February, and here in the frozen north we are starting to think about gardening again.
For me, that involves a thought experiment on growing greens, indoors. Given the success of last years gallon Kratky bibb lettuce trials- (see post on 5-7-2020)- I've been trying to reason out how to get continual harvests to satisfy our salad requirements. There's only two of us, so it might be do-able.
So here's the framework of the experiment:
- We like three kinds of greens- bibb, romaine, and spinach
- Last years lettuce harvested at 9 weeks. Could have been a week earlier. Assume 8 weeks for all three greens
- Gallon Kratky last year was more solution than a single head of bibb needed, prolly by a factor or three or four. Thought I'd try two heads in 6 quart container- plastic shoe box actually. don't want to reduce the solution too much as I suspect toxins may build up too quickly in a small quantity. Paint the clear box to deter (hopefully prevent) algae growth.
- We consume greens at the rate of two plants of each type every two weeks, more or less. Supplying all our greens means we need six plants every two weeks. Given the estimate 8 weeks from sprout to harvest, I'll need to have 24 plants- 12 planters- spaced from sprout to mature on a constant basis. That translates into 6 to 12 linear feet of shelving and lighting.
I've yet to work at that scale. Might be too much organization for me to handle. Stay tuned.
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