No sir, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Do you have pictures you can post?

Yes, you will need to hand water until the roots reach the level of the nutrient.

Willard, I don't have any pictures to post at the moment.

Thanks, Adriana. What do you use to hand water them?

Thanks again for the quick responses.

Jim

Your design is the same as mine. I would keep the bubblers to oxygenate the water too.If you can fit a small (cheap) centrifugal aquarium waterpump to your system in order to irrigate the plants, all would work fine.

A simple watering can will be fine.

Hmm...That kind of raises the question of how much of the media pot should be immersed in the nutrient solution and how much capillary action occurs in the particular media being used.

And what is the best "capillary level" to root ball distance? I'm guessing it should be equal to the middle of the root ball. You think?

heembo,
Learn some ideas here.
Ed

Here is a link that might be useful: Learn here

Thanks everyone for the great follow ups! Great information on a very interesting subject.

Ed - your pages are very helpful to a beginner - spells out and ILLUSTRATES processes I was a little confused with. One more question for everyone - once the transferred seedlings start to really take off in the bubbler, do you have to "upgrade" their containers? Seems like this would be a royal pain in the backside...

Thanks!

Jim

Cornell has put out an online book on hydroponic lettuce production:

http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/fhlettuce.htm

As you see they change the raft hole size & spacing as the plants grow.

Lettuce is transplanted after 12 days:

http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/lettuce_production.htm#seedlings

The GW FAQ also has some propagation tips:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/hydro/2004062208017516.html

It is possible the peat will drop your pH although it may not affect your lettuce. Here is a PDF file on lettuce started in peat:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/greenhouse_veg/pdf/lettuceorgfert.pdf

Baci,
The website of Rutgers and the others you mentioned are super. Those are the sites I would like to see more of.
Ed

how big should the sprouts be before putting them in the cups????