Sweet, cant wait to see it all set up and producing

Built a small ebb and flow a month or so ago for a propagation table.. The lettuce is overgrown for what it should be but time didn't permit a speedy build of the raft setup

Lettuce looks healthy, ive seen a lot more crowding than them. Is this for sale production? 60 heads a week is a ton of lettuce, need some maters, onion and peppers for salad. Lol

Yes this will be used for production. Will be selling to a local restaurant and health food store. The lettuce pic was taken yesterday morning, it has already grown so much. Tomorrow I should have one shelf with rafts growing. Plan is to have the remainder shelves done one week after the other. Will see, two little ones running around may delay progress. Most of my progress happens at 2am when I can't sleep.

Nice, not that lack of sleep is but progress is great. I'm half in the hold of doing production for a few ppl. Ive got more demand for maters and peppers vs lettuce so i started those first.

Sweet setup. Lack of sleep never really bothered me at least. Here I don't think it matters what you grow, there is demand for everything locally grown in my area. I orginally started w basil in a nft system. Too labor intensive at harvest (I'd trim, not harvest whole), inefficient setup, smaller inconsistent market size, and net profit wasn't good (great learning experience). Lettuce seems to pencil out fairly nice, will see what reality brings. Plans are to establish a market for 90% of what I grow and use the remainder to bring around (and consume myself of course!) to drum up additional business. From there I will attempt to create contracts with set prices and expand. This is more of a small run w the intent to scale up, given economics are satisfactory. Currently tracking all costs and time associated with each task within the process. Hardest part for me is knowing what the large whole salers charge and tracking their price fluctuation, thus why I want to make contracts at a profitable price.

What kind of yields are you seeing/expect?

T5's for now. Got a good deal on 8' fixtures w bulbs. Will likely test some LED's as time goes on.

Not sure on expected yield, hoping for enough food for 4-5 families. All this is new this year so ill just have to hope for the best. Im piecing it together as i go, the room has enough space for 40 buckets. ilI figure once a week ill build a new light and start 5 more buckets.

That was probably the hardest part for me starting out, guessing yield on my first go to obtain a buyer. Have only been growing seriously for about 6 months with a break in there between my basil and this lettuce.

Rick- I'm shooting closer to 240. I estimate 60 a week not per shelf. Will see what reality brings.

I also set this up so I can test areoponics in each level. Will establish a base with rafts and try one level with areoponics to see if the investment is worth it for this system/ expansion purposes

A few new photos

Looking good, i bet you are excited to see the cubes sprouting. Thats always the funnest time of a project, and the harvest.ill be looking forward to more progress pics as it goes. Gives me some ideas if i run out of room.

It's been a fun build thus far. Knowing I have sprouts going really makes a person stay on track.

Sweet, hope the profits are great. Looks like the layers could be very effective. What breed of lettuce are you using?

buttercrunch. It's too bright with the white rafts (need fan for cooling, about 90 on raft surface), burning eyes bright in a few minutes. Will need to look at led's or a pair of shades. Definitely keeping door shut.

Need todo some upgrade mods on my propagation table. around the flood and drain there is constantly water and the rock wool doesn't hold up well after 2 weeks of soaking. Probably try build a platform to get it out during the drain period.

anyone know what the commercial raft growers use as a medium? As of now I use 1 x 1 rock wool and wedge it in a 1" hole to support itself. I will see what a mess the roots cause trying to pull them out come harvest. May end up cutting the roots off and push through the bottom so I do not ruin the rafts after each grow. remaking these after each grow would cost a fortune in labor. If I were to expand beyond my basement I would be contacting manufactures to make them for prices. I would prefer to sell these as live lettuce if possible.

Nah rockwool doesnt like being soaked. They make a pretty cheap product for raising tile off of a basement floor that is kind of like a nylon/poly/plastic honeycomb looking pad that might fit your application. About 3/4 inch thick and fairly cheap....might work for your application.

The commercial grows ive saw using rafts were suspended over a 4" or deeper water table and the lettuce razored off the top then the plugs pushed through the bottom. Trying to sell as a live plant seems like a total pita as keeping the roots separated enough to pull through the raft would seem near impossible.

Definitely heat issues from my lights. 90 degrees at plants and water went from 70 to 80 (fan running as well). Will likely let it ride to for experimental purposes. Will pull a few bulbs if these bolt for the next transplants.

Here is the growth progress thus far. The far left raft was transplanted after 14 days and the remainder on that shelf was after 15 days. 1 extra day in propagation sure helped.

Many issues regarding room controls. I but a weather monitor with extra out door sensors that I am using. Worth the $35 to get min/max Temps of each day (at each sensor too) and humidity. 68 at night and 82 during the day. Am going to cut a 6" x 24" hole in my return duct to see if that helps.

I also ordered a bluelab neutrient tank monitor, excited for its arrival. I sent my water in for a full micro and macro analysis. I am working w a professor from ndsu for nutrient optimization.

Did you scrap the batch that was started on the 13th of Dec?

I commented on your raft growth problem...never got a response if the holes were cut the entire way through the raft.

I am having amazing success with GH maxigrow and lettuce if you would like I can post the npk and micros or you can find their msds and copy it with base chemicals

Maxigrow at 600-650ppm 30 Days

Harvest was a little shy of a pound per head. 3.25 lbs a sq fat

Maxigrow label

Did not scrap the batch, this was planted around Dec 11. I apologize not replying, but yes they are cut through.

Feel free to paste the information, but I have used them before and was spenyd if I recall? What do you figure your nutrient cost per plant is with it?

I think my main issue is water/air temp.

the bag is $12.99 +tax, i use 3tsp/4gal of tap water. I get about 400 gal out of a bag soo 100 buckets with 4 plants pr bucket. 400 heads of lettuce per $13.88 Of nutes. So 28.8 cents per head of lettuce. It is pricier Than some commercial nutes but is ph buffered and im doing kratky method so i set n forget. I dont test/check/touch it till harvest. Fool proof!

I was kinda putting it out as just a good base that im having great success with. I am sure you could create your own mix that copycats it with large bags of separate salts and come up cheaper. I also know that you can get bigger bags of it than what i have purchased at a lower price /lb So it might be worth seeing how much a 25# would cost.

Chuck, would I need to use different nutes between dutch buckets and my nft setup for lettuce? That 10-5-14 is quite a bit different than my current formula. I'm going to throw a couple plants in a db and was just curious.

I'm interested to see what is recommended for neutrients and how they will compare. I know they will be different, but how different I'm excited to find out about.

Got my bluelab guarding monitor hooked up. Learned a few things, #1 being cheapest pen testers off eBay aren't worth it. When I actually plugged it in and calibrated it, my ph was near 2...which I knew reality would be lower, but didn't anticipate it being that far off

2 ???? How in there hell did it get that low? Ive never experienced that low of PH ever in any of my systems. Supprised it didnt burn the roots right off. You could take that solution...add a few lead plates and start a car lol

I'm assuming you drained n changed the solution. Is your solution 1560ppm? If so thats about 3x the ppm you need. Ive had best success with 500-600. Save ya some $ on nutes only running 1/3 you are now.

I wrote dwhofer Over on his thread if you were interested in my suggestions on nutes in his bato buckets. Didnt wanna hijack your thread. Just now read back and saw your interest.

My pen ppm tester said it was 750 ish if I remember last time I checked. As I said the El cheapo testers off eBay aren't worth it. Both the ppm and ph tester were way off. Even had calibrated my ph tester a few months ago, guess it was a waste of time and money.

I have not changed my solution yet. No point until I get my water tests back from the lab. My lower level was around 700 ppm. It's a work in progress. I also have a nft system I will use the high ppm solution to dilute with and add water to lower the higher ppm solution. It will work it self out or it will be changed here in the next few weeks.

With a higher water temp some of your neuts become locked up, which is likely why I haven't have burn. Guessing the ph is affected as well

Has been a while since my last post, so here is the latest photos of my system. The largest changes that have been made is the nutrient formula. I have had my water sampled by the local college, forwarded the results to a professor who balances soil/water nutrients, and gave me a recommendation on needed macro and micro nutrients. From there I had to combine my math and chemistry skills from 2003 to figure out what I needed in terms I understood. Still have some nitrogen to add when it comes in, but have the rest in order.

I will note the roots, you can see the finer hairs on the mains did not come in until the micro's were added/balanced. I say balanced because if you have an excess of one nutrient I has the ability to lock up other nutrients

I am having poor root growth out of the propagation table. I am hoping by creating a space below the medium the roots may reach downward.

Anyone have any good ideas to aid in root development?