Lettuce Sprouting Test 1/20/18 - Complete

[serri588]

I'm trying to find a way to sprout lettuce in a way that can then be safely transplanted into GrowGrips- foam plant holders for hydroponics. I bought some sand, which I think will be easiest to clean off the roots safely, but it was too dense for the seedlings to push through. I mixed it with a little potting soil, and it seems to be working out so far. Yup, the sand is purple, 'cause why not have a little fun with it. Unfortunately, I forgot to mark which variety this is, so it's "random Burpee lettuce from last year". I think I had a couple spinach seeds on the other half, but I haven't had a single one of those germinate here or elsewhere.

There are two plastic tubs on the bottom. The top one has a few holes punched in it to help keep the water from drowning the seedlings. I was using a third one as a cover, which I'm removing today. It's just sitting on top of one of my Ultras, which currently hosts a single watercress plant.

Fingers crossed they will do well enough in here to get them into the foam. I may water them with an extremely low concentration of nutes from now on to make up for the fact that they can't get any from the sand. The GrowGrips are an inch tall, so they'll need to stay in here for a couple more weeks before the roots are large enough to transplant.



Long description of why I am doing this:
Maybe I'm just weird, but one of the things I like about the idea of hydroponics is that it can cost less than buying the same food in the store. Going with AG machines makes the process much easier, but it also increases the upfront investment. I'm willing to put up with a decent amount of extra work to make this investment pay off. 

When looking at the costs of growing lettuce, the grow sponge is the largest variable cost, even with the less expensive Park sponges. The Maxigrow powdered nutes are maybe $.01 a month per plant, and since they don't flower and fruit, I don't need to worry about a Maxigrow/Maxibloom ratio. I got several packs of the AG sponges when they were around $5/50, but if you consider that a head of lettuce in the grocery store is only around $1-$2, a $.10 sponge is still a significant percentage of the total value of a head of lettuce.

To that end, I bought a box of GrowGrips- little foam holders for plants that are reusable. By chance, they fit quite well in the AG baskets. The downside is that they don't allow you to sprout in the foam, so I have to find a safe way to sprout the plants, grow them large enough to transplant, then safely remove the grow medium and transplant them.

The one area I'm having trouble with is how much lettuce I get out of one of my plants compared to one from the store. The cut and grow again method means I get more out of each plant, but it's harder to determine how much a single plant produced that way. Most of the numbers I try though, if I use the Maxigrow nutes, it will take aroud 1-2 years to break even. Assuming the light panels actually last the 3-5 years they are supposed to, and especially if they price the replacement panels reasonably, it makes the machines a pretty solid investment.

I haven't tried running the numbers on any of the other plants, like the cucumbers. They will likely be much closer to the break even point because of the amount of resources required to grow them. There are also some things, like the chamomile, that it's very difficult to get fresh dried, high quality product without growing it yourself. For those, there isn't much reason to price out the cost of the plants.

[MaryL]

A great concept, all around.  I’m excited to see how these go for you.

[drbanks]

I really admire your cost benefit analysis, but I've always viewed Aerogardens as a very satisfying, but not very cheap way to grow your own stuff.

It is when I came to this realization that I started narrowing my plants down to one of two categories:  Either things that are convenient to have in the house (like plants that I can graze on) and won't have to worry about going bad in the fridge (lettuce) or things that I can't easily find in the store, like exotic chili peppers.

I don't see myself ever being able to grow enough tomatoes that I'd never get store bought, but I do appreciate being able to pluck a cherry tom for a quick amuse bouche.

Basil, I could probably grow cost effectively, but with it, the problem's quite the opposite: What to do with all those basil leaves that, if left unattended, will rapidly crowd me out of my home?

If I could figure out how to grow onions or shallots indoors, it'd be cute to grow my own pico de gallo (onions, cilantro, tomatoes and chili peppers), but I see that as more of a stunt than anything else.

You are a serious grower!
I dunno...I use my machines as a hobby for growing plants primarily and food consumption and saving money at the market is incidental to me. I view the Aerogarden as a novelty, primarily.
Yet on the other hand there are serious folks like yourself and Pepper King Mike who dry, freeze, can, and store for cooking all year long, and some who see if they can grow to match their market consumption.
it would be interesting to hear from others on how they look at their AG-ing.
We did that once with knitting and found that there were 2 types: some were process knitters, and some were project knitters.

When AG first came out the sponges were gray cubes made from actual sponge similar to the sponges over the pump. The seeds had a tough go of it trying to get through the stuff, so they came out with a peat mix sponge since peat/coir is THE ideal for seed starting ..much more pliable.

[serri588]

I have a fiercely independent streak, so being able to grow most of my own food is a very attractive hobby. Growing at below market rate, just feeds that desire even further. When looking at mid-sized pre-made hydroponics systems, the Farm series is right about the same as others as far as price goes even including the commercial units. If it's a commercially viable price, then it should be good enough even at these small scales. The nutrients and seed pods are where they get a bit pricey and is probably where they make most of their money. Removing them from my process will help keep costs down dramatically.

I've already gotten the long wall between my kitchen and living room measured off. If I go two high I'll be able to fit 12 Farm Pluses in that space stacked two high. I initially thought it would take up to half of them just to keep me topped off on lettuce, but it looks like I only need two max for that. That will give me 10 minimum, plus the Bounties, Harvests, and Ultras for longer growing crops like cucumbers, peas, and herbs.

When looking at what to grow from a cost vs. value perspective, it's not too tough. Leafy greens and squishy fruits are hard to ship, so they tend to cost more in the grocery store. As a bonus, they also lose nutrients as they sit, so homegrown lettuce will be better for you than store-bought. Things like root vegetables store well and are easy to transport, so they are generally cheaper in the store than you can manage in hydroponics, and since they aren't easy to grow hydroponically it's not worth it from a financial perspective.

I'm with Dawn on the shallots- I'm trying to think of a good way to do those in the AG, but I think if I do them it will have to be in containers. While onions are cheap, shallots get quite expensive for some reason, so they may be worth it since I prefer them. I have a few 12" pots, but I need to buy lights for them since my apartment doesn't get enough, even if I put the plants on the windowsill.

[Shawn]

Aerogardening to me is a hobby.  I same money on herbs as I have not had to purchase basil, oregano, thyme or cilantro for that matter.  I make sure I keep stock in these and I save them via the freezer.  I love to grow different peppers if for nothing else then for Mark and I to try different ones but I will always use them in my cooking as well.  I will always have either a Jalapeno or a Sweet Heat growing as they are faves.

With all that said this is a Hobby I enjoy!

[drbanks]

I will say that my freezer's got a few bags of specialty hot peppers, and the fridge is starting to show a collection of mason jars with pickled peppers.

Last night, I made some shrimp in tomatoes with a bunch of Bulgarian pepper rings for spice.  Tasty.

[drbanks]

I might also add that having a dozen farm plusses sounds fabulous, but given my recent downswing in mood (and therefore motivation), I doubt that I'd be able to keep up with the nutes/water changes.

[Shawn]

Jan 30, 2018 14:09:40 GMT -5 drbanks said:

I might also add that having a dozen farm plusses sounds fabulous, but given my recent downswing in mood (and therefore motivation), I doubt that I'd be able to keep up with the nutes/water changes.

With less units you may start to enjoy the whole process again.  With so many I think you may have gotten overwhelmed with the water changes etc.  Now you can focus more on the ones you have and enjoy them again  Not that you lost the joy but you wont have as much "work" with them.

[drbanks]

I'm down two Harvests, and two of the other three will be terminating soon.  I've also got an extra that's not doing anything.  Soon enough, I'll be down to three bounties, two extras and the farm.

And, I'm about to terminate one of my powergrower buckets.  Maybe all three.  Leaving the EcoGrower and the Rainforest which have been frankly underwhelming me lately.  At least with those, I've got electric pumps (controlled by phone app) to move all the water.

[serri588]

I can see how this could get to be a lot of work with more units. So far I haven't found the ones I have to be burdensome, and the necessity of taking care of them is actually getting me off the couch for something other than work. While I like having the plan, I am trying not to add any more machines at the moment, and when I do start buying again it'll be one or two a year.

[MaryL]

Jan 30, 2018 14:09:40 GMT -5 drbanks said:

I doubt that I'd be able to keep up with the nutes/water changes.

I’ve never been able to keep up with the tight water change schedule you kept, let alone the monthly schedule the company recommends.  Mine are lucky if they get a water change every 2 months.  Have my plants suffered as a result?  Maybe.  But not much.  I enjoy the hobby so much I don’t want to introduce too much work into the whole thing such that it turns me away or becomes a chore instead of fun.

I love having herbs available when I want them.  The other night for company I made a mini cheesecake for dessert, and for garnish I plucked a beautiful rosette-like sprig of Corinne’s Greek basil and placed it right on top.  It was perfect.  And so fragrant, everyone commented.  Now would I have bought a whole thing of basil at the market just so I could add that marvelous yet simple touch, like the cooking magazines say to do??  No way.  

AG makes fun stuff like that possible for me.  Along with the standard workhorse uses in my cooking.  All without pesticides or dirt or bugs.

[serri588]

Today I'm transplanting the first of the plants. I'll see how it does for a few days before I do the next.


After carefully pulling up the plant and the sand/dirt around it, I dunked it in a shallow bowl of water. As I was hoping, all the sand just fell right off, leaving clean roots for the AG. I'll let the water evaporate so I can recover the sand for reuse.



Popping it into the GrowGrip, there is a decent amount of roots poking out the bottom of the foam.





Popped it into the AG. The foam does a pretty good job of filling the plug, so I shouldn't have to worry too much about algae growing even while the plant is small.



As best I can tell, there's at least 1/2" of roots down in the solution, so that should be plenty to get the plant some food to grow some more roots. I'm extremely curious to see how this works out- if it does, then I think I've found my sponge-free system. The plants seem just fine sprouting in the dirt/sand mix and the roots washed off with a minimal amount of damage.

Thanks for posting this tutorial of your step by step experiment. Very interesting!

[MaryL]

I love this!  I’m very curious to see how it grows.  Thank you for the pic by pic.  

[Shawn]

Great play by play.  Now we watch

[serri588]

I got impatient since the last one is still looking strong after 24 hours. I was going to wait a few days, but I went ahead and did the rest. I popped some green onion seeds into the sand, I'll try those next.

I realized the one thing I didn't show yesterday is the plant with all the gunk still on it. This is the first one I pulled today, and I ended up breaking some roots. I scooped a much larger chunk for the last two, and got similar results to yesterday.



There is still maybe 1/2 of roots poking out the bottom of the foam, so here's hoping that's enough. I made sure the Farm was completely topped off.

[serri588]

The two with the shortest roots didn't make it. Still, I'm satisfied with 50% success on the first trial.

I managed to get a lot less root damage on this second run by supersaturating the sand with water to loosen it up. There were a couple lettuce plants that sprouted along with the onions, and I managed to save enough roots to get them longer than the plastic inserts. I plopped them into the Farm right away and they are doing fine- so I'm 100% on those three so far.

The onions had shallower roots, so I took advantage of the fact that the GrowGrips are designed to float and put them in a shallow dish of water with just a bit of nutrient. Today there was enough algae that I needed to change the water. A couple onions had enough roots, so into the farm they went. The rest are still in the low-nutrient water until the roots get long enough to go in the AG.


My next observation is whether the AG lettuce pods I popped in a few weeks ago outpace the GrowGrips plants. The first set does seem to be slow growing, but I've got the space to spare if they are going to take longer to get established. I'm hoping that once they do get going, they keep up with the sponge rooted plants.

[Shawn]

Still following

[serri588]

The lettuce got stuck into the Aquasprouts along with some AG lettuce. The result between the two was about the same: aerogardenaddicts.com/thread/544/aquasprouts-garden-lettuce-27-18

I've tried some peas and some Stevia seeds in the same setup with no results. However, neither one of these seem to have very good germination rates, so the setup may not be to blame. It does seem to work just fine with lettuce.