Quote:
Originally Posted by kevin24018
so I'm in a 7a zone, hadn't thought about artificial shade, great ideas! I'm thinking of checking the local grocery stores for free food grade buckets. Icing buckets are smaller than the 5 gallon, which are probably much deeper than I would need. But I could add some plumping to make a recirculating setup.
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Remember, for lettuce, they only use 1-2 gal of
nutrients over their lifespan, per plant. Instead of buckets, look for under bed storage totes. They can be found at Wal-mart, Lowes, Home Depot. If you're using 8" spacing, 4" of water depth will give you just over a gallon per plant. If the tote is transparent or allows light to penetrate, you can paint the outside of the totes with plastic safe paints to block the light. Black first, and then white to reduce heating by the sun. Or you can make some covers out of white/black poly as an alternative. I've used poly with good luck, and no algae. Pails are more suited to larger plants like tomatoes and peppers.
Not sure how many plants you're planning on growing. A decent tote will produce 15 or so heads of lettuce. A large kiddie pool is a cheap alternative if you want to grow a lot of lettuce. Then there is just building custom waist high setups out of wood, lined with plastic. Easy to drain, and work with the plants.