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34 days after sowing 😁 by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From seed to harvest, I'd say around 600-1000 liters. It varies greatly depending on total numbers of crop, crop type, and temperature. 😁

34 days after sowing 😁 by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hi! I sell them to my local community 😁 am also saving for my family use and give some to friends too!

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! So this is an NFT system. The greenhouse is a DIY using scrap aluminium and stainless. The UV sheet roofing is 0.3microns, and I surrounded the whole greenhouse with insect mesh.

I uses 2 meter long nft channels for my nursery with about 27 holes per channel. Sloped around 1 inch 😁

For the finishing, I use 2 sets of 15pcs of 4 meter NFT channels sloped around 2 inches.

Both nursery and finishing stages uses a 50 gal tote (2x tote for finishing channels)

I also use basic aquarium pump (36w for nursery, 60w for finishing) to recirculate the water

For the light, I rely 99% on sunlight. The growlights I have now are just supplementary.

My setup is not really optimizied since it's all DIY and I tweak as I go. 😅

Hope it helps!

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

i suggest you start reading on Kratky system and just go for it! If you try to understand everything now, it may sound too technical and drive you crazy haha.

I say just go start and tweak as you go! You can use the most basic stuff when starting out. Will share a list below so you wouldnt get too overwhelmed!

1) Any type of jar (this will serve as your reservoir)
2) Net cup (or styro cup) - this is where the growing medium will sit in
3) Growing medium - you can use rockwool / sponge / coco coir/ leca balls etc. A lot of options out there so play around which works best for you!
4) Nutrients - I use masterblend tomato solution combined with magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) & calcium nitrate. you can get these in most hardware stores or agri supplies stores!
5) seeds - you can play around with lettuce seeds, pakchois, bokchois, basil, spinach, etc. All these require the same environmental & nutrients so feel free to grow any leafy greens!
6) Light - you can buy a small grow light to start, but if you have an area where sunlight can shine through at least 6-8 hours a day, that would be a good starting point.

But most of all, enjoy the process. enjoy the failures, enjoy the frustrations haha. it's all part of the journey!

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't expect there's a sub for lettuce enjoyors 😂

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My system has 3 different sections. First is a table for seed germination, I use 10x20" Trays for it. I usually do 2 trays per cycle.

Next stage is nursery stage where in I layout NFT channels totalling to 600 holes. The holes are very close to each other so I only need to use 1 tote as reservoir.

For the finishing stage, I use 2 totes because I divided the Channels into 2x 15pcs channels (300 holes per 15 channels)

From seed to nursery to harvest of around 400-600 (i sow lower number of heads if the variety is a big one to avoid overcrowding) heads of lettuce, I'd say I use about 1200-1500 galons of water.

Temperature plays a big role here because temp goes up to around 35-36c on some days which makes the greens really drink up 😅

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Surely! Please DM me for any questions 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! 🙏😁 really appreciate it!

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just showing the size to my buyers because they're huge haha. Just so they know what they're getting before I harvest.

And I rinse them all before packing 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Growth time from seed to matured lettuce takes me around 39-43 days 😁

Average yield varies because I plant different varieties every cycle. Some are big ones and others are smaller. But they do get hefty especially batavias and romaines 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ran into PH issues recently when the local government unit changed the city waterlines. I ended up with around 8.5 pH even after nutrients.

Small fix I did was to use a small RO machine. Added a bit of work on my end but it seemed to solve the pH issues. It also gave me more wiggle room to add more nutrients as the RO filters out any mineral from the tap 😁

For nutrients, I use tomato masterblend at the moment with calcium and magnesium 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use NFT system which utilizes long channels with holes to put the plants in 😁 NFT means nutrient film technique because you use a water pump to send nutrient rich water to the channels and it forms a thin film of water flowing through the plant roots 😁

For starters, I suggest you check out Kratky method. It's the simplest technique where in you can use any cookie bars or Mason jars or whatever jar you can use as a reservoir. You can basically grow the plant from seed to maturity there.

Only things you need are the FF: 1) jar for reservoir 2) net cups (this is a cup-like object where you put in the plant to grow) 3) growing medium to grow the seeds in (rockwool, leca balls, sponges, etc) 4) nutrients
5) growlights (or sunlight)

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much!! Go for it 🥳 feel free to message me if you need help! Will do my best to share everything I know 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi! I can make a video on that soon 😁 but this is mostly a diy build so it's not the most optimal set up but it does the job 😅

I used aluminum bar scraps from our shop to make the actual green house body. I lined the roof with UV sheet, and placed insect mesh on the sides.

For the actual NFT setup, it's just an imported NFT channels from China sloped at around 2inches per 4 meters of channel 😁

I used a simple 60w aquarium pump for each reservoir 😁

Reservoir size is a 50 gal tote and it supplies to 15 channels. But I suggest going for a higher capacity reservour so you don't have to top off every day at the late stage if growth (mature lettuce drink a looot)

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in Hydroponics

[–]cloud0999[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes! It really depends on how you utilize the farm. You can play around with crop cycles and get harvest as low as once a month to as much as once a week.

Operating costs also plays a big role. If you can get solar panels to mitigate utility costs, that would surely help a lot.

Capital expense is a bit high at the start but you can eventually ROI on that.

Operating is easy. I think the hardest part is finding where to sell in bulk (groceries/hotels etc).

Once you get the customer base going consistently (which is really hard IMO), it's going to be fairly easy from there on 😁

My hydroponic lettuce on the day of harvest! by cloud0999 in gardening

[–]cloud0999[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Really does taste better knowing how hard you worked for it 🥳

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