Lettuce refuses to start

[Bobberman]

I like the square holes in the foam board coatd with alum foil. They make a styro foam like that also that cost $7 a sheet. How long do they stay in the square hole till they grow complete?

[hydrolifeCA]

Hydroguy thank you.n I just checked today and I am at about 40 hours and to my surprise a handful are already popping up!

out of the four grodan cubes, only one has popped up. The ph on those is 5.5 is that to acidic? I also predipped the cubes in 1/3 stregnth nutes before seeding as that is typically what I do for my peppers.

When would you recommend plugging my grodan plugs into my drip system. Some say a week some say two. Also what strength nute solution do you use and what pH.

Thank you....

[hydrolifeCA]

Update: My seedlings spruter and had a good inch or two on them, I took them out of the ziplock bag and dropped them into shallow starter grodan blocks with 5.5 pH (grodan said thats fine for lettuce, it works for my peppers but I may be wrong as someone above posted, if these fail I'll adjust).

They got some sun, the sprouts were whiteish but they changed to a darker color? Is that bad?

Anyway they are in the cubes, I put 2 in soil as a control. To see how they do in the cubes. I am new to lettuce so ......... maybe I am doing this wrong?

[hydroguy]

Bobberman, that foam board is construction grade styrofoam I picked up at Lowe's for about $30 a sheet. It comes with the reflective side attached. That is the first and final home for the rockwool, it's a DWC system and the styrofoam floats in a tray filled with water. Those seeds were planted 1-28-11 and I am still harvesting on them.

hydrolifeCA, sounds like your doing a fine job with the variety of seeds you are growing. I try for a ph of 5.8 on most anything I grow, as plants grow and water levels change so does the ph and the concentration of nutrients. Lettuce is a lite feeder so I try and run the systems around 400ppm or lower. As with any plant watch the change in nutrient concentration (PPM's), if it rises over time your too rich to start with.

[hydrolifeCA]

hydroguy great thank you. I am keeping the pH around 5.5 so good to know I am not off. I am cutting the sol. as I mentioned since lettuce is not a heavy feeder. Also since they are starting. Lets see if they prosper in my mini cubes. If the do I will plug them into my main drip system when they have four leaves (like I do with my peppers).

Thanks

[hydrolifeCA]

Alright, they are all now about an inch tall. one even has a little leaf. Dropping them into the grodan does not appear to have killed them. A few are looking a little brown, almost wilted and that cube was dry. So I am assuming the brown is a lack of moisture?

Next big question, as they are now, how much sun do they need? I live in a very sunny region so I typically use sun instead of grow lights, works fine on the peppers.

Should lettuce at this stage be in the sun all day or just a few hours? thanks.

[Bobberman]

Lettuce is tuff I doubt if anything will hurt it now sun is fine!! High heat will make it go to seed faster but that won'r be for at least 45 days or more depending on the type. lettuce loves sun with temp in the 50's best but will grow faster as it gets more heat! fresh garden lettuce cannot be beat! I like it with olive oil and salt and many other other ways!

[DoubleDogFarm]

Should lettuce at this stage be in the sun all day or just a few hours? thanks

This answer is coming from a soilguy Mine are in the greenhouse and get daylight all day.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Greenhouse%20Photos/DSC03242.jpg[/img]


Eric

[Bobberman]

Lettuce is tuff I doubt if anything will hurt it now sun is fine!! High heat will make it go to seed faster but that won'r be for at least 45 days or more depending on the type. lettuce loves sun with temp in the 50's best but will grow faster as it gets more heat! fresh garden lettuce cannot be beat! I like it with olive oil and salt and many other other ways!

[hydrolifeCA]

Thank you both! Okay So I am sticking it in the sun! I need to get it moving so in another week or two I can transplant it into my top-feed drip system!

Hopefully nothing will hurt it now hehe! I love lettuce!

[hydrolifeCA]

Okay Update after a few days: Today 3 of the seedlings look green and health, they have sprouted tiny little leaves (4 leaves) although they are very tiny still, they seem to be progressing beautifully.

The other 2 seems to have died out, they were a little brown and wilted from the start and they just never grew. I am not concerned as with peppers I always have a few in every batch that don't work out either. I assume this is normal? Can someone confirm that?

The other blend of lettuce, the gourmet from columbia has yet to start. The seedlings are just sitting. One popped a tiny tiny bit. But it's only been 48 hours. Maybe they won't show until 72. I will just wait.

Thanks everyone