Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I purchase these lettuce from home depot since my system wasn’t ready until late in the season. I noticed that the leaves on the under side are rotting. Is this normal after transplant? It has already more then doubled in size and the new growth appears healthy.

I notice the water droplets are you watering overhead
Lettuce need ground watering if overhead first thing in the morning so gives them time to dry out

No, it has been raing the past few days.

Definitely looks like too much moisture in contact with the lower leaves. You usually get a few crappy leaves on the bottom of a nice head

I get crappy leaves that get burned by my hot gravel... anything that wilts a little will die but there's always plenty of fresh growth on my lettuce. I'm actually about to cycle a bunch out as it's gone to seed and I'll replant with new seedlings so it's not bitter. I expect 50% of the existing leaves will die after the transplant but lettuce grows really quickly.

I see dead leaves a lot. I think it' s pretty normal for those first two leaves to fall over. I get a lot of lettuce out of my single blue barrel lettuce grow bed, and that kind of thing is always to be seen.

I don't think it's an issue.

But I remove them in case some kind of fungus rot develops. (I crowd my lettuce in a bit, so some kind d of mould outbreak is always possible)

Thanks for the feed back... Let me ask one semi related question. When harvesting can I just pull the outer leaves and let it continue to produce or do I pull the entire head?

I just pull my outer leaves off, wash them/bathe them under cold water to close the pores, then in a ziplock bag or a freezer bag and in the fridge... I find it lasts HEAPS longer than buying supermarket lettuce.... I easily get a week if I really want to keep it that long and it stays nice and crispy

Sorry I wasn't clear, my question is would it be ok to harvest the outer leaves and leave the rest to continue to grow in the system.

Yes, that is exactly what I do... after 4-6 weeks the plant growth turns bitter though and you have to cycle them out for new plants