#lettuce

faab64@diasp.org

3 lettuce heads with their roots from Lidl!

While I'm waiting for my lettuce to become big enough to eat, I bought another tricolor-lettuce from #Lidl today.

I'm going to clean up the roots, get rid of all the coco peat there and put them in my #IKEA #Krydda hydroponic unit.

Already cut some leaves for last night's sandwich. I'm sure these will thrive in my system and will have fresh lettuce for many days ahead of me.

#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants #Lettuce

faab64@diasp.org

Super easy and cheap option to start a single plant #Kratky #Hydroponic unit.

I bought a large number of mesh cups after my last trip to #Ghana to take with me for fhd planned workshops and ito use them at the #Aquaponics system we were planning to build at #Kumasi agriculture college.

My sickness, followed by #Covid restrictions prevented me from travelling and I put everything in storage before moving back to south of #France.

As I am trying to restart my experiments with various solutions to grow #vegetables at home, I came across these small mesh cups that are perfect match for the 2L #milk bottles in France. The same with 1L #bottles and many other #juice sold in #France and in #Europe.

The 2L is perfect because it will have enough water and nutrients for a leafy vegetable like #lettuce or #kale to grow without the need to refill it

All I need to do is to wrap the bottle with aluminum foil, fill it with proper mix of nutrients and water and put them under a #GrowLight or by the window to get #sunshine.

#Gardening #GrowOwnFood #RecycleReuseReduce #ContainerGarden

faab64@diasp.org

The French 2L milk bottle is a perfect bottle for making a mini Kratky for lettuce or other leafy vegetables!

Cutting the bottle about 10-11cm from the top, make it fit perfectly when turned around and pushed in.

The hole on top of the bottle is also perfect for the coco peat units available at the shops to germinate the seeds.

Have about 8 bottles saved, started to make them ready for putting them inside the 2 level IKEA Växer units with 16W lamp on each level.
I can put i in each level during germination, but it won't be good for more than 4 or maybe 5 heads when they grow bigger.

2 units will provide all the lettuce I consume and will easily replace with new seedlings as I eat them.

Total material cost, 50 euro cent, plus electricity. It will light up the living room so I don't need to have lights on all the time.

Will post more info about the fertilizer and the setting of it later.

#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainrrGarden #France #Hydroponics #Kratky #Lettuce

faab64@diasp.org

Found an open lettuce seed pack from 2 years ago and decided to give it a try.

#garddning #balconygarden #containergarden #GrowOwnFood #France #DIY #Lettuce

Don't want to open a new pack so put several seeds in each coco peat unit to germinate.

It seem that some of them are growing, so they will go to the outdoor hydroponic unit I am setting up next weekend.

I use about 1 or 2 lettuce per week. With them growing from seed to full size in 8 weeks, I need about 20 plants to grow.

Hopefully the bigs will leave them alone and I can have fresh lettuce all the time (3 different types).

faab64@diasp.org

Simple hydroponic for people who want to learn the basics!

#Hydroponic #Lettuce #Gardening #GrowOwnFood #IndorGarden #ContainerGarden #DIY

This is a kit sold on AliExpress, it is pretty easy to make at home for those who want to try it. It is pretty efficient for herbs and leafy vegetables, but also midget tomatoes and pepper.

I build one long time ago for my daughter, that was my first attempt to grow vegetables hydroponically. It wasn't so successful because we didn't have the main addition t the project: GOOD LIGHTS!

Using a couple of 20W LED lighbulbs at 6000K would be sufficient to have a pretty successful system without risking to see the lettuce bolting or dying after just a couple of weeks.

Also, the choice of the right fertilizer and correct pH level are very important to have a successful first attempt.

Here are a few links for those who might be interested:

This is the kit sold on AliExpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003506572041.html

I would highly recommend putting the airpump on timer, you only need to keep it going a few minutes in the morning and afternoon to oxygenate the water. No need to keep it on 24/7.

You also need to have equipment to check the pH and the EC level, those can be a bit harder, but the 2 units in this link are good enough to start:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003506572041.html

It is worth spending little more on buying a few more calibration bags because the pH tester is a bit whacked.

For fertilizer, I can recommend the site http://servovendi.com/fr that has pretty good variety of both liquid and solid hydroponic fertilizers.

This page has a lot of good information for those who want to learn more about growing leafy vegetables in a hydroponic system, the information can be a little overwhelming at first, but don't feel intimidated by it, it is actually easier than you think to succeed with it.

https://uponics.com/hydroponic-lettuce-nutrients/