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It sprouted!!!
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Posted by texandana 8a (My Page) on Mon, Jan 30, 12 at 9:14
| Two of my iceberg lettuce plants have sprouted and it's only day 3!! I'm so excited!!! One is already about 1/2" tall!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Get light on them and don't let them go leggy. Too tall isn't necessarily good. |
RE: It sprouted!!! Help!!!!
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| I'm so happy they sprouted! It means I'm doing something right!! Now I have a dilemma tho. Due to my improper watering technique, the seeds got moved away from each other. So instead of all 3 growing in the same spot, they are sprouting in various places. Help! What do I do to fix this? Thank you all for your help and advice! I am grateful!! |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Typically you don't *want* multiple plants growing in the same spot. Or do you mean that they're not growing precisely centered in their individual cells? If it's the latter, then no problems. As long as they're growing well, just adjust when you transplant. If they're all growing in a small space near each other, you'll have to transplant them each into their separate growing area after they get a bit bigger. Usually you wait for the first set of "true leaves" before transplanting. The true leaves will be the ones to form after the initial pair of baby leaves. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| I feel so silly saying this but I read somewhere that you should plant the lettuce seeds 3 to a cell (if thats what it is called). When I watered them, they spread out away from eachother so now they are growing in various places in the pot. One is growing right up against the edge which is the one I am worried about. It is almost taller than the top of the container. I know that I need to pot up soon so that they have room to grow. I tried to post pictures in the gallery but my pics are too big and I cant resize them. Out of the 24 seeds I planted in 8 containers, 8 of them have sprouted. I supposed 8 lettuce plants is plenty so if the others dont germinate, it wont be a huge loss as long as the ones I have now continue to do well. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| That advice (3 seeds to a cell) comes from the interests who want to sell seeds, and hope you will follow it, then thin 2/3rds of your plants. Here's some practical advice. Just how much lettuce do you eat every week? That's how you decide how many seeds you should plant, every week. If you want small young leaves, plant lots of lettuce, but iceberg is typically grown for full-sized heads, at a full maturity, so you should be planting lots of leaf lettuce every week until the head lettuce starts to approach maturity. For head lettuce, one seed per cell is a more economical approach... if one cell doesn't produce a seedling in a reasonable amount of time, just plant another one. In addition, although the conventional wisdom is that transplants should be done after the first true leaves develop, this is advice geared to beginners, Seedlings, properly handled, can be transplanted almost any time after germination, and an argument could be made that there is actually less retardation of growth the sooner it is done. If you GENTLY remove your seedlings to individual cells, being particularly careful of the stem, you can in fact transplant now. The stem will not recover from damage, but leaves and roots can. So right now, if all goes well, you are going to have 8 heads of iceberg on a particular week perhaps 2 months from now, and possibly as many as 24. That's a lot of salad. You can mitigate that surplus by eating some of the lettuce before it reaches heading stage, and start new plants every week to replace those you consume. You can also stagger your harvest by moving some of the seedlings to cooler areas, or reducing the hours (but NOT the intensity) of light they receive. This will slow down the growth of some of the plants, thus prolonging your harvest. The same effect can occur if you have different microclimates in your actual garden - if some of the plants are in a cooler or shadier area outside, they will grow slightly slower than those in more ideal locations. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Thank you for that advice. I will move them to bigger containers as soon as possible and then into the garden as soon as weather permits. I do agree that I planted too much lettuce but I did that with the idea that only a few, maybe half of them, would actually germinate. I have yet to see any tomato seedlings but it is only day 4 so they need a few more days I suppose. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks again!! |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Your tomato seeds want more heat to germinate than lettuce, and typically more time as well. Good seed companies will publish the germination rates of their seed, and for large-scale growers that is a part of the calculation in determining how much to order - for most home growers, a pack or two of most vegetable varieties is plenty, because of limitations of time and space. It's a pleasure to participate peripherally in your enthusiasm, especially for those of us still a few months away from unfrozen soil. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Update!! Last night I decided to go ahead and move each seedling to it's own container...So now I have 5 lettuce plants in the works. I was very careful to not damage the stem, or any other part of the plant. The soil is still very very wet so it was easy to move it away from the plant. I replanted a little deeper this time with new soil and added a little bit of plant food. When I checked on the plants this morning, I noticed that a couple of them (which are about 2" tall already) are splitting at the top. Is this going to be the plants first set of leaves? Tomato plants still havnt done a thing. I wonder if the soil is too cool for them to germinate. How do I keep them warm indoors? I thought tomato plants are supposed to do well indoors?? Thanks everyone!! You have been a big help so far!! You know, I did ALOT of research on this before I decided I knew enough to get started. Now that I've started, I feel like I dont know a thing. **sigh** I have a book that was recommended to me: "Neil Sperry's complete guide to Texas Gardening". It's a good book but it doesn't really give all the information needed for a beginner. I'm going to my local library Friday to find more good books on Texas vegetable gardening. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| You can go to my blog to see pics of my plants. Below is the link. Please let me know what you think. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Iceburg lettuce
RE: It sprouted!!!
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- Posted by abnorm Central Florida (My Page) on
Wed, Feb 1, 12 at 6:58
| Yikes...those are too leggy......Where are your lights? For most lettuce the LEAVES will start directly at soil level....not on a 2" stem..... Toss what you have and start over..... |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Seriously? Oh Gosh. Maybe I should just wait and do this when I can put the seeds directly in the ground. I'm not sure if i can provide everything they need other than soil, water and food. Sufficient light and warmth are a problem. So, what caused this to happen? And if I continue to let them grow, how do you see it turning out? **sigh** Now I'm bummed :( |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Agreed. But if you're not ready to throw in the towel, get those plants within an inch or two of your light source, STAT, and if you have a fan nearby, give them a gentle breeze to help get those stems sturdy. Be very careful about using too much water, (hard to tell from the photo, but it looks too wet) because you increase the possibility of damping-off. In a few days, GENTLY add some light dry soil around those stems to help support them. Water from the bottom. The leaves that you have now are cotyledons, not "first true leaves". Finally, in that size pot, you can grow your plants for many weeks without further transplanting, but, depending on what your soil mix is, fertilizing will be your next concern. It might be prudent, though, to get yourself another pack of seeds. If you compare the price of 1 head of lettuce to that of a seed packet, it's an easy investment to justify. Think of it as tuition. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Here's what you're shooting for...
RE: It sprouted (NOW what?)
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| And this is what first true leaves look like... |
Here is a link that might be useful: baby greens
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| There is likely not a person reading these forums who has started their own seeds who has not done this. After living our whole lives under a distant sun that still allows plants to flourish, it seems counter-intuitive that when starting your own seeds, the light needs to be just inches from the soil, but this is, in fact, the case. They're "leggy" because, in an effort to reach adequate light intensity, the plants efforts are being directed towards growing the stem, rather than the leaves (we humans still don't know how plants "think", so to speak, so we anthropomorphize to more readily understand plant biology). All is not lost, and what may be lost is merely a few seeds and a few days. What you gain, knowledge and experience, is priceless. Over the course of my gardening career, I'm sure I've killed millions of plants. You'll soon reach a balance of patience and enthusiasm. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| Thank you B11me. I took your advice and put light directly on the plants so hopefully that will help. If not, your right, all I have lost really is a few days and now I know what to do next time to avoid this. I have over 2900 lettuce seeds in my packet so it's no problem to get some more going. You think they have too much water? I wonder if thats the reason that the others didnt germinate. I read that iceburg lettuce needs lots of water, but I agree, it is probably too wet. If I can now provide the right conditions for my plants, do you think they will be Ok? I was noticing last night after I got good light on them..the stems looks white rather than green. Thanks again!! |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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| The stems of your lettuce are definitely compromised, but that doesn't mean they're doomed. You may not get the 2 pound heads of crisp lettuce you're dreaming of from this batch, but you are on the road to that result. It's reassuring, though, to hear that you still have 2876 more chances at success. Lettuce needs a lot of water, but at the seedling stage, not so much. Water goes through the plant from the roots, up the stem, and out the leaves. With seedlings, there is relatively little leaf, which means little opportunity for the plant to get rid of all that water. In a maturing lettuce plant, there is a lot of leaf surface area, so the plant can absorb large quantities of water and transpire it through that greater surface area. That is why hydroponically grown plants don't drown. Excess water can affect germination, too, so give it a rest on your tomatoes. I usually start my seeds in warm moist soil and simply keep them covered until the seedlings appear, then immediately put them under lights in a cooler environment. I water infrequently, because I want them to grow up tough - it's a cruel world out there. |
RE: It sprouted!!!
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- Posted by SoTX 8b/9a (My Page) on
Fri, Feb 3, 12 at 21:59
| Look for Howard Garret for Texas gardening--lots of info. |
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