using the other Park sponges - the fat ones, each chopped into 3 pods' worth, and trimmed enough so there's no compression. AG freshly bleached and rinsed. Plastics bleached and rinsed. Liquids pure rainwater, 0.5 EC Flora series lettuce mix. The seeds themselves, 4 or more per pod, pushed in for low light, after presoaking lightly in H2O2 solution.
If I don't see credible lettuce in 4 days, give up on KRC and grow a different lettuce...
Sun, 2009/11/08 - 1:24pm
#9
Well, 5 of the 7 pods grew KRC. (I actually waited 5 days before giving up on them...) I had 2 big fat sponges of heatwave lettuce that I meant for another project. Plugged one of those in here, and kept one for the other project, and planted a new chopped-big-sponge of heatwave lettuce, which at 2 days, has begun germinating.
The KRC are way behind the heatwave lettuces, which already have true leaves. I hope they get past this and grow well once they get going.
Need salad for three for Thanksgiving, please. 
Sun, 2009/11/15 - 5:13pm
#10
The KRC is finally growing. Hopefully once it's past this germinating headache it'll just grow normally. The heatwave lettuces way ahead of it - no surprise.
Big difference between the heatwave pod grown on in the Pro100 vs the one in the passive hydroton container. The latter got its EC way high somehow, probably due to not rinsing the hydroton well enough. It's a royal nuisance to wash hydroton...
Sun, 2009/11/22 - 4:00pm
#11
Three weeks. Could crop the heatwave lettuce a tiny bit, but will wait for Thanksgiving. KRC is coming along well now (one even sprouted finally in the replacement heatwave pod), but not ready to pick any.
Hard to compare the same-age heatwave mix lettuce pods between Pro100 and outrider, because the lettuces aren't the same. Both seem happy.
Sun, 2009/11/29 - 5:27pm
#12
Four weeks on the lettuce. All doing great.
Sun, 2009/12/06 - 7:30pm
#13
Lettuce fine. More productive would be good.
Mon, 2009/12/14 - 10:34pm
#14
Lettuce doing great. It too needed pH attention... Just moved bowl to the Deluxe, as it will appreciate bright light far more than the Shady Lady impatiens and eggplant seeds currently in the pro100.
The hydroton lettuce (growing by the dishtub cuke) has great texture. My AG looseleaf lettuces often have such thin, limp leaves. But this stuff has almost crunch to it. Possibly brighter light and cooler temperatures.
Sat, 2009/12/19 - 4:11pm
#15
Lettuce happy. Much redder in the Deluxe, of course. Thinned the hydroton lettuce down to maybe-3 plants.
Sun, 2009/12/27 - 4:11pm
#16
Lettuce very happy. Pretty soon it's moving back to the Pro100, so the eggplants can have the brighter lights.
Tue, 2009/12/29 - 6:25pm
#17
Hi Gisette,
The lettuce looks really good! Salad on New Year's Eve?
Beth
Tue, 2009/12/29 - 8:36pm
#18
I too really like the looks of your lettuce. You've inspired me to get back at it.
Enjoy!
Tue, 2009/12/29 - 10:08pm
#19
Thanks, Beth and Judith!
And I have new guinea pigs now to share it with. They're very appreciative!
I like having the fresh lettuce in winter, when there's so little local produce in the markets. I tend to overeat bigtime when it's cold and I want hot stew with fresh buttered bread... This is how I justified the expense on my first Aerogarden - that if I ate all that lettuce, I'd gain 5 lbs less in winter, and make faster headway losing permanent weight. Eating fruit and salads in summer is easy - that's what I want to eat. But in winter, that takes some effort...
Sun, 2010/01/03 - 4:45pm
#20
Ate lots of lettuce this week. So they're looking a bit picked-over. The eggplant also got the bright lights of the Deluxe, so the mostly-KRC will grow slower now in the Pro100 with old bulbs.
Sun, 2010/01/10 - 5:33pm
#21
Still going strong. Much-harvested.
Sun, 2010/01/17 - 10:12pm
#22
Maybe reaching the end of this garden's useful life, but I'll give it a few more days. The brilliant green Little Caesar in the middle bolted & I ate it. The KRC to its right died - must have hurt its roots yanking the LC. The heatwave to its left never did amount to much, and looks ready to be put out of its misery. But without the Little Caesar palm tree in the middle, the KRC are getting much redder. They may revive.
Tue, 2010/01/19 - 1:17pm
#23
My AG Deluxe died. Since the lettuce bowl is nearing end of life, it lost its spot to the Deluxe's bambino eggplants. For the moment, the lettuce is sitting on the dead Deluxe with a weak Walmart growlight strip - not enough light. Haven't decided what to do yet... but saving the aging lettuce isn't a $ priority.
Edit: moved the lettuce bowl down under my seedling lights.
Sun, 2010/01/24 - 6:25pm
#24
Retired the KRC lettuce garden yesterday. Too bad - I think it would have been an unusually long-lived lettuce garden, had one of the AG7 bases not died. But it was too old to bother with heroic measures.
It grew happily enough under the 16W triband LED spot light for its last few days, despite the beam only really spotlighting the middle plant. But - perhaps a plant that turns red in bright light, is not best suited to a light fixture with 132 red LEDs... I'm guessing it prefers blue.
Sat, 2010/02/13 - 11:17pm
#25
Hi Gisette,
Did you ever find another seed source for the KRC? I still have some seeds left. I can grow a few out in the main garden and let it go to seed. You don't think it is a hybrid, right?
Beth
Sat, 2010/02/13 - 11:41pm
#26
Hi, Beth,
I don't think it's a hybrid, but not sure. Red and green curl really do seem to be standard Korean fare - I got a plate full of green curl with dinner at a Korean bbq when I was in Silicon Valley in September. No, I never found a source other than Evergreen Seed, who I had very mixed experience with. There exist sellers of Korean seed in the US, especially in California. Not much Korean community hereabouts, tho.
I'd be delighted if you grew it to seed! I've never tried that with a leafy plant. Is it tricky?
Hi Gisette,
How is your lettuce coming along? I broke down and bought a salad green seed pack. I've tried several lettuce varieties so far but have come nowhere near 4 months of lettuce production! I think it may be too warm at work. My lettuce all gets long and leggy after a month or so. I've got a white ag at work. Wonder if the color makes a difference?
Beth