What am I doing wrong growing Deep Water Culture Hydroponic Lettuce?

[shawnmellis]

Just wanted to give a quick update for people about my Deep Water Culture Container Hydroponic Indoor Vegetable Gardening and also wanted to find out what I'm doing wrong with growing my Hydroponic Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce seeds and Hyrdoponic Bonnie Plant Ridgeline Seeds. I also tried to grow tomato plants. I've found that even the tiniest tomato plants called Micro Toms and the 2nd smallest ones Tiny Tims can grow much higher than what people say on the Internet. If you do try to grow them I recommend pruning them when they get over one foot high. Also do not try to grow more than 1 or 2 per container because they absorb so much water even from a 5 gallon container that you will constantly have to add more water. It may be a good idea to use a 3 inch net pot instead of 2 inch also. Basically out of the 10 to 12 tomato plants I tried to grow indoors on my windowsill, only 2 of them have actually produced tomato fruit. I had them all by a large window but facing the east and not south and they were bunched up close together. They are green and not red yet, and only about 4 to 6 per plant. Tomato plants also require more Hydroponic fertilizer and light than do salads and herbs. Therefore, if you're going to do it you should only do it in a place where your plant is facing the south so it gets a lot of sun each day or you should have a long light overhanging them. Basically too much for me and my purposes. Also they Lettuce plants have not done too well lately, which I am very intrigued why, because they require less fertilizer and are supposed to be much easier to grow than tomatoes. I got excited when I stuck a few Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce Plants in a net basket and inside a Styrofoam cooler full of water with just a little bit of Fox Farm Grow Big 3-2-6 fertilizer and a few weeks later they grew high and wide and looked great! Since then, I haven't been able to get them to grow as well. They now all are very thin stemmed and drooping a lot onto the cooler lid. My thoughts are it could be because of several things (Type of Fertilizer or how much added , temperature or other) 1. When I had good luck with the Ridgeline Romaine lettuce(Similar to grocery store romaine lettuce), my garage was much cooler and lettuce likes cool weather 40 to 70 degrees instead of the constant 70 degrees in my garage now from my window heater (in a separate window not close to the plants) 2. When I planted them in the cooler, they were transplanted and already about 3 to 4 inches high. 3. I'm pretty sure I started growing them in soil inside the house until they got that high and then I transplanted them Since I transplanted them when they were already grown 3 to 4 inches high they were easier to grow maybe The other ones which did not do as well were started straight from seed inside the net pot in the cooler 4. The amount of Fox Farm Grow big 3-2-6 liquid fertilizer I used when I planted the seeds straight inside the cooler in the net pot may have been too much or not enough and may not have been added every 2 weeks ? I'm not sure. I'm now trying to grow the lettuce straight with my Aerogarden using the provided liquid fertilizer instead of my own because I think the fertilizer I use may be a different concentration than the Aerogarden's and unfortunately I don't know the exact fertilizer or strength of the one Aerogarden gave me. I'll have to find out. So basically after having success and getting excited by seeing the high growing tomato plants but not having many flowers or tomatoes on them it was a set back. I found out that since its inside that I actually have to self pollinate the tomatoes by using an electric toothbrush on the stem by the flowers in order to get it to vibrate the flower and pollinate itself. I thought incorrectly that I had to use a cotton swab. But I bet most people don't know this but the male and female part which pollinates a tomato plant is actually inside each individual flower and there is not a male and female flower on the plant. I'm sticking with trying to perfect growing romaine lettuce now, since it takes less time, less fertilzer, less space and is much easier (Once I get the best process of how to do it figured out that is) Recommend spacing lettuce plants and not having more than 4 per container so they don't get in each others way or cutting the leaves if you have more than 4 I'm also experimenting with adding Peat Moss and Perlite as the growing medium for the lettuce instead of the hydrotin and growing cubes to see how that goes I will let everyone know when I get the entire best intructions for growing lettuce hydroponically indoors successfully every time. Unfortunately there is little information on how to do this from Aerogarden, and websites I've researched. I may have to get a Kindle book sometime to see if I can learn more. My question is does anybody know the exact brand of fertillizer used by Aerogardens and why are my Romain lettuce plants drooping and have very, very thin stems. Could the hydrotin be too big and not allowing the roots to sprout enough branches of roots. could it be the wrong amount of Fox Farm Fertilzer Grow Big 3-2-6 I put 2 Teaspoons inside a 5 gallon container Or what is going on? What is everybody's opinion on the best Amazon Kindle E-Book on Hydroponic Vegetable Growing? Best website?

[Muslickz]

I so Badly wanted to read this post, so no disrespect but I un-WallOfText'd it.. :P

Just wanted to give a quick update for people about my Deep Water Culture Container Hydroponic Indoor Vegetable Gardening and also wanted to find out what I'm doing wrong with growing my Hydroponic Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce seeds and Hyrdoponic Bonnie Plant Ridgeline Seeds.

I also tried to grow tomato plants. I've found that even the tiniest tomato plants called Micro Toms and the 2nd smallest ones Tiny Tims can grow much higher than what people say on the Internet. If you do try to grow them I recommend pruning them when they get over one foot high. Also do not try to grow more than 1 or 2 per container because they absorb so much water even from a 5 gallon container that you will constantly have to add more water. It may be a good idea to use a 3 inch net pot instead of 2 inch also.

Basically out of the 10 to 12 tomato plants I tried to grow indoors on my windowsill, only 2 of them have actually produced tomato fruit. I had them all by a large window but facing the east and not south and they were bunched up close together. They are green and not red yet, and only about 4 to 6 per plant.

Tomato plants also require more Hydroponic fertilizer and light than do salads and herbs. Therefore, if you're going to do it you should only do it in a place where your plant is facing the south so it gets a lot of sun each day or you should have a long light overhanging them. Basically too much for me and my purposes. Also they Lettuce plants have not done too well lately, which I am very intrigued why, because they require less fertilizer and are supposed to be much easier to grow than tomatoes.

I got excited when I stuck a few Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce Plants in a net basket and inside a Styrofoam cooler full of water with just a little bit of Fox Farm Grow Big 3-2-6 fertilizer and a few weeks later they grew high and wide and looked great! Since then, I haven't been able to get them to grow as well. They now all are very thin stemmed and drooping a lot onto the cooler lid. My thoughts are it could be because of several things (Type of Fertilizer or how much added , temperature or other)

1. When I had good luck with the Ridgeline Romaine lettuce(Similar to grocery store romaine lettuce), my garage was much cooler and lettuce likes cool weather 40 to 70 degrees instead of the constant 70 degrees in my garage now from my window heater (in a separate window not close to the plants)

2. When I planted them in the cooler, they were transplanted and already about 3 to 4 inches high.

3. I'm pretty sure I started growing them in soil inside the house until they got that high and then I transplanted them Since I transplanted them when they were already grown 3 to 4 inches high they were easier to grow maybe The other ones which did not do as well were started straight from seed inside the net pot in the cooler

4. The amount of Fox Farm Grow big 3-2-6 liquid fertilizer I used when I planted the seeds straight inside the cooler in the net pot may have been too much or not enough and may not have been added every 2 weeks ? I'm not sure. I'm now trying to grow the lettuce straight with my Aerogarden using the provided liquid fertilizer instead of my own because I think the fertilizer I use may be a different concentration than the Aerogarden's and unfortunately I don't know the exact fertilizer or strength of the one Aerogarden gave me. I'll have to find out.

So basically after having success and getting excited by seeing the high growing tomato plants but not having many flowers or tomatoes on them it was a set back. I found out that since its inside that I actually have to self pollinate the tomatoes by using an electric toothbrush on the stem by the flowers in order to get it to vibrate the flower and pollinate itself. I thought incorrectly that I had to use a cotton swab. But I bet most people don't know this but the male and female part which pollinates a tomato plant is actually inside each individual flower and there is not a male and female flower on the plant.

I'm sticking with trying to perfect growing romaine lettuce now, since it takes less time, less fertilizer, less space and is much easier (Once I get the best process of how to do it figured out that is) Recommend spacing lettuce plants and not having more than 4 per container so they don't get in each others way or cutting the leaves if you have more than 4 I'm also experimenting with adding Peat Moss and Perlite as the growing medium for the lettuce instead of the hydrotin and growing cubes to see how that goes I will let everyone know when I get the entire best instructions for growing lettuce hydroponically indoors successfully every time.

Unfortunately there is little information on how to do this from Aerogarden, and websites I've researched. I may have to get a Kindle book sometime to see if I can learn more.

My question is does anybody know the exact brand of fertilizer used by Aerogardens and why are my Romain lettuce plants drooping and have very, very thin stems?

Could the hydrotin be too big and not allowing the roots to sprout enough branches of roots? could it be the wrong amount of Fox Farm Fertilizer Grow Big 3-2-6 I put 2 Teaspoons inside a 5 gallon container Or what is going on?

What is everybody's opinion on the best Amazon Kindle E-Book on Hydroponic Vegetable Growing? Best website?