Gardening
In reply to the discussion: My hydroponics thread, 2014 [View all]Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)My seedlings are coming along nicely. Since the roots of my lettuce seedlings are just starting to emerge from the rockwool blocks I decided to get 4 of my Kratky buckets going. Since Kratky is the simplest method for hydroponic growing I'm using, I thought I would write this post in more of a how-to format in case anyone else wants to try this. The Kratky method lends itself very well to lettuce and that's what I'd recommend starting with. You should be able to get some of the stuff at your nearest hydroponics store, or you can order online.
Materials:
Lettuce seedling in a 1.5" rockwool block. See post above for how to start the seedling.
2" netpot (I cut the bottom circle out of mine just to make sure the roots emerge properly)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HXF0VU
~ 1 gallon wide mouth bucket with lid. I'm using left over 3lb coffee cans from the coffee fund at work. You want something that holds about 1 gallon because that's about how much 1 head of lettuce is going to consume from start to harvest. You will not be adding additional water with this method.
2" drill bit/hole saw
Hydroponic nutrients. You want to use hydroponic fertilizer for a number of reasons. I'm using a 3 part solution which can be tailored to various N-P-K ratios for various crops. To keep things simple, I recommend this one or something similar which should work quite well for most varieties of lettuce:
www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-FloraNova-Grow-Pt/dp/B003Y36BJO
1) Mix the nutrient solution. For FloraNova Grow, 1 tsp per gallon should be about right. You'll want to correct the PH to 5.5-6.5. Most municipal water supplies run in the 7-8 range. To bring the PH down you can add lemon juice. For a few bucks you can get a PH test kit at any aquarium store. If you just want to guess at it, I would go with about 1 tsp of lemon juice per gallon of water which should get you in the ballpark, but I highly recommend a cheap PH test kit.
2) Drill a 2" hole into the lid.
3) Place the net pot into the lid, put the lid on the bucket, and fill with nutrient solution until the water just comes up to the bottom of the net cup or just to the point at which the bottoms of the exposed roots will be submerged in the water.
4) Put the seedling block into the 2" net cup.
That's about all there is to it. Just give it a good source of light and in about 30 days you should have a nice head of lettuce. You should not have to add any water or do anything to it until harvest. You do want to keep it out of the rain as changing the water levels in the bucket will be a very bad thing. I'm trying 3 different varieties of lettuce (bibb, red, and romaine) to start with. With a grow light indoors you could actually do this year round, which is what I plan on doing if all goes well. I hope to be able to produce about 4-8 heads of lettuce each month this way. Hydroponic lettuce goes for about $2 ea at the grocery store from what I've seen around here and the heads are quite small compared to what I'm seeing on the youtubes from other hydroponic growers.