Lettuce on floating raft

I didn't write for a while because of massive amount of work and health problems. Therefore this time I'll briefly describe my experiment of growing lettuce hydroponically in floating raft system, also its results and conclusions.
3 days after planting lettuce seeds germinated. At this point I realized my first mistake. Every "How-to germinate lettuce seeds" manual I've read advised to water turf first and plant seeds afterwards. In a hurry I did it in wrong sequence - at first planted seeds and watered them afterwards. As a result in few cells I washed seeds too deep and they didn't germinate, in few other cells they moved and germinated too close to a wall of a cell.

I took a cover off my mini-greenhouse and left my lettuce sprouts to grow on a window sill under sunlight. They grew well. This is how they looked after a week:

In about two weeks lettuce sprouts grew big enough to be replanted into my hydroponic setup.

I put my floating raft hydroponic system near a window, turned its aerator on and filled tank with solution. I used Vito 1 liquid fertilizer dissolved in water in recommended proportions for this experiment. I had to adjust acidity of solution by adding a bit of vinegar to lower pH level above 6.

After filling approximately 20 l of solution into a tank I put a foam rubber raft on a surface.

Then I started replanting lettuce sprouts to clay. I took them very carefully out of turf and washed roots under running water.

Holding lettuce sprout above a pot so that its root hangs inside I carefully filled clay.

At this step I realized my second mistake. Clay granules were too big for such a little sprout. It was very hard to make lettuce sprout maintain vertical position. Next time I will use smaller granules.
As I finished replanting pots with lettuce sprouts were installed into floating raft hydroponic system.

Next weeks brought me problems. First of all - direct sunlight reached my sprouts through a window just till noon. Another half of a day they received reflected light only. Second problem started day after I replanted sprouts into clay. Sky became very cloudy and long raining period started. The sun was very rare guest whole next month and sprouts desperately lacked sunlight. In a week they grew just a tiny bit.

Whole next month was cloudy and rainy. This is how my lettuce looked like by the end of it:

One plant died and was thrown out. Others were very weak. Leafs were very pale, thin and brittle. Instead of growing upwards they just lied on raft.
I concluded that my experiment failed. It became obvious for me that I never should rely on natural factors while growing in artificial circumstances. Next experiments are pointless without artificial light. I ordered led-lamp with 36 blue and 90 red diodes and 15W overall power. Next experiment will take place after I receive my order. I believe that light will bring me success.

Lettuce germination

After long break I returned to experiments with hydroponics. This time I am growing lettuce. Like basil lettuce is easy to grow and not demanding. For me as a beginner it is quite important option. I want to grow 3 different breeds of lettuce at the same time - 'Pirat', 'Salad Bowl' and 'May Queen'.

For this purpose I've purchased mini-greenhouse.

After filling plastic cells with turf I planted few seeds in each.

http://hydroponeast.com is advising to water substrate well and feed seeds with low concentration fertilizer from the beginning. I mixed solution with half of recommended concentration. I used Vito 1 liquid fertilizer for this purpose. Recommended pH level for lettuce is 2,8-6,1. PH test of my solution in substrate showed approximately 5,5 which I considered to be good.
After watering substrate I put cells into mini-greenhouse and left it in a room with good air circulation and temperature about 18 degrees by Celsius.

In theory sprouts should germinate in nearest 3 days. After that they're supposed to be taken out of mini-greenhouse and put under good light for one week. When sprouts grow bigger I will replant them into floating raft system. I'm going to describe how it's built in my next post.

The first basil sprout

One week have passed since I planted basil seeds. One of them finally sprouted.

This is sweet basil 'Holy'. Unfortunately other seeds died. I put a paper-cup with seedling to window sill to receive sunlight. Since now I'll have to water seedling 3 times per week and feed standard nutrient solution 2 times per week (info from http://hydroponeast.com website)
Besides Виталий Марин gave me an advice to try planting seeds directly to ceramsite. He also showed me a picture where this method gave him results. I decided to give it a try. I filled my hydroponic setup with water to which I added a bit of vinegar to keep pH level at about 6. Then I poured about 10 seeds into it, turned aerator on and covered setup with folded cheesecloth to keep seeds in darkness. Hope that this one will succeed.

2nd experiment - basil germination

This time following Zachary Jones advice I decided to germinate a plant which is easier to grow hydroponically - basil. Besides I decided to germinate seeds on turf. I was in need of special baskets for this purpose. I've seen them on foreign websites but didn't find anything alike in my city. I made decision to make  baskets by myself by cutting holes in paper coffee cups.

I learned from mistakes of my first experiment that pH level of substrate should be checked before planting seeds. Test showed pH level about 6 which is optimal for basil.

After filling cups with turf I planted seeds about 1 cm deep. I planted sweet basil Holy in 2 cups and Thai in another two.

I put cups into container and watered them well with warm water. In materials on growing basil which I have read it was mentioned that few days after planting seeds fertilizer shouldn't be used. Recommended water temperature - 22-24°С.

I placed container with cups into self-made growhouse described in one of my earlier posts. Recommended temperature for basil germination is 22-24°С but recommended air humidity 93-95%. Thermometer inside growhouse shows 22°С. I am worried about air humidity. Right now I don't have any tools to check it or keep at constant level. I decided to use a bottle with sprayer. I will spray water inside my growhouse few times every day. Now I have to wait few days for my seeds to germinate. Then I will move seedlings to window sill to continue growing under sunlight.

Spinach germination - stage 2

8 days yet passed since I planted seeds. 3 seeds out of 10 germinated and started growing, 2 more germinated but don't grow yet. Mineral-wool cubes became too small for those seedlings which started growing. But yet I didn't want to hurry with replanting them to hydroponic setup because they were still too small in my opinion. I made decision to replant them to larger mineral-wool cubes.

I made cutouts in large cubes for small ones. Before replanting seedlings I impregnated mineral-wool with nutrient solution. This time I dissolved fertilizer in proportions written in its manual. I thought that seedlings are ready for full dosage of fertilizer. I put box with seedlings to growhouse which I described in my last post. Every following morning I turned light in growhouse on and turned off every evening. Besides I regularly sprayed mineral-wool with fertilized water.

1st experiment - spinach germination

I have a keen interest in topics about hydroponics for a long time. A while ago I have decided to try it by myself. At first, I have chosen spinach for this experiment, because I have read that this plant does not require special care and attention. I put together a simple hydroponic setup that will describe in my next post. Before the cultivation of spinach I need to germinate the seeds. In markets I've seen special outfits for this, but I thought that I can design it by myself as well. I used a package of egg, garden box, and mineral wool. In order to proceed nutrient solution, I made holes in the bottom of each cell of egg-box and put a mineral-wool cube for each cell. Here is the result:

The next step was planting the seeds. Not recommended to plant the seeds of spinach immediately. They should be kept in water for at least 2 days, dried off and only after that you can plant them. In any case, I kept the seeds in water for three days and during these days it turned to the substrate. Before planting the seeds a substrate should be impregnated with solution two times lower concentration than is necessary for the cultivation. For the first experiment I used universal concentrated liquid fertilizer Vito for vegetables and flowers. The required proportions I dissolved it in water and poured substrate. After that I planted a seed in each mineral-wool cube. Germination takes place in living room with natural lightening. Once a day the room ventilated, I sprayed substrate with fertilized water. Also I follow up the green box to be always filled with water. On the 7th day the first result emerged.

On the 8th day first seedling germinated a little bit. In addition two more seeds germinated but unfortunately it is not visible on photo.

Now I am waiting until seedlings will grow up, so I can replant them to hydroponic setup and let them to grow under the artificial light.