Aquaponics - NFT coz lettuce

My original, repeat harvest coz lettuce are at the end of their productive life, and have to be retired.

This is the first time I've been able to check to see how my plastic cup system is working.

I let a few go to seed so I can collect it for ongoing production, but all I need is one plant because they produce so much seed. The result is I'm ripping up and composting the rest.

They have a fair size root system, although nothing compared to the spinach that was only half their age.

This is the root ball that was inside the cup.

I'll need to learn a little more about lettuce, and make sure that it's not this tight root mass that's causing the plants to go to seed.

It doesn't really matter if it is, because we got a stack of lettuce from them as we were harvesting them as they grew by just cutting leaves as we need them.

The lettuce required quite a pull to get it out from the plastic cup as the plant had expanded, and pushed the grow media (scoria) into the sides of it. If I hadn't let them grow on and go to seed, this wouldn't have been as much of an issue. The stems get quite think and woody as they get older.

As usual this camera doesn't do a very good job of low contrast subjects, but I think you can see it a bit.

The cups all came out in reusable condition and I'll let them dry out in the sun to kill off any mould or beasties growing on them, and then reuse them for another batch.

In the mean time I've been planting their replacements for a while now, and have eight or so at various stages of development.

This time I plan on not taking leaves off as they grow, but rather waiting until they form a heart, and harvesting the entire plant at once.

The vague plan is to make some kind of comparison.



120 things in 20 years, not just Aquaponics - NFT coz lettuce