Water Lettuce Question

[callingcolleen1]

I used to grow ton's of water lettuce at this green house that I worked at and I made them all myself, for a few years. Water lettuce will also turn yellow from ammonia spikes in the pond. The slightest bit of ammonia will turn the edges yellow. They like the sun, but not water splashing on them in the full sun. The lettuce I used to grow would reach the size of dinner plates, in excess of 12 inches some times. To get the water lettuce this size, you have to have large ones to begin with, that are at least one full year old. Small water lettuce will make small water lettuce, large water lettuce will make large water lettuce. You would have to have a green house to overwinter them in with a heated pool of water. That is how I got water lettuce larger than dinner plates.
I used to also grow apple snails to the size of apples by feeding them the excess water lettuce. I build pond table from landscaping ties that would flow into each other. The top tables were filled with floating plants, and the bottom table had large apple snails. the snails ate a ton and their waste would feed the top tables filled with lettuce, and the excess lettuce would feed the snails. We made tons of money, at 10 bucks for one large 12 inch lettuce. No one ever had lettuce that big in town and everyone came to buy these really large floating lettuce. Too bad the guy that owned Suntec, where I made the lettuce, had a stroke, then the green house closed cause lots of money went missing, I kind of suspect some family and his ex took the money as he lay dieing... was very heartboken, I worked super hard to get the best pond plant's in town.

 

[koiguy1969]

yep...when you can grow 'em like this...your an expert!

if only it was real, huh?

 

[callingcolleen1]

That is for sure a very big lettuce, too bad it's not the type we can eat!! You must have had a fairly large piece to begin with. Carefull that they don't choke out your pond!

 

[brandonsdad02]

Just hold on to your water lettuce. With thie drought, everything will be dying and you will start to see water lettuce in the produce section where Iceberg lettuce was.

 

[mgannon]

yep...when you can grow 'em like this...your an expert!

if only it was real, huh?

Hey, this water lettuce is 100% for real. It was growing in a pond that I manage and it was a monster! Easily the biggest piece I've come across in years so I took the photo (that's my hand holding it). It was actually growing in a small pooling area of a waterfall stream and had full sun about half the day.

 

[koiguy1969]

i thought it might be Mike.. i couldnt remember where i got that pic from...i posted it some time ago. saw this thread and reposted it... sorry!

 

[callingcolleen1]

They do get that big, but only if the plant is mature. Like I said, small water lettuce will make lots of small water lettuce, and large water lettuce will make larger water lettuce. That's just how it is, used to grow them that big years ago.

 

[Mmathis]

If they are turning yellow it is a lack of nutrients and you can give them a boost by putting them in a tote of water with some miracle grow and they should come back .Make sure you do not over fertilize as that will burn the roots ,just a tiny bit .

I just started a thread about this -- guess I didn't read this one thouroughly enough [sorry].

This is what I did: The pkg. directions said to mix 1/2 CAPfull [not cupfull] of Miracle Gro with 2 gal of water. These directions are for applying to a garden. I mixed 1/2 CAPfull with 10 gal of pond water in a tote. Is that too concentrated or too diluted?

ANOTHER WATER LETTUCE QUESTION: When I check on my SKIPPY filter, I find lots of crud and particles around the lettuce roots. Mostly it looks like stuff that the roots are blocking from draining out of the filter. A lot of it is slimy, but some is partculate [and some is pieces of root that came off the plants themselves]. I'll jiggle the plants around in the filter to loosen and dislodge this gunk so it can flow out. Is this the roots doing their job as filters, or IS IT nothing more than crud?

 

[HARO]

The roots are acting like filter brushes, catching floating particles in the water. Rinse them off in a bucket of pond water to get the 'crud' out of your system.
John

 

[CometKeith]

I saw someone's pond yesterday. He complained that his water lettuces bare grew and they weren't as good as the ones he used to get. Later on he told me he cleans his pump filters with a hose every single day to keep his pond water as clear as possible. Notice the connection?

 

[callingcolleen1]

It may not be good for plants to wash them off, but if you leave the floaters alone to collect the necessary nutrients from the water then they will outgrow the "crud" stage as they multiply naturally.

 

[leet13]

Sorry to hijack but I wanted to know if it would be ok to place water lettuce on the side of my pond that has a fountain. Will the leaves collect water and burn in a similar way lily pads can?

 

[callingcolleen1]

You can try it but it most likely die off slowly. You might be better off with smaller floaters like frog bit and fairy moss. Good luck, if it works for you well let us know.

 

[sissy]

frog bit better than fairy moss had to contain fairy moss in my pond and take it out as it kept clogging my pumps .I think water lettuce leaves would burn up from the sun hitting the water on the leaves ,mirror effect

 

[callingcolleen1]

In some real small table top fountains I have had fairy moss doing quite well, pump never got clogged cause of the fountain design, however in bigger fountains where the water current moves quickly, it can toss the smaller floaters about, causing them to become stuck in filter. Frog bit works good in almost all fountains, so give it a try!