Bolting and plant ideas...

[Windy Elliott]

Ok, I have two questions for the group.

First, I seem to have a problem with my romaine lettuce. It always gets long and gangly instead of making nice heads. I think it is called bolting? I have tried adjusting the lamp height so it is just above the plants, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Anyone have any ideas on how to keep this from happening?

Second, I am looking for a plant to put in a small grow bed that will be a filter for my hatchery. It is going to have a lot of water running through it so it needs to tollerate a lot of moisture. But I also want something that is going to grow quickly and suck up the nutrients as fast as possible. Extra bonus if the plant is A) something I can eat; B) something the chickens can eat; or C) something pretty.

Any ideas?

Windy

[Vlad Jovanovic]

And your eyes are not going to notice any decrease in light, but change them out anyways every 6 months or so like TC says...As the PAR will drastically fall off, so although you don't see it, your plants will. Sorry, should have asked...I just assumed that that was 'standard operating procedure' with fluoros...

  

[TCLynx]

I've had trouble getting spinach to sprout in aquaponics.  It seem to grow better for me out in the dirt gardens during the cold season.

[Windy Elliott]

I tried, but had problems with insects when I moved it outside. The entire winter garden was infested and I had to give up on it. I will try again next year.

[Windy Elliott]

I'm new to all of this, so if there are any other "standard" things I should know about lighting, spill! I will look into replacement bulbs, but I can't afford it right now. I've been out of work for a month. I have a new job starting on the 9th, but it is going to take a while for the money to flow.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

And your eyes are not going to notice any decrease in light, but change them out anyways every 6 months or so like TC says...As the PAR will drastically fall off, so although you don't see it, your plants will. Sorry, should have asked...I just assumed that that was 'standard operating procedure' with fluoros...

  

[TCLynx]

Here is a pic of some of the lettuce that has done well for me this fall (granted it's outdoors under the sun and in towers)

The top head in the picture I think is some sort of summer crisp leaf lettuce and the bottom two are the Ermosa.

Most of my lettuce comes out a lot looser like this red oakleaf lettuce

Just gotta keep trying and see what works for you.

You might do better planting more seeds and harvesting baby lettuce.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Good luck at your new job Windy. 

Nope, just go for the 6500K's (unless you want to flower with them, in which case I'd buy two 6500K's and two 3000K's and mix them in the same fixture) and change them all out at 6 months (or wait longer if you haven't used them much during that time).

You might not break any records with the spinach, but try it, they might do OK... Often I'll do lots of stuff 'wrong' with plants, on purpose just to see what will happen and am often pleasantly surprised just how well certain things will do so far out of their accepted optimum conditions. (And of course, sometimes I'll just end up damaging/stunting or even killing a bunch of plants :)  but mostly nature is pretty resilient and full of surprises...

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Windy,

I just wanted to post you these pics...They are of spinach and some romaine (which will probably grow to be kind of leggy, but that's ok as they still taste fine to me and are not for sale) and some other red yugoslavian heirloom salads. The other pic is a screen shot off my temperature/humidity sensor (it's usually even a bit warmer in the 'grow box', 29 Celsius or so).

26 Celsius is almost 79 (78.8) Fahrenheit...everything seems to be doing fine. The reason I keep it so warm in there is because of the chili peppers, it doesn't seem like the spinach or salads mind much at all. Good luck...

Windy Elliott said:

And how about spinach? Too warm?