Grow Greens Indoors Under Lights

[meadow]

Grandpa Admire's, Grandma Hadley's, and Merlot are up. All are from last year, so I'm glad they germinated! Both varieties of arugula started last month (Basic from Frank Morton, and Astro) are looking great! I need to start some more.

I'm intrigued with Ice-Bred Arugula at Fedco Seeds: (44 days) Open-pollinated. The best arugula to be found anywhere. Brett Grohsgal crossed two excellent European heirloom strains in 1989 and has been selecting for cold hardiness and vigor since. He’s bred one tough cookie here. Mid-ribs and whole leaves develop a lovely purple hue in winter freezes. Recovers in spring even if plant goes dormant under very cold conditions. Seedlings can stand drought, compete against weeds and don’t require high soil fertility. They have been 1–2 days slower to bolt than other arugulas in our spring-sown plots. This is arugula with more bite, vigorous with complex full flavors.

 

[heirloomgal]

Grandpa Admire's, Grandma Hadley's, and Merlot are up. All are from last year, so I'm glad they germinated! Both varieties of arugula started last month (Basic from Frank Morton, and Astro) are looking great! I need to start some more.

I'm intrigued with Ice-Bred Arugula at Fedco Seeds: (44 days) Open-pollinated. The best arugula to be found anywhere. Brett Grohsgal crossed two excellent European heirloom strains in 1989 and has been selecting for cold hardiness and vigor since. He’s bred one tough cookie here. Mid-ribs and whole leaves develop a lovely purple hue in winter freezes. Recovers in spring even if plant goes dormant under very cold conditions. Seedlings can stand drought, compete against weeds and don’t require high soil fertility. They have been 1–2 days slower to bolt than other arugulas in our spring-sown plots. This is arugula with more bite, vigorous with complex full flavors.

Arugula is so crazy delicious when young. I find it tastes like walnuts, there's nothing quite like it.

Got my 'Hungarian Winter Pink' lettuce today in the mail. Excited to try it! I'm looking for varieties of lettuce that bolt fairly early. Now that is an impossible search angle. lol

 

[meadow]

Arugula is so crazy delicious when young. I find it tastes like walnuts, there's nothing quite like it.

Which variety do you like best?

There is something teasing at the edge of my memory about something that can cause early bolting (so maybe you could deliberately trigger it). I'll try to remember what it is. :/

 

[heirloomgal]

Which variety do you like best?

There is something teasing at the edge of my memory about something that can cause early bolting (so maybe you could deliberately trigger it). I'll try to remember what it is. :/

I guess I'm pretty unrefined when it comes to arugula, I've only ever grown the seed packets that just say 'Arugula' on them. lol But truth be told I did see a Thomson and Morgan packet once that read "grazia" which I think was a kind of wild variety. It looked more weedy and smaller leaved than the one I knew.

 

[meadow]

I don't know anything about them myself... just seeing the different offerings and having the ol' 'gotta try them ALL!' response, as usual.

 

[heirloomgal]

I don't know anything about them myself... just seeing the different offerings and having the ol' 'gotta try them ALL!' response, as usual.

*Gotta/try/them/all*, my gardening mantra.

 

[Branching Out]

I have never been a big fan of arugula, but I ordered a salad at a restaurant that was only arugula and it was really tasty. I think there are new varieties now that are bred to have a milder flavour profile. You really have to be on top of it when you plant it though. It grows and bolts so quickly, and after that it can become like a weed. For these reasons I should probably try growing it indoors over the winter. Fast growth is ideal under lights.

 

[Phaedra]

I had never been a big fan of arugula until I tried the microgreen version of them, just like a point of no return.

 

[meadow]

Yes, I can vouch for arugula as a microgreen! I sowed too heavily and wasn't able to do any re-potting at the time, so I grazed on the extras. lol!

eta: arugula is fabulous as a pizza topping too, added raw at the end

eta2... and as a soup addition added at the end! I'm not sure how I feel about it as a salad green, but I love to nibble on it in the garden and add it to other dishes.

 

[Phaedra]

Time to prick them out again. From my experience, both brassicas and lettuce seedlings are resilient enough for such a process.

Preparation isn't complicated.

I could have pricked them out one day earlier. They were sown on Feb-11, germinated from Feb-15, and pricked out on Feb-17.

So, from a small tray (bottom of a milk bottle), I got 12 seedlings of Tatsoi(Brassica rapa subsp. narinosa) and 19 seedlings of Romaine lettuce 'Valmaine.'

The first and second varieties sown on Jan-27, germinated from Jan-29, and pricked out on Jan-31: The growth is stable, and they all developed the second true leaves. They would be transplanted in the hoop tunnel in early March.

So far, I already have more than 50 young lettuce - I will harvest their outer leaves instead the entire plants, so, it's more than enough for us and the chickens for the first half of 2023.