A few things are going on here:- The lettuce will grow to about the length you see here in the picture: 3-4 inches and then just stop and then croak. Dead. Poor little lettuces.
- Obviously we've begun a crop of mushrooms in here. Implying dampness, perhaps?
So what's the deal, yo?
I consulted the wise Momma of mine, she has been gardening far longer than I've been on this planet. Here's her take:
You can see in the picture that the soil line is about four inches below the top of the pot. I didn't have a whole lot of dirt so I tried to be conservative and not use as much. Turns out that was a bad idea.
What my brilliant idea caused was a lack of air circulation around the seedlings. My Mom thought damping-off disease may have cropped-up causing the little leaflings to wither and die before they had a chance to grow up. This also explains the whole mushroom issue. The lack of air circulation caused a damper-than-ideal environment helping to grow the mushrooms, as well as the fungus causing damping-off disease.
I do remember the first week or so that I transplanted the seedlings, it wasn't very sunny and I'm sure that helped keep the soil nice and wet.
Any other ideas? Share away!
Luckily, I did not put all my lettuces in one basket.
I put many seedlings in their own pots, with sufficient soil, and they are doing quite fine. This one here, (and plenty more! As many as she wants, really), is waiting to go to its new home with Unspeakable Visions.
On a much happier note, the Apartment Garden is not down and out! Our radishes are doing so well! Much better than I had hoped! I'll be able to eat some in the next few days.
The lobelia is starting to poke out some beautiful purple buds, I just can't wait to enjoy that wonderful trailing plant!
I have already used tons of chives, cress and thyme. What a wonderful thing to have a grocery store on your porch!
Head over to Flickr to enjoy some more success stories!
Yup yup, it's lettuce time. Cute little mushrooms you have up there though.
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