Krispy's Kapers: Sure to Grow trial

Sure to Grow plug

SURE TO GROW

Today I received 24 Sure to Grow Clipper 2" media plugs. The idea is that these are the perfect size for putting into my Deep Water Culture lettuce and herb system. The plugs are made out of the same material that is used for batting/stuffing in pillows and sleeping bags. It is very loose and squishy, supposedly making it great to maintain a perfect air/solution ratio. We shall see.

The back two rows in the above picture are my six week old bib lettuces. They have been through hell and yet continue to press on. Here is the list of things that I have done to these poor plants:

Used water of horrible quality. High in iron, salts, and carbonates. That is why they took so long to grow in the first place (see below).
When I transplanted them into the DWC system above, I was still using the bad water and they developed a root fungus which nearly wiped them out. Out of the original 22 I was only able to save 11. However, now that they are in good water they are thriving, at six weeks they are where they should have been at two weeks.
Too hot of temperatures. When I first started around Halloween, the temperatures were in the mid 90s for awhile and the poor little guys didn't like that at all, especially combined with the bad water.

So hopefully this new batch will be able to do much better and actually produce a crop in 5 to 7 weeks like they are suppose to. This is good news because I am suppose to be leaving Florida in 5 weeks. I doubt that they would survive the trip across country, not that I would attempt it!

10/29/10 - Bib Lettuce 5 days old

11/17/10 -Bib Lettuce 3 weeks old

11/21/10 - Bib Lettuce 4 weeks old

12/6/10 - Bib Lettuce 6 weeks old

As you can see, the lettuce hasn't done so well. Hopefully that is all behind me now!

Broccoli!!

The broccoli has been growing like a weed in summer since changing the water to distilled water. Check out these pictures. The broccoli seems to do really well in a NFT system.