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Lettuce Raft Aquaponics-5 tips for Growing Lettuce

Posted by Nana Hinsley on Fri, Nov 14, 2014 @ 01:43

Are you ready to toss a fabulous salad with lettuce that you grew yourself?lettuce just picked resized 600 It's much tastier, healthier, and fulfilling to know you grew this lettuce yourself. In no time you will have your own lettuce on the table.

Lettuce in lettuce raft resized 600

Tip #1: Get a Beaver Plastic Lettuce raft (click here) which will float on top of the tank/aquarium you are going to use for your aquaponics system.

Tip #2:  You will need a container to hold water.  An aquarium or any clean container that can hold more than 10 gallons of water will work.

Tip #3: Next you need a means for moving the water around and a way to filter it. Your filter needs to pull water through the gravel to promote bio-filtration. Either an air pump and air stones can be used, or you can get power heads that have an active water pump that draws the water up the riser tubes of the filter. This method is called a RAS raft system or Recirculating Aquaculture System.

If you are wondering why we are not adding fish to the aquarium- Some people contend that if you float rafts in fish ponds, the contaminants in the water cover the roots, keeping them from absorbing the water and nutrients for them to grow.  In an informal side by side test, the plants without the fish did much better.

Tip # 4:  Aquarium gravel is a must- so much so that you will need 2 inches of gravel to put under your filter.  Aquarium gravel is preferable since int won't leach into the water.

Tip #5:  Now you need the seeds and the grow media that you will place in the lettuce raft.  

Tip #6.  pH seems to be the key to life in so many areas.  It's the key to the success of your growing lettuce in your lettuce raft as well.  Get a pH test kit to maintain the proper pH.

Tip #7:Good light either from a window or a grow light is a must.

With these few components you have the start to growing lettuce in your lettuce raft. 

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Tags: lettuce raft