The plugs of vegetables were installed on Thursday June 28th. There are two 2x4 tables, one growing in a medium that has no nutrients, basically just a peat mixture, and one growing in a 2x4 hydroponic table that was created for this experiment. I also cleared out a 2x4 plot in garden and planted the vegetables as a replica of the tables.
Each 2x4 plot has 17 plants: 3 smooth leaf lettuce, 2 oak leaf lettuce (rough edge), 2 red lettuce, 2 red swiss chard, 1 yellow swiss chard, 2 mustard greens, 2 kale, 1 set of onions, 1 baby boc choi, and 1 radicchio. The 2 boxes get direct sunlight for about 11 hours during the day. The garden space gets about 12 hours of sun a day.
The first couple of days, I tried my best to keep the direct sunlight off of the 2 tables. I left everything alone for the weekend, and I'm seeing good growth already!
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Table 1 is doing very well, the chard is growing the fastest. Each vegetable has grown a couple centimeters this week.
The hydro table is doing well also. The chard, lettuce and kale are staying strong and have grown a couple centimeters.
My garden plot is holding it's own, but I have not seen growth yet. I hope the lettuce is not too delicate for this area. We'll see in the next week. Everything is still alive, though!
I haven't added any water to either table. Table 1 seems to be keeping moist, however I will be adding nutrients to the soil in a few days.
Have a great fourth!
Hi Jamie - Thanks for your first post!
I checked out the label on the Sunshine MVP potting mix: 25-35% sphagnum peat, remainder is pearlite, vermiculite plus dolomitic lime. Online at the manufacturer's site I saw that it also had a "starter charge" of nutrients, but I couldn't find out what that means anywhere on the site.
I've had to water my potting mix table twice, but with the brief showers the last two nights the moisture level is good. I peeked under a couple of the net pots in the hydro tank and saw that roots were emerging from the pots and heading down into the nutrient. My table was planted about 5 days before yours so that probably won't be happening for a few days for you. I;ll make my first salad harvest this weekend. Won't be much yet, but it is a start.
Very interesting that the garden plot is starting out the slowest. I suppose it will catch up soon. My concern at the moment is that the species and varieties I gave you might really struggle in the heat or bolt quickly. However, I'm finding the green lettuce (supposedly not adapted to heat) growth to be really quick, so it is doing fine at the moment.
Looking forward to your next post.