1st Lettuce plant harvested

This event happened on March 26th 2010.  Only 1 plant was harvested as it had been far advanced of all the others in the grower.  As well, other plants that were started later have yet to reach maturity.

In the picture above, Simon is holding the lettuce head and the bowl we plan on carrying it to the kitchen in.

These are not great shots and slightly undermines what is really a long and healthy root system.

After going through the leaves, discarding ANY that had blemishes, about 1/2 the amount seen remained for consumption.  This is a plant more in the greens category so more delicate though there was a bite.  Just a nice fresh smell and the taste had a slight "spice" flavor to it. All in all, a winner over here .

See you soon with an update.

Day 25

Out of 9 seeds planted into the rockwool medium (inside the plastic cups) 1 just seemed to jump out ahead from the very beginning.  This was not only in germination but it's growth overall. 

The 3 in the rear were completely replaced.  We have a take out container from Cheesecake Factory that makes a great germination station (picture needed).

The biggest has about another 15 + days to go till harvest.   It is looking tasty.

(Above), we keep a daily log where we record daily PH level, nutrient level and solution termperature.  Daily checking of general health of plant and monitoring for any type of pests (so far none and we do keep the area clean which helps).

 

More pictures below.  We'll be back soon with an update. 

Hydroponic Lettuce

We have completed our plantings this morning so a good time to start up this blog.  I had no plans on doing a step by step of the build.  However as this picture shows is our first hydroponic lettuce raft setup.  Simon was very instrumental in the build, from planning and measuring to using tools on all the parts which includes the reservoir, the light stand and the lights.  All built from basic components.

(Photo on the right) Shows Simon opening his package of Organic Lettuce Salad Seeds (Letuca Sativa).

Photo (on the left) Simon is preparing to test both the PH of the water as well as the PPM meter to get a reading on the nutrient solution

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480W of CFL Full Spectrum Bulbs (110W)

 

We should have some seedling in the next 4-7 days.  Look for the update then.

Thank you,
S&S