Over the weekend we had tremendous growth. It looks like we will soon need to shop for a nice Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing and some salad toppings! Our pH and the temperature seems to be remaining quite constant. I think the clay pellets are helping a lot to stabilize our pH. Right now, our biggest concern is the yellow-look or our crops. I did a little research at : http://www.northerngardening.com/NGB_articles/mesclun.htm which offered a lot of help. It looks to me like there are a few things Ryan and I should do to help improve our plants.
1. We need to move our plants out from directly under the light. Mesclun grows best around 60 degrees, and today we measured 73 degrees. The higher temperatures are ok in the early stages, but the taller the plant gets, the easier it is for it to wilt in hot temperatures. So we should move the plant, and possibly even cover it to provide some shade.
2. Trim it up. Mesclun should be cut when the leaves are between 3-6 inches. Many of our sprouts are well beyond that, so I think if we cut them just above the growing crowns we will be able to start a new harvest and improve our crisp-ness of the leaves.
We will try it out on Wednesday and see how it helps! Here a picture of our Mesclun right now.
There are multiple seeds in each cup. This is how you get a variety of greens on your plate come consuming time. The roots should not have much of an issue because we cut a lot of holes in the bottom of our cups for the roots to grow out of. Once they exit the cup, they are free to grow all throughout our system
I was wondering if there was multiple seeds planted in each cup or is the Mesclun just that big? The reason I ask is due to the amount of roots that would be fighting for a place to grown.