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

[TCLynx]

Bolting is when the plant goes to flower and seed.

What you are describing sounds more like just getting long and leggy.  Some types of romaine are meant to make dense heads but other kinds are more for use as baby lettuce and might not make full size heads very well.  If it is just the light, sounds like you might need a more intense light to get them to head up well.

Well, I don't know if the chooks will eat it but Mint seems happy with extra wet and can use lots of nutrients.  Beware though, mint is perfectly able to totally root clog a small grow bed given enough time so this might need more extra care after a year to clear out excess growth.

[Windy Elliott]

Hmmm... so maybe I should try a different type of lettuce. Mint sounds nice. It would be nice if the room smelled of mint rather than fish poo. :-)

[Vlad Jovanovic]

I've had that happen to me too with Romaine lettuce...I would definitely agree with TC on the lights. What type of light are you using ? (Type, Wattage, Kelvin temp etc)...

Also, I noticed a few years back in my hoop houses that the cooler the weather was, the denser my lettuce heads became. Is it particularly warm in your grow area? 

[Windy Elliott]

Here's the info on the light:

ViaVoltTM T5-44, 4 Ft - 4 Lamp (48" L x 13 1/4" W x 3" H) 20,000 lumens! At 5,000 lumens and 54 Watts per bulb, the T-5 boasts itself as the strongest fluorescent lighting around. Steel housing Louvered and slotted for efficient cooling 95% reflective aluminum reflector Major brand solid state electronic ballasts 1 year rebuild or replacement warranty Comes complete with 2 chrome hangers and 12 ft power cord Bulbs included (54 Watts each) 120V only Perfect for propagation!

The garden room is in my basement, so it does get to be about 75 degrees in there.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Holy Moly! It probably shouldn't be light related then :)  Probably temps or lettuce type?...(You are probably already using the 6500K version of those tubes, right?. Many times this is listed as 'DayLite' (as opposed to Cool Lite 4,100K, or 'Warm Lite 3000K, Natrual lite etc...) as the 'color' (rated in Kelvins) of light will also effect things like inter-nodal spacing, stretch, compactness, etc... 

Although totally not necessary for veg sprouting, for the "strongest fluorescent lighting around" check out PL-L fluorescents. They have about double the lumen per inch output of the High Output T-5's (I've got the 55Watt type) and the 80Watters creep into HPS territory...Relatively cheap too...

[Windy Elliott]

I haven't made any changes to the tubes. I'm using it as it came.

[TCLynx]

I did well with leafy types of baby lettuce under T5 lights when I was in an apartment.  Since I live in FL most lettuce types only form very loose heads if they head at all.  I've had a few types of romaine make some nice heads one cold spring here but I usually get a lot more loose leaf and summer crisps do well here.

[TCLynx]

How old are the tubes Windy?  I think most people wind up changing them out after 6 months to a year because the light output decreases with age even if the light is still working.  (This being the biggest drawback with most plant lighting.)

[Windy Elliott]

They are about 6 months old. I haven't noticed any decrease in light and I've been having this problem for months, so I don't think it's the light. I think I just need to try a different type of lettuce.

[Windy Elliott]

What about bibb lettuce?

[TCLynx]

I've had some good luck lately with a few different lettuce types from Johnny's.  There is this one really cool looking summer crisp that is green with red speckles called Mottistone.  And Ermosa I think might be some kind of butter crunch and it's forming some nice looking plants for me.  The Nevada is a green summer crisp and though not really forming dense heads it is making some nice plants too.  And I'm now testing out their Encore lettuce mix but they are all still little seedlings.

But I usually harvest loose lettuce rather than heads just because most of the year it's too warm here for much in the way of heads of lettuce.

[Windy Elliott]

And how about spinach? Too warm?