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Hydroponic lettuce is simply the easiest thing I've grown. I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often. I bought an Agrobrite 4 bulb T5 light on Amazon t

Hydroponic lettuce is simply the easiest thing I've grown. I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often. I bought an Agrobrite 4 bulb T5 light on Amazon that runs 216watts. The math works out to $15/month if running 16 hours a day. It takes about 2-3 weeks for the 9 seeds to start, but I was swimming in lettuce in no time. It tastes excellent too. Search for Jeb Gardner on youtube for some entertaining lettuce videos grown in an office environment.

mythrwy 8y ago
Seems like Mesculan type greens would work well with that setup. Can harvest in a little over a month (well outdoors, I don't know with that light but maybe similar). It's mixed type greens, mustards, lettuce etc. Cut when leaves are about the size of the business part of a spoon. Cut it so it comes back and you can get 3 or 4 cuttings per planting. Plant it successively (i.e every week or two plant another section) so it's constantly available. Faster to harvest, more sustained harvest, and it tastes better than lettuce because you can put little greens like collards and arugula in the mix. Indoors you'd avoid the insect troubles that plague these tiny greens outside as well.
- mikekchar 8y ago
  The other cool thing about this is that you can let one go to seed and you will be swimming in seeds as well (though it's tricky to manage the light height because the flower stalk is quite tall). Hydroponics are not just great for food, they are awesome for people suffering from lack of light exposure in winter months. When I lived in Canada, I used to put a 4 foot long plant stand with fluorescent daylight bulbs along each wall of my apartment. I can't remember how long I had the light timer set for (probably 14 hours). It's incredible the difference. These days you can get creative with various LED solutions and probably do even better.
idoh 8y ago
I happen to be growing lettuce (and other things) in my office at work, and I can also attest to how easy it is. Only issue is that they need to be watered every other day.

mythrwy 8y ago

Seems like Mesculan type greens would work well with that setup. Can harvest in a little over a month (well outdoors, I don't know with that light but maybe similar). It's mixed type greens, mustards, lettuce etc. Cut when leaves are about the size of the business part of a spoon. Cut it so it comes back and you can get 3 or 4 cuttings per planting. Plant it successively (i.e every week or two plant another section) so it's constantly available. Faster to harvest, more sustained harvest, and it tastes better than lettuce because you can put little greens like collards and arugula in the mix. Indoors you'd avoid the insect troubles that plague these tiny greens outside as well.

mikekchar 8y ago
The other cool thing about this is that you can let one go to seed and you will be swimming in seeds as well (though it's tricky to manage the light height because the flower stalk is quite tall). Hydroponics are not just great for food, they are awesome for people suffering from lack of light exposure in winter months. When I lived in Canada, I used to put a 4 foot long plant stand with fluorescent daylight bulbs along each wall of my apartment. I can't remember how long I had the light timer set for (probably 14 hours). It's incredible the difference. These days you can get creative with various LED solutions and probably do even better.

idoh 8y ago

I happen to be growing lettuce (and other things) in my office at work, and I can also attest to how easy it is. Only issue is that they need to be watered every other day.