Have you ever heard of hydroponic lettuce? Do you know how it is grown and why it is made with a special cultivation method? If you like to eat organic food but don’t have enough space in your house, this can be a good way to have some lettuce.
Now, how can it be grown? What makes lettuce special when hydroponic? We tell you all about it below.
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What is Hydroponic Lettuce
If you’ve never heard of hydroponic lettuce before, know that it’s actually a lettuce. Surely the same variety that you usually eat every day at home. The difference with it is that it grows in water thanks to nutrient solutions that are added to the water so that it can grow.
In fact, there are no special varieties to plant in this way, but virtually any variety that exists and exists within lettuce can be used.
However, this method has multiple advantages, both for the farmer and for the consumer. Therefore, right now it is booming and you can also do it at home to have your own lettuce.
But how do you grow lettuce hydroponically?
If you want to know more about the subject of growing lettuce hydroponically, we are going to give you the steps you need to know to do so.
Choose the variety of lettuce
As we have already told you, almost all varieties of lettuce can be grown with the hydroponic system. Although it is true that there are some varieties that are more common because they adapt better. For example, French, Bibb, Romaine lettuce (although it takes longer), head or bulk lettuce.
All work well with the hydroponic system, although some may take longer to show results (like Roman). Nevertheless, they are among the most widely used.
Build or install the hydroponics system
One of the most important aspects of hydroponics is building your system right. The truth is that you can find many types on the market, but we’re not talking about having a container full of water and roots. It’s actually not hydroponics, but aquaponics. The hydroponic system is characterized by growing in a medium other than soil, usually linked to water (hence hydro) but there is much more. In reality, perlite, coconut fiber, rice husks work… However, it is true that many grow lettuce in hydroponics thanks to a solution of water and nutrients (or fertilizer) which comes into contact with lettuce roots to feed them. And this solution is replaced and renewed to always provide the nutrients that the plant will need.
In other words, lettuce plants will grow on perlite, coir, vermiculite…a totally different environment than soil. And, at the same time, they will be in contact with this solution of water and fertilizer.
We are therefore talking about an easy system, but which requires a good installation to succeed.
Plant seeds or seedlings
There is a difference between planting seeds and seedlings. If they are seeds, you must first wait until they sprout a little to be able to put them in this system (they must be planted in nurseries). If it’s seedlings, you can definitely install them in this system.
Considering that you are buying seedlings (because they are faster) and that in a margin of 5-6 weeks you could have your lettuce ready, you should plant them in pots with grids and floating platforms. They are different from the pots you know, but if you have a swimming pool they will surely remind you of the baskets of the treatment plant where all the dirt is collected.
It is done in this way to prevent the roots from being isolated and being able to grow practically freely to reach the water where they will grow.
Buy an aquarium pump
One of the problems with growing in water is that it can spoil or rot in a short time. To prevent this from happening, we recommend that you have an aquarium pump that oxygenates the water. This way you will prevent the roots from choking.
Keep in mind that when transporting hydroponic nutrients you will need them to be moved continuously (otherwise they will sink to the bottom and not reach the right place).
hydroponic nutrients
We have the lettuces, the hydroponic system. Now we would run out of nutrients. We are not going to tell you that finding them is easy, because the truth is that it is not, but it is not impossible either.
In the case of the hydroponic culture of lettuce, it will be composed of potassium, calcium and magnesium, which are the elements that this vegetable will need the most.
Hydroponics of lettuce
Now that you have everything, it’s time to put it together and make sure you’re going to meet the needs of hydroponic lettuce. That’s to say:
- Which has 10 to 14 hours of fluorescent light. In reality, it does not have to be in the sun, but with the fluorescent lamp it will be enough because it also brings heat.
- Maintain the temperature between 12 and 23 ºC. You do not need a high temperature to move forward, quite the contrary.
- Keep the water at a pH between 5.5 and 6.5 to prevent the lettuce from coming out too acidic (or too little).
After about 6 weeks you can harvest it.
What are the benefits of hydroponic lettuce?
At the beginning of this article we told you that hydroponic lettuce has many advantages over the usual culture of lettuce.
Among them we can highlight the following:
- It’s more ecological. Due to the fact that you are only going to spend a little water, the one it needs to grow. But nothing else.
- It pays off. Because you save on fertilizers, pesticides and other problems that may involve economic expense.
- They are cheaper. Because they don’t increase the costs of growing them, which can make them cheaper for the consumer.
- They are safer. In fact, they have stronger controls than ground lettuces and this makes them more organic.
- They have no contaminants. As they are not on the ground, they do not come into contact with animals or with elements that could contaminate them. You also don’t have to use strong disinfectants to clean them afterwards.
Now that you know what hydroponic lettuce looks like and how it is grown, would you dare to have them at home and eat them always fresh daily?