Indoor lettuce grow

[biscuitridge]

Thanks Karen, the same to you and your beautiful tomatoes!

[Lasairfion]

I don't think I've ever come across Muir over here in the UK. Those look like great little compact heads. Perhaps I'll just have to get them sent over by airmail.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks for the advice; I have muir seeds and will start 3 per cell in a soilless mix (promix) today.

I also have cherokee which is suppose to be super slow bolting as well.

I think I went to thick sowing after I started doing microgreens and in a rush for the baby lettuce.

Keep the pictures / comments coming.

[biscuitridge]

Cherokee is a good variety too,but not near as good as muir for cut and come again, anyway that has been my experience in my climate, it may be really good for you! hope so. I've grown about 60 or 70 varieties in the past in order to find what does the best for my climate and soil,I still will try different ones as they come along just to be sure muir is still the best for us..

[Barb_FL]

Reading your first post, 20 plants total. I'm so impressed.

Where do you buy your seeds? I want to try the hyper red rumple; and is merlot a variety or a description?

You did start before me as I started on Oct 31 and later, but your 20 plants will produce for you the entire season? I imagine that you will start some replacement plants to swap and keep it going until you get outside.

Red Sails and Johnny's mix are the best cut and come again here. I can get 3 cuts of the Red Sails but that's it. On Johnny's I'm really eating as baby lettuce so it is faster to get there and the 2nd/3rd cuts.

I think if lettuce was good for Florida, it would be good anywhere.

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I started my few Muir seeds last night and only did a couple per cell. I had also started 2 4" squares of more Paris Island and thought I was being stingy with the sowing since these are meant for transplants only. Now that they have germinated, I have sown so many.

[biscuitridge]

Barb- I get my seeds from Johnnys and wild garden seeds.
The hyper red has a flatter growing tendency, it takes up more space than is ideal,I probably won't be growing it again indoors. Merlin is another really dark red which has a similar pattern to muir.
These 20 plants will produce until I'm ready to plant outside in the spring, at least they did last year,I won't be using any replacement plants hopefully. Do you have any pictures that you can post,I'd like to see how it's going for you.

[Barb_FL]

That's unbelievable that your 20 plants will produce so long.

First picture is Johnny's mix - plant in the back has been cut twice already. Plant in the front was sown later.

[Barb_FL]

More pictures-Parris Island with Broccoli in an EB and PI after I separated some.

The bottom of the first picture is the original sowing of Parris Island - I separated a lot of it. Each of the broccoli EB has a few PI plants too.

[Barb_FL]

Prizehead - this was actually my first seeds sown - Oct 31.

Red Fire in back and sown before - Red Sails in Front (2nd planting). I was already making an effort to sow lighter.

3rd picture is how thick I typically sow seeds. Sown 11/18 - germination is usually really fast (2 days), then slow growth for 3 weeks, then really fast again.

Not shown are the Red Sails and Buttercrunch that I already picked and waiting on 2nds, and the Red Salad Bowl that I just restarted, and another one that I recently started.

[biscuitridge]

Barb- they look really nice, may I ask what you are feeding them?
When you say cut and come again, are you just harvesting the bottom leaves? You plant your seeds like I think most people do and wonder why they aren't getting the harvest that they expect, you might just try my method with just a couple of your Muir seedlings and see if it makes any noticeable difference in the amount of actual quantity that is edible. I find that when they have more space and better airflow around them ,that you get pretty much 100% edible harvest,no deterioration or bad leaves,anyway I'm just sharing what works best for me, I'm sure that you will figure out what is the best way for you in your climate, my climate is very hot in the summer, it can be over a 100 for days,but that Muir is amazingly slow bolting. In the summer I try to plant every 2 to 3 weeks, along with cilantro, so we have a constant supply of fresh greens, we give a lot away to friends too,they make comments like ,that a huge bunch of lettuce and it was only a half a head,they'll get 2 feet across if I let them.

[Barb_FL]

I am definitely trying your method with the Muir and anything else I plant.

I've grown lettuce for many years especially Romaine and even saw for myself that the plants I split into the broccoli earthboxes did better - broccoli was really small at the time too.

I live on a narrow barrier island on East Coast of Central Florida. The top temperatures in the summer is about 90 but the nights stay hot too (80-82). I have tons of wind much of the time.

For tomato plants, I plant in Earthboxes or Root pouches (fabric bags) - nematodes). Due to the wind, I use a T-Post per plant/earthbox; otherwise down it goes when it gets large. I use paracord to hold up the branches.

The wind at 30-35 MPH is tough on the plants, but fungal diseases are almost non-existent in the area. Even when the winds are 15-20, we always seem to have strong gusts.

That said, this week is beautiful, cool, and not windy.

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For the broccoli and lettuce, I used last years tomato potting mix (solarized over the long hot summer which is also a way for me to store it) and mixed in Down to Earth Alfalfa meal and then used new Promix on top to sow the seeds. On the broccoli, I started in 6 pack cells and didn't give it any new mix when transplanted. Later EBs for broccoli, I used Espoma Garden tone since I can mix it up deeper. In the shallow EB Jrs, I've had animals (racoons) dig for it when I used stinky fertilizer.

[biscuitridge]

Glad to see you are growing organically, I'm strictly organic, even my world record tomatoes are organic, I enjoy doing things the natural way that God intended.
Sounds like you really have some challenges with the winds, we have a fair amount of wind too but I use the trellis method with the clips and that seems to work good for me.
We just harvested 808 grams of lettuce ,so now we have a total of 5.69 lbs of lettuce so far.

[Barb_FL]

808 grams - fantastic.

I cut the Prizehead and the Johnny's mix leaving 1.5" for cut/come again; I really paid attention to leaving enough.

Combined, they weighed 10 oz.

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Since you just harvested; can you do some progress pictures - right after cutting, and then weekly/semi-monthly pics - whatever makes sense.

How many cuttings do you average per plant?

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I will look for pictures of your world record tomatoes. Our tomato season is now; starts in Sept - ends in June. Peak time is Dec-April with Dec/Jan have the least amount of light hours.

[biscuitridge]

Here's a picture of a partial harvest, the ones on the left h AZ ve been harvested and the ones on the right still need harvesting. I have not kept track of how many harvests per plant,I'm not really able to keep track of that.
Also here's a picture of the current WR tomato at 10.8 lbs. grown this year.

[Salsacharley]

Was that WR tomato grown indoors?