They're UP already!

[Limner]

I planted my indoor lettuce garden Wednesday....here it is Friday, and they are UP already! Peaked into the big plastic bag and several of them screaming for sunlight already! Two days, that has to be some sort of record! :razz:

[LP]

Hi Limner, I'm curious about your set up for the lettuce. Big plastic bags?

I started seeds for the very first time in my life last Wednesday and by Friday already had sprouts on radishes, basil and marigolds. Has got me really excited! Will be putting in a garden for the first time too. Can hardly wait.

I've got seeds for lettuce and might like to try it how you're doing it. Would you mind explaining?

Thanks, LP

[kelee877]

I,m jealous...I would like to get mine started,but dumb bunny me...stored all of her gardening supplies ion her patio and I cannot get the door opened it is froozen shut...

and I don,t have the extra funds to go buy soil and new pots...

Oh well I will have to wait, I keep checking the door and to no avail...looks like I get to plant at spring thaw...

yes Ihave already made several notes to myself not to do this again...it has been a long time since I have lived in an apartment,so this is new to me...

keep up the great work looking forward to pics of the new growths:mrgreen:

[Limner]

Hi Limner, I'm curious about your set up for the lettuce. Big plastic bags?

I started seeds for the very first time in my life last Wednesday and by Friday already had sprouts on radishes, basil and marigolds. Has got me really excited! Will be putting in a garden for the first time too. Can hardly wait.

I've got seeds for lettuce and might like to try it how you're doing it. Would you mind explaining?

Thanks, LP

Crud. LP, I'm not too sure that I'm the person to follow as an example, LOL! We bought one of those bottom watering trays with 28 little brown plastic pots; I think it cost us about $5.oo at Mennards. Filled them with Miracle grow potting soil and planted black seeded simpson lettuce and mescaline mix lettuce. I had some damping off problems, but I sprinkled the soil with cinnamon and been spraying them with strong brewed room temp camomile tea, and rigged a small fan to blow over them 24/7. So far, I think I about have the damp off thing whipped. They are about two inches tall now, some are getting theire second set of tiny leaves.

[LP]

Thanks Kelee! I'm really excited about this and hope it continues to do well. I'm nervous about when it actually gets into the ground, hoping it will do well then too. I'll try to post pics a little further along. Sorry about you being snowed in, but I'd sure like to have some of your snow once in a while!

Limner, forgive me for being so ignorant about this, but where do the plastic bags come in? Do you have your pots inside the bag and the bag sealed? Still trying to picture what you've done. And I have no idea what you mean by damping off??? The sprinkling of cinnamon and spraying camomile tea sounds interesting. What does the cinnamon do? Sorry for all the questions, but you've got my curiosity piqued. I've done a TON of reading before starting this, but don't recall seeing those terms before. Are you going to keep the lettuce inside or are you just getting it ready to be planted later?

DH bought one of those Burpee Seed Starting Ultimate Growing set up with the water mat, tray and cover. It seems to work well. But I've since read about milk and soda jugs and that looks as though it would work just as well and Cheaper!, and using ziplock bags (is that what you're doing?) I also bought some germinating mix from Gardeners Supply that's working very well with what dh planted. I'm sure by the end of summer we'll have learned that we don't need to go to all this expense! Hopefully.

Thanks, LP

[Limner]

LP, I had the tray slid into a big clear-ish plastic bag (to keep the moisture in after I planted the seed and watered it) to keep the moisture in; I just kept an eye on it and gently pulled it off when the lettuce came up.

"Damping off" is a fungus that gets into the the stem of brand new plants and clogs and constricts the vessels. The baby plant shrivels at the base and then just topples over and dies. Once the stem gets older and a bit "woody" the plant is immune to damping off. You're supposed to sterilize the soil you plant in, but that takes pouring boiling water over the dirt and draining it well, NOT something I wanted to do inside (clogged drains not being very fun), and there was a major snowstorm going on outside. I recognized the symptoms immediately in the new plants (it killed most of my plant babies last spring) so I got online and discovered that sprinkle of cinnamon on the soil's surface kills the fungus (and smells really nice), as does a spritz of Chamomile tea. So far, it seems to be working.

Naw, we're hoping to grow this lettuce inside to eat before the gardens stuff is ready. It's an experiment! Growing lettuce in the Spring outside is WAY easy and a lettuce bed is so pretty. We planted three different crops of it last summer, if I remember rightly. I'd pull something up and immediately plant lettuce there.

[LP]

Thanks so much, Limner! I understand now what you've done. I think I'm going to try the same thing with my lettuce seeds.

And thanks for explaining "damping off" and the cures for it. That's good to know.