It’s been a couple of weeks since I checked on the lettuce in the silos – only had about five minutes to make a salad and go, so here’s the pic of the picking – 1.25 oz from one lettuce plant, and enough for a nice salad. Included a couple of sprigs of onion greens, a hard-boiled egg, some ham and a vinaigrette made a satisfying salad. Still more than enough to pick another salad or let it grow, the leaves are crunchy and not the slightest bit bitter. Over at Gardenhacker.com, you can see the latest of our non-cellar endeavors: lettuce grown in potting mix held by “steamers” – microwave utensils that are typically used once and recycled.

Since the lettuce under the Philips bulb is doing so well, I decided it’s time to harvest a bit of it.  Picking the outer leaves, I was able to get 0.75 oz of lettuce leaves and still have plants that dwarfs the other two, though they are continuing to grow.  ”Cut and Come”, “mow and grow”, “plow and chow” – you don’t have to pick the whole plant and start new every time.  We’re going to see how many “garden salads” we can get from these plants before they start getting woody or just decide enough is enough and give up the ghost.  Meanwhile, we are starting some more lettuce plants elsewhere under traditional fluorescent bulbs to see how they fair.

 

 

Similar scales can be found here.

Removed the “Miracle-LED” lights from the left-hand silo and replaced it with an LED Flood light.  Shown on Amazon as a 10W flood, the box says 12W.  Have to bring the “Watt-Miser” down to check the actual power consumption.  The LEDwholesalers 10 Watt LED Waterpoof Outdoor Security Floodlight 85-264v Ac, 3701WH comes with tinned bare wires and a wire clamp so you can tap it in – this is supposed to be wired by a certified technician.  Fortunately, the color coding is easily found on the net, and armed with shrink-tubing electrical tape and Gorilla tape, we were able to connect it to an unused three-prong grounded plug with little difficulty.  Nice bright white light and barely warm, it will be interesting to see how the plants respond.  I had gotten a second one from a different vendor that was unfortunately a 12V version which will be going back to Amazon.  Amazon makes it easy to return products – just an explanation and a printout of a return label and away it goes.  I’ve bought from LEDWholesalers before and like their products – this is no exception.

May harvest the lettuce on the right and transplant one of the smaller ones to do a better a/b split test against the Philips LED bulb.  The eventual plan is to use two of these floods to grow some tomatoes and cucumbers to see how they fair in the cellar with little to no regular sunlight, but that is a future experiment.

Okay, I’ve seen enough.  Despite having two “50W equivalent” 2W LED lights on the lettuces on the left, and one Philips 12.5W LED bulb on the right, the difference is quite apparent.  Game over.  Winner=Philips.  On to a new experiment soon!

The winner is:

Well, it’s difficult to say.  The total plant content from the “naked LED” silo came in at 1.75 oz, while the standard Philips LED bulb’s total plant content was 2.45 oz., but there were two plants in each silo, so the numbers are skewed.  Welcome to home /not -so-scientific measuring.  It will all depend on how you want to look at the results as to which was the clear winner.

As for flavor, they both taste fresh and clean with a slight bitterness typical of this type of lettuce.

For our next experiment, we are going to grow more lettuce. This time, we are going to pit the standard Philips LED at 12.5W against two 2W LED grow lights that have the specific red/blue mix that is popular for solid state grow lights.  they boast 200 Lumens per bulb, so 400 Lumens of red and blue vs 800 Lumens. Unfair advantage for the Philips bulb? Possibly, but the “Miracle LED” bulbs are only outputting the red and blue spectrum, not the whole spectrum of light.  We will see as the weeks progress.

Since we’re not taking clones from a mother plant, and since we just got some seeds from a lettuce called “Salanova” (Johnnyseeds.com) which came in as a mix, we are going to plant them side-by-side as before in separate “silos” to see if there is any significant difference between the two. If we can, we will also grow more under another light – depending on whether I can find and make another grow container. Pics and updates coming soon.

I just ordered some interesting new “Salanova” lettuce seeds from Johnny’s Select Seeds – they have me scratching my head since they’ve got a “utility patent” on them (5977443)  According to Johnny’s PDF, “…

A Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is granted by the
US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It protects a
unique seeded species by prohibiting others from
selling the species’ genetics. The PVP remains in
effect for 20 years before it expires. Generally, this
form of protection is only sought after for open
pollinated varieties since hybrids are protected
based on the need for both parents to create the
hybrid. A grower may save the seed of a variety
with the PVP designation for planting on their own
holdings, but cannot legally resell or give the seed
away. …”

.  Will have to look this up at some point.  Meanwhile, we’re continuing to grow the lettuce until the seeds come in or we run out of lettuce in the fridge.  Below are pics as of 2012-01-17, they’re getting bigger by the day, and enjoying the cool weather.  I shifted the regular light over for the photograph, and they look quite similar. The leaves under the “naked” led appear more mature, but the bulk and size is still similar.  Once again, when we cut them and weigh them, we’ll find out.  Taste will also be a factor unless we just put them into one big salad.

The lettuce is about ready to pick, and there is a slight difference between the two, notably the lettuce under the blue LED’s have stronger leaves, thicker stalks and are standing taller, though the one under the standard bulb seems fuller.  Once cut and weighed, we will find out which has produced more.  The lettuce in the back room are a bit smaller, and due to lack of watering looking rather weak.  Our next experiment will be with a new set of lettuce provided I can get more to sprout, and we will be pitting one of the Philips LED bulbs at 12.5W against two 2W “Miracle Bulb grow lights.  These won’t need the reflectors since they are so directional. The challenge will be to direct the “Miracle LED’s onto the one plant.

 

After the thinning of the lettuce plants under the normal Philips LED bulb, the plants appear to be about even, though the one under the “naked” LED bulb might have a little more strength to it’s leaves.  The smaller plants pulled from the normal side are still growing, and seem to be doing well under the winter light, though they are currently smaller than the ones under the 12 hours of solid state goodness in the cellar.  They are not any warmer, since the far end of the house stays about 60 degrees F.  It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of weeks.  The “Miracle LED bulbs came in – unfortunately I don’t have any fixtures to put them in for the moment, so  that part of the LED experiments will be on hold for a week or two.

Below you can see the pics as of 1/5/2013: