Day 37 for my plants are looking not too shabby. There’s visible growth and the it’s looking more like a proper butterhead lettuce.

Looking nice and green.

Starting to slowly wrap up.

Based on what I read over the internet, I should be able to harvest around day 50, which is about soon. Will post and update then.

From the pics above, we can clearly see that it is not “leggy” and it’s now slowly beginning to “wrap” into a proper lettuce. Looks like there it’s gonna be successful this time round.

Butterheads on the Left

Butterheads on the Right

If you look carefully, there’s a stark difference between the picture on the left and on the right.

The plants on the left seems very ‘leggy’ whilst the ones on the right are shorter and stubbier.

This is interesting as both of them are germinated on the same day and they are growing under the same lighting. Let’s see how this goes after a few days.

I blame poor lighting as the cause of my first failure therefore version 2 concentrates on having a better lighting system.

Remember the rack I mentioned in the last post?

It now houses my aeroponic grow box and lighting system.

2 x Philips Compact Fluorescents

I chose 2 x Phlips 20 Watt Compact Fluorescents for the lighting. This will dish out about 2500 lumens and hopefully this time round it the butterhead will look more like a butterhead. So here’s a pic showing the lights on.

Bright enough eh….

So if it fails to grow this time I shall give up…. or maybe not. I’ll just try to grow something else. Hehe..

Does it look like butterheads to you? Guess not. Looks like a bunch of weeds. Here’s a close up.

The leaves are definitely growing. But it just doesn’t seem like it’ll morph into a butterhead anytime soon.

Initial research on this matter does point to the lack of light, causing the ‘trunk’ to not strengthen and support plant. My plant is now kinda leggy and can’t support itself.

It’s back to the drawing board for me. I’m not giving up. I’m now thinking of designing some better lighting for the growbox and will attempt the butterhead again. Will post up my 2nd attempt when I start it!

Noticed something very subtle yet important.

See how the sprouts are all tilted to the right?

Obviously survival is the instinct of all things living. The window is on the right of the growbox where light comes in. So all the sprouts naturally grow towards that area, reaching with their might to get more light.

Well, that aside, I do have to deal with something about my seed germination that I’m unsure of.

I have 2 sprouts in each netpot

I probably can’t grow 2 butterhead lettuce in each netpot. So I think I’ll have to pull out one of them. Sigh.. Should I prepare another growing box and transplant it over? Seems like such a waste to do that. Time to think..

Grown at least 1 cm since.

Most of the seeds from the other netpots have started sprouting as well, with the exception of one. Hope will see something when I get back from today. Here are a few other pictures.

2 sprouted.

Another single seed sprout

See that ONE tiny leaf sprouting!

I’m seriously elated right now! Here’s a flashback on the timeline.

26th Jan 2008, 12 Midnight : Started the system.
27th Jan 2008, All Day : Check on net pot … nothing (definitely won’t germinate so fast, just pushing my luck )
28th Jan 2008, 5pm : Check on net pot … nothing (I was on leave afternoon, that’s why I’m home at 5pm)
28th Jan 2008, 11pm : Casually check on net pot.. spotted something. One seed germinated!

Wonder if I’ll see more sprouting out when I wake up tomorrow morning. Really looking forward to it… Wish me luck.

The main intention is to attempt to grow something in my hdb flat. And what better than to grow some lettuce for salads and stuff. Anyway, I’ll keep the story short and show more pics of the whole setup.

We need an aquarium pump, PVC pipes, PVC joints, net pots, opaque plastic box

Drill some holes to place the netpots.

Use a holesaw to do this.

Remains of the cover after being sawed.

All holes drilled and netpots in.

Drill holes at the PVC pipe to direct water to the netpots

Attach the pump to the pipe and test the water flow.

Check if water sprays into the netpot

Final check if all water streams hit the net pots. Add nutrient solution and cover up.

Fully assembled! Finally!

Fill netpots with leca balls and growing medium (vermiculite)

Place the seeds in. Two in each netpot. (butterhead used)

Well, that’s about it so far. Anyway, I didn’t really go into step by step detail as well as explain how aeroponic (mine is not true aeroponics by the way) works. Let’s leave that till next time if my seeds do manage to germinate. No point me telling you guys all that if it’s a failed project. So stay tuned in the next few days. I’ll put up a post if i succeed in germinating the seeds.