Lettuce is most frequently grown as a leaf vegetable, but rarely for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, such as soups, sandwiches, and wraps most importantly it can also be grilled.
Depending upon the type, lettuce germinates in temperatures between 40 to 85 degrees F. If we plant lettuce in successive plantings, with 10 to 14 days in between, we have an extended harvest.
How Long Does Lettuce Take to Grow Hydroponically?
We can grow the utmost varieties of lettuce hydroponically. Bibb lettuce is a bit of an easier variety to grow, and Romaine works well but takes more time.Naturally, it can take 3-4 weeks to grow the head of lettuce hydroponically. Still, the growing conditions can affect the growth rate of Lettuce.
It is an extremely fast-growing hydroponic crop; lettuce ripens in about a month’s time. The small seeds are simply germinated in a soilless growing medium before being moved into a hydroponics system fitted only with a nutrient-rich solution.
The lettuce plant is a good source of reserves, fiber, and bioactive compounds like folate, B-carotene, and lutein that help a nutritious diet. Studies show that certain types of lettuces like particularly those with darker or red pigments as well as leafy types will have anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering, and even anti-diabetic properties thanks to their bioactive composites.
There are many hydroponic systems that can grow plants, including drip systems, NFT systems, ebb-flow systems, aeroponic systems, and many others. Water culture systems are a process where the plants float on top of the water while the roots grow down and absorb nutrients, which are the most real and simplistic.
Also Read: How Often to Water Lettuce?
We have a lot of different media options to select from, including Rockwool, coco fiber, vermiculite, pine shavings, river rock, sand, and many others. All of these selections have positive and negative aspects, but picking any one of them will allow us to grow lettuce without a problem.
Rockwool is one of the most popular medium choices and is both sterile and spongy. If we go with Rockwoolbe cautious to keep it from becoming too soaked. This will lead to root suffocation, stem rot, and root rot.
Grow rock is another popular option that has anunbiassed pH and grips moisture well. This medium is ecological if cleaned carefully, which can be helpful for growing hydroponically in our home, but might be dull on a larger scale.
Get another container that will act as a nutrient basin. Get a large storage container to use as a nutrient reservoir for the lettuce. Select a container with a large surface area, but also make sure it isat least 8 inches deep so that the plant roots can grow downward freely.
Do not use a metal container for the nutrient reservoir. Metals can rust, discharging chemicals that can disrupt the supply of nutrients to the plant
Make net pots and floating platforms. There are some different materials, like the lid of our reservoir container that we can use to set up a stable way for the plants to sit above the water with their roots flooded. Drill holes into polystyrene boards that are about 12 inches apart. Drill several holes and get as many net pots as will lodge each seedling that we have.
Set up an aquarium pump to provide necessary aeration. We willrequire to have a system in place that makes air bubbles or recirculates the water in the reservoir so that the plant roots don’t get suffocated and keeping an aquarium pump in the reservoir will prevent an issue
Provide the reservoir with a mix of hydroponic nutrients and water. We can buy nutrient combinations for plants at any gardening stores that are precisely for growing hydroponic plants. Lettuce naturallyneeds high levels of potassium, calcium, and magnesium. We need to follow the nutrient directions for mixing the nutrients with water and put the mixture in the container.
Some of the lettuce types are more sensitive to nitrogen, so make sure that the nutrients we purchase are for the right kind of lettuce.
Create a nursery so that the seeds can germinate. Before putting the hydroponic system to use, we need to use an egg carton, which isminor cells, to create a steady initial environment for the plants. Fill the plugs with the medium of choice and with hydroponic seeds.
Also Read: How Long Does it Take to Grow Tomatoes Hydroponically?
Which Hydroponic System is the Best for Lettuce?
For growing lettuce hydroponically indoors, the Kratky system is one of the best and cheap. It can be easy to set up. We can speedily grow hydroponic lettuce at home. Here are few other choices to grow Lettuce:
For large-scale hydroponic lettuce making, the Deep-Water Culture and Nutrient Film Techniques are the utmost mutual methods. The Dutch bucket system is one more type of hydroponic system which will be used for commercial areas or at home.
Check this out: How to Grow Lettuce from Scraps?
Deep Water Culture
Deep water culture consists of bundles that float on ponds or tanks holding large amounts of nutrient solution. This system wishes a water pump to socialize water and an air pump to retain the pond aerated.
Deep Water Cultures store bulky volumes of water. Large volumes confirm that the rapid changes in temperature and nutrients stay avoided.
Nutrient Film Technique
Lettuce Plants grow in shallow canals with a constant flow of nutrients in the root zone. Slanting the canalslets water drain back to the reservoir. We can control nutrient levels and other factors within the reservoir.
Also Read: Why Lettuce Leaves Turning Yellow?
Ebb and Flow System
This is known as the flood and drain process. In this process, weoverflow the plants’ roots zone with the nutrient solution and drain the solution back into the reservoir.
This process is repeated at regular intervals.
How to Grow Lettuce Hydroponically Indoors?
Hydroponic lettuce is challenging for those of you growing great greens without soils.
Let’s lookat it, the climate remainsto change, and the growing environments are not predominantly ideal or large anymore.
Indoor Lighting
Metal halide lights give an excellent full spectrum light for the lettuce. They are rich in the blue and blue spectrum, which is significantly healthy for the growth of Lettuce.
Grows less expensive and also has a decent light source for lettuce. We suggest a minimum of 12 hours per day during the late fall and winter months for the plants grown indoors.
Growing Conditions
Lettuce is a cool weather harvest, which is long days and hot summer temperatures may cause the crop to bolt, or go to flower and turn bitter in taste. So, make sure we are growing their lettuce in a cool area.
Regularly check on the nutrient solutions as well as total salt concentration level.
A pH should be around 6 and is a good target for lettuce. As far as total salt ppm, it is recommended to keep it between 700 and 1000 ppm for lettuce plants.
Is Hydroponic Lettuce Healthy?
A hydroponic system gives us total control of the nutrients that our plants receive. But are hydroponic nutrients safe for the environment? The answerwill be yes, as long as we use the appropriate nutrients and understand how properly they should be disposed of.
Plant Care Tips: Growing Lettuce Hydroponically
In order to start, water the nursery everyday and keep it in a naturally sunny area where it is between 18.3-26.6° Celsius. Grow these until the seedlings are 2 inches tall and have at least 4 leaves
Relocatethe seedlings to the basin. Carefully, without tugging, take the individual from the cells to the net pots. Line up each net pot with the holes we drilled into the floating platform or the container, and then place them in the reservoir
Give the lettuce 10-14 hours of bright light per day. Unlike other plants, lettuce neither needs a long duration nor apenetrating amount of exposure to light to have other options, but the lighting is the best because it hasa low initial investment, consumes a very small amount of power, and produces a low amount of heat.
Lettuce is a crop that grows well in a cooler environment. To have a good output, keep the temperature around 12.7° Celsius at night and around 23.8° Celsius during the day. If lettuce gets too hot it will fasten, or flower, which isn’t decent because this will create a bitter taste in the leaves.
Conclusion
Pick outside leaves only. After 5-6 weeks, the lettuce will be seen fully grown and ready to pick and eat. To make sure that the lettuce plants continue to crop large amounts of healthy lettuce, pick the outer leaves and leave some of the inner leaves attached to the plant. It will not take much time for those inner leaves to regrow the ones we picked.
Don’t pick all of the leaves from each plant at a time, pick leaves from one plant one day and another plant after a few days. This will allow us to enjoy the right amount of lettuce, instead of not having enough production or too much production.