Lettuce i
s loved by many people for its high nutritional value and higher content of vitamin A, vitamin A1, vitamin B2, calcium and iron than some squash and fruit vegetables. Its leaves are crunchy, sweet and refreshing, and it is often eaten in vegetable salads.
Since people are more concerned about their diet and health, many people choose to grow organic vegetables at home, and growing lettuce has become a popular choice. This is because lettuce is easy to grow and has a short growing cycle. If you grow lettuce indoors through hydroponics, you can get a harvest within 30 days.
Simple steps for growing lettuce and environmental control
Before you start growing lettuce indoors through hydroponics, you should first understand its properties. Lettuce prefers a cool environment and is neither cold nor heat tolerant. The appropriate temperature for lettuce growth is 15°C-20°C, and it is better to keep 12 hours of light. If you can’t provide lettuce with 12 hours of light every day, a quality vegetable grow light will provide a great help. As mentioned before, growing lettuce is simple. You only need to pay attention to the following points, then you can easily harvest lettuce.
1. Lettuce growing process
(1) Seed germination
For uncoated seeds (cabbage type), use warm water to soak the seeds and kill the bacteria. First, put the seeds in hot water at 45℃ 50℃ and soak them for 20 minutes. Then put the soaked seeds in a moist cotton cloth or towel to germinate, and sow the seeds when they show the white rhizome.
(2) Sowing (1-10 days).
Nutrient solution use: Use a lettuce nutrient solution with an EC of 1.0 for lettuce seeds, and control the EC fluctuation range from 0.5 to 1.0.
The nutrient solution does not need to be increased in concentration within the EC fluctuation range.
(3) Growth to harvesting (10-30 days)
Nutrient solution use: The EC value of nutrient solution are controlled between 1.5-2.0.
2. Lettuce growth environment control
(1) Light time and intensity
Light time should be maintained at 12 hours per day after sowing.
Light intensity during seedling stage: 220-250uoml/m2/s.
Growing period light intensity: 250uoml/m2/s.
(2) Temperature
The ambient temperature should be maintained at 20-23℃ when the light is on.
The ambient temperature should be maintained at 18-20℃ with the lights off.
Nutrient solution temperature should be maintained at 18-22℃.
(3) Humidity
Relative humidity should be maintained at 50%-80%.
Notes for growing lettuce
1. If heartburn occurs in lettuce, shorten the light duration to 8 hours, or reduce the light intensity by raising the height of the light board to relieve heartburn symptoms.
2. When the temperature is consistently higher than 25℃, it will make the lettuce leaves soft and stale with a bitter taste.
3. In addition, high temperatures can impact the absorption of calcium and cause rotting of the lettuce. Lettuce has a strong resistance to cold, short-term low temperatures below 0℃ will not prevent its growth.
Conclusion
This is the whole process of growing lettuce using hydroponics. As long as you can grasp the cool-loving characteristics of lettuce, control the ambient temperature at 18-23°C, and let the plants get plenty of light, growing lettuce will become easy. If you haven’t started growing vegetables indoors, growing lettuce will be a good choice.
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