Hope

We have some major improvement in our plant growth. The lettuce is growing crisper and the banana peppers a growing stright up as well. The Sunlight semmed to be the biggest problem in our plant growth. We did start to, with the addition of more sunlight, have more algae around the top of our system. We’re pretty sure that’s because of the heat of our system in combination with our system being transparent. The algae growth didn’t seem to hurt the growth of the plants. The ph remained around 6.5 and the temperature stayed at about 96 F.

 

Day 48

We finally have some plants growing that aren’t droopy. Turns out it’s all about that amount of sunlight that the plant is getting. After moving our plants so they get more sun they now look like this,

Good News

Since we’ve switched sides and placed our system under the other light our plants have been growing much healthier. The lettuce seems to be doing well no where near as droopy as it was the last time. Also, the banana pepper plant is sprouting and seems to be doing very well.

We have been trying to monitor the water temperature, but since we’ve moved the plant it’s been a lot better so our earlier problems may have been because of the light issue mainly not so much the water temp.

Day 28

We were having problems with our plants being too scraggily and not crisp.

The water when I checked it was about 97 degrees which is way too high. We opened the one corner of the lid to allow more air in to hopefully cool the water down a little bit.

After that I replanted the droopy plant we still have and this time tried to reduce the amount of water that was hitting the plant by adding little risers at the bottom of the plant cups.
I also tried a new type of seed in the replanted plant. because lettuce is a cooler growing plant I tried using banana pepper seeds this time because they have a higher growing temperature than lettuce, plus they’re really good.

Day 21

We checked our plants today and saw that they weren’t getting any less droopy.

We felt like maybe the roots couldn’t get through the rockwool to the water so we replanted another set of seeds and loosened the bottom of rockwool. We place the seeds a lot deeper in the rockwool this time as well.

Also when we checked the pH level of the of the water. It came in at 7. After researching a little more about lettuce and proper pH levels for growing we found out that 6-6.5 was a better pH level for nutrient absorption. We used a pH lowering solution to decrease the pH.

Day 15

Earlier today in class when we checked our system there was some definite growth in our lettuce. Unfortunately the plants seemed to be drooping a little bit, I hope this doesn’t become a problem in the future. Our system is running very well and is extremely sturdy while also being small and easily disassembled. The main problem is I feel like we are giving the plants to much water at a time. I’m thinking about adding some type of cover to the nozzle on the water pump to more evenly spread the water out in more of a mist type manner.

Day 1

Our system is an Aeroponic system.

Our system is two connected containers. The bottom container is much bigger than the top container. The bottom container holds the solution and the water jet. The top container holds the two separate sets of lettuce seeds. The bottom container is covered by a shower cap. The smaller plant holding container is placed on top of the shower cap and is strapped down by a thin rope to ensure the system is tight and together.

The solution from the reservoir below our plant is shot up via a water jet to the top container. We made a water nozzle to increase the pressure and disperse the out going water in a random mist type way. There are two small laundry detergent containers that hold the rock wool and plants. Both plant holding containers have holes drilled into the bottom of them to limit but allow the amount of water entering the rock wool. The excess water shot by the water jet is collected at the bottom of the top container resting on the shower cap, and is drained into the bottom container (the reservoir) to be used again.

The Hydro Farm light is turned on from 7:00am to 9:00pm, providing 14 hours of light.

We used:

Lettuce seeds, a gallon bottle, one gallon of water, a teaspoon measuring set of spoons, Crop King Hydro-Gro (Part A and B), two containers, a shower cap, about three inches of hose, a marker cap, about twenty inches of string, an eight by eight wood board, two brass hook screws, two loop screws, one water jet, three laundry detergent caps, hot glue, table saw, hole saw, hammer and nails, and a drill press.