Week 1: Coming along nicely. Seedlings germinated nicely alongside the pro100. Still too small yet for stronger nutrients or moving to individual pots yet, I think. Only the fragrant choi (lettuce) has visible roots yet coming out the bottom of its sponge. So it'll probably be the first to move. But no need to move any before first true leaves, I think.

Since the labels are cryptic - this is, from left to right, red amaranth, fragrant choi, senposai komatsuna, kojisan komatsuna (same order as the seed pix upstream). I put about 4-5 seeds in each pod. Not sure why so few of the komatsuna sprouted. I've been draining and refilling the container most days at least once (lift upper container to drain, then plonk back in lower container to sink & refill). But there's not much need at this stage - only the bottom of the pods reach the liquid, so the baby roots get plenty of air.

Looking good, and these are just laying around your AGs, huh? Nice, Maere's ready for lettuce so guess it's time to get some going around the AGs and maybe in the tent, how much temp can lettuce take without bolting?

Yeah, just sitting next to an AG. I grow seedlings in Park Starts blocks that way all the time. Haven't seen how well the whole plant grows under those conditions yet... But that's one of the growing-lettuce-in-summer strategies, to grow cucumbers on a lattice above, and lettuce in the shade below. I imagine they grow slower that way, but they seem to not be terribly light-demanding. Anyway, Drann says she's done it, and I wanted to try reproducing this. Because I want to grow lettuce and ornamentals all the time, but also want to try other things... Like peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.

I grow lettuce in my kitchen, which is frequently up to 75-80 degrees. The lettuce grows. It just won't last long - maybe 2 months before it's too gangly to bother with anymore. Lettuce heaven is more like 60-70 degrees. Then, it'll stay productive... 3 months? Maybe a bit more. Depends too on the variety of lettuce. Romaines (cos) supposedly do better, and all the lettuces in this bunch of seeds were "all year mild climate" types, and I have a "heatwave" collection (that doesn't stand up to summer, but handles 70-80 degrees for a while.)

If you send me your snailmail address, I could mail you some "heat" lettuce seeds to try - your pick of the above, or this one. The latter I've tried - they're good.

Week 2 (almost): decided it was time to move the fragrant choi and komatsuna to their growing containers. Actually, the senposai komatsuna isn't quite developed enough yet (true leaves barely there, roots not out of the sponge yet), but I wanted to put it in the same container with the kojisan komatsuna - close enough. The kojisan and fragrant choi have persuasive true leaves and roots coming out of their sponges.

The original intention was to grow these as outriders to my Aerogarden Deluxe, currently growing mini bell peppers. But... that spot by the bedroom slider, with winter coming on, is chilly. I had been growing a spare pepper plant there, but it was dropping its flowers on cold nights, and I know from seedling starting last spring - it's often below 65 (or below 60...) under that window. That part of my bedroom juts out above another balcony, and the window's none too well insulated. Brrrrr. So, the potted pepper is taking up a lot of the Deluxe's spillover light space now. And komatsuna and lettuce should be perfectly happy with a low-lit cool spot.

The weak sunlight is augmented by a $10 Walmart grow lamp, attached to the window with suction cups and hooks. They also sit in a bit of reflective blanket draping, to bounce light back onto them.

The nutrient broth is the same General Hydroponics lettuce mix worked out from BB and Peat - 6.3 ml hardwater micro, 10.6 ml grow, 2.1 ml bloom, in 1 gallon water, half and half Brita-filtered tap water and distilled.

I've had a terrible time growing brassicas (komatsuna is a brassica, like mustard, and almost all the "baby greens") with Aerogarden kits. But in my current mini greens garden, the mustard - which was stark yellow and dying on AG salad nutes - has turned lush and green, and even the stray komatsuna in a mesclun kit pod in the pro100 is growing happily. So I think they'll like this mix. The komatsuna got transferred to a full mix a little early, but it's been my experience that lettuce needs to move from "starter" to "growing" nutrients at about 1.5 weeks from seed, not the 2 weeks the AG kits go by - it gets very yellow the last few days of that regime. (Note how yellow the fragrant choi is, compared to the komatsuna, above.)

I've never grown amaranth before. No idea whether it's struggling or just slow. Looks OK.

Huh! That is interesting, Peat! I probably wouldn't grow any root vegetables (they are cheap), but sure, if you'd want to start another topic on how. For now, I'd just like to secure an external salad supply to release an AG to grow other things.