This video shows you how to do hydroponic lettuce production using rockwool. We actually grow lettuce on a commercial scale but the idea is the same scaled down. You can use this method to germinate and sprout other plants and vegetables as well.
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I have tried to start lettuce in starter pellets on 2 occasions and found that each time the seeds would sprout but the sprouts grew straight up about 2 inches and had 2 tiny leaves on the top. I thought that they were supposed to grow low like you pictures. What could I be doing wrong?
What size pots are those? Would those be fully grown? And can you re-use the roots if you were to just cut off the top portion of the leaves?
awesome! Thanks for sharing :)
but isn't rockwool extremely expensive?
Great video. Thanks much!! Steve
Ugh. I cannot seem to get the hang of lettuce. Everyone says it's super easy. Mine always flops over, gets wet and rots. Maybe the secret is in the rock wool, because I've been using peat pellets.
FYI, my setup.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153243716813669.1073742216.591438668&type=1&l=ba34bd77d9
do u mean a total of 50 days are needed for lettuce before eating? thanks.
If you are planning on building an Aquaponic system for your backyard or organic garden, then you need to know the about home Aquaponic requirements.
Hi I have a quick question—I am trying to grow lettuce in my system but having very bad results. My Ph is 5.8 consistently, and EC is 1.8. but my lettuce keeps dying after a few weeks in the system. I water top them off each day because the roots are not reaching the water, but it looks as it the leaves are turning yellowish color. The stems don't seem to be strong enough to support the plant so I am constantly using toothpicks to hold up the plant. any ideas as to what might be going on? Oh, even in the incubation chamber, it looks as if the seeds just keep bolting. Water temperature is around 60F.
Here I wanna share a short videos related to hydroponic :)
awesome video,
In everything we do we should only keep the best of plants if we are developing seeds for the future. But those who are growing for home ,friends family etc. should not feel that they need to cull the plant for this purpose.
We seed 4 – 6 flats a day depending on need, just providing for elderly friends and for facilities providing meals to elderly or poor. About 2 yrs ago a friend who has her horticulture degree is was visiting and i was showing her our sprouts and young tender plants. i reached down and snapped a couple off with the same crimped leaves and she asked why did u do that, when I explained the same as you.
She said give it a chance. So I went a little further since our space is important and limited . I put a red dot on each plant cup that we would have culled from crimped first leaves. Not saying what variety you are dealing with may not grow out and respond the same way. I think variety of seed can play into it. It could be a trait of the variety that is being grown. When we spouted this years tomatoes we had several of the sprouts do this. It did not affect their ability to produce tomatoes. Sometimes like I said it's just one side of the shell of the seed stuck to the first set of leaves. During germination their wasn't enough moisture for it to naturally fall off.
But I could not see enough difference in size or even tell the difference in the plants at all.
Not knocking what you were doing at all just sharing what we experienced. My point is I would still be wasting seed if I I would not have tested the waters.
Everyone should test out a few and see what the end result is before you just destroy the sprout.
Unless individuals are growing for a contest a little difference doesn't hurt the taste. Especially those who need the food.
There only thing wrong with the one u are saying has checked ears is that the seed hull stuck to the end of the first leaves when they initially opened up. This will not hurt the plant as these leaves are shed and gone pretty fast anyway. We find that by the time they have their first leaves they are all usually uniform in size. We do not do any culling until the first leaves are on the plant. When we take out the doubled sprout they are pinched off and not torn . As tearing can damage the other plant and pull up the root system. Nice grow table. Ours fills up 1/2 inch in the bottom twice a day. Works great.
The issue with hydroponics is that you need to buy "plant food" or nutrition and supplements that are costly.
Hi there,
I am impressed with your work. Since you are a commercial grower so have few questions if you would be kind enough to answer.
1. How long does it take for a seedling to sprout and time to true leaves?
2. After how much days of implantation you often transplant the seeds to raft.
3. EC/TDS and PH of raft?
4. Your Greenhouse temperature?
Thanks.
Hydroponics is a good system but it have some drawback, you need to buy some "plant food", nutrition and supplements which can be expensive. Before making any hydroponics system, it is best to look at the benefit from aquaponics system, which could automate 95% of work.
can you drop a 2inch pod into a dutch bucket system to get same effect as floating system ?
how high up the netpots do you keep the water? is it toughing the wool?