Back to tomatoes & lettuces i go!

It's been a while since my last entry -- i've been so busy lately with school and managing this little business of mine. The teachers at school are pounding us with field projects while my defense for this business is coming fast! This March3rd! Gah!


So anyway, what have i, and my garden, been up to? Aside from my herbs, i've decided to go back to growing tomatoes & lettuces. If you go back to my previous blog posts last year, you'll see a lot of pictures of that, but i stopped for a while since i was concentrating on herbs. But i've come to realize just how much attention the tomatoes and lettuces get from my readers and customers. I have to admit, they ARE the prettiest in pictures and   are the 2 most-wanted-to-be-seen when people visit the garden. Plus, i miss the salads and the sweet cherry tomatoes, so why not?


I sowed a couple of seeds around Mid January, 2012.( i dont remember exactly what date). I only started counting the days when i transplanted them into the system, but more or less, they were about 1-1.5 weeks old when that happened. Upon transplanting, this is how the little babies looked like:

After about a week, i transferred them into my new system to test if it did well there. To my surprise, they did better than i expected.

Approx. 1 week after transplanting into system - Feb 10, 2012

Approx. 1 week after transplanting into system - Feb 10, 2012

Approx. 1 week after transplanting into system - Feb 10, 2012

2 weeks after transplanting into system - Feb 17, 2012

2 weeks after transplanting into system - Feb 17, 2012

2 weeks after transplanting into system - Feb 17, 2012

They were doing ALOTTT better than i expected them to. Sure, my first batch of tomatoes were fast, but i didnt think it would be THIS fast. On the third week, after transplanting into the system, i was surprised to find them already flowering! Normally, in the ground, tomatoes take approx 2 months to start flowering. So this came to a shock to me. i thought it was a premature thing, but the plants were big as they are. 

3 weeks after transplanting into System - Feb 23, 2012

3 weeks after transplanting into System - Feb 23, 2012

3 weeks after transplanting into System - Feb 23, 2012

The plants were getting longer and longer, and most of them started to droop forward. Now, one thing you should take note about tomatoes - they are vine-plants. That being said, they need support or else theyll fall over, either snap or look horrid. Since my system didnt have the space for me to put a piece of thick, straight wood behind every single tomato plant, i decided to do what i did the last time i grew tomatoes  - i tied a piece of string ( in my case, it was a plastic string that they call straw here) onto each tomato stem and hoisted them up, tying the other end of the string to the roof of the system. This way, theyll stay up and grow towards that direction and now topple over.  --- i used pink coz its my fav color. :D 

Feb 26, 2012

Feb 26, 2012

Feb 26, 2012

Mid December, 2011, i grew several cherry tomatoes that i planned to use for myself. And i just harvested from them this afternoon. Cherry tomatoes bear SOO much fruit by the way. you harvest one bunch, and above it, another bunch is getting ready. 

So far so good, i'd have to say. as for my lettuces, i had a bunch of green lettuce seedlings, but they were purchased less than a week after i put them into the system. I've only got a few left, but heaps of red curly lettuce (lollo falbala) and red romaine lettuce. They've been in the system for about a week and a half. 

LETTUCES NEED SUNLIGHT!

Lettuces are the fastest hydroponic produce that I've grown so far in my hydroponic experiences, but they are also the most 'involved' plants i've ever grown. What i mean by involved is that, unlike other herbs and plants, you cannot just leave lettuce be for a few days and hope to find a massive bunch thriving. With the city climate, lettuces are very very very difficult to grow since they do not grow well in heat. In my case, hydroponically and under the shade, this makes it possible to grow them but i still need to have sunlight touch them for several hours in order for them to grow properly.

Remember! "Lettuces don't grow well in the heat" doesnt mean that they dont need sunlight! They DO need sunlight - if they are lacking sunlight, they turn pale and its main stem grows long, a way for the plant to look for sunlight and the leaves become long, skinny and leggy (healthy lettuce leaves are stubby & wide).

Therefore, you have to 'involve' yourself to its growth as much as you can, especially when mother nature has those mood swings that heat up the place like a sauna. You do this by placing it under the shade during specific times of the day and controlling the environment.

WHEN ARE THE BEST TIMES TO EXPOSE LETTUCES TO THE SUN?

If you have set your hydroponic system or garden near a tree that casts a shade over your garden after 12noon, then THAT'S PERFECT! The best times to have sunlight touch the lettuces are before 12noon. In lots of cases, the sun becomes really hot by 10am. So you have to make a roof of a thin blanket or plastic to buffer the rays of the sun. 

WHAT HAPPENS TO LETTUCES UNDER INTENSE HEAT?

(a) Tip Burn - this is what they call the condition where the lettuce leaves begin to wilt or droop downwards from too much heat. THIS IS NOT GOOD! if you ever encounter this happening, quickly get some ice water and spray the lettuces to keep them cool. They'll go back to normal after an hour or so if you get there in time

(b) Stunting - i've had many customers complain that their lettuces are about 2 months old and are still 3inches tall. This is a common case when you leave the lettuces out in the hot sun. if they do manage to live through the heat, their growth will be stunted. 

(c) Bitterness, BE CAREFUL! - if you managed to control the heat around the area well enough to the point where the lettuces grow beautifully, don't drop your guard just yet! continue managing the heat until you harvest. If not, you're in for a bitter crunch when you dine in to your salad. Lettuces turn really REALLY REALLY bitter if under the heat for too long. 

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

If you've got a busy schedule and cannot be there for your lettuces all day, make sure to plot the location of your lettuce garden  before anything else. Observe the areas of where the shade is cast after 12noon or build a small transparent roof over the lettuce garden. 

If you are around most of the time, make sure to check on the lettuces everyday, spraying them with ice water occasionally to cool them off. 

And that ends my entry for today. If you want to view more pictures, go to my Facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/The.Hydro.Garden or the direct album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233837220026904.55614.100002018836945&type=3  . 

'Till next entry, HAPPY GARDENING everyone! 

Ulyssa 

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