How to Grow Aeroponics Lettuce? Do you want to know how Lettuce can be grown using Aeroponics? Read this article.
Can you imagine a salad without lettuce or a burger without lettuce? NO, right? Because either we are eating healthy or junk, lettuce is the healthy hero of any dish.
Like other leafy green herbs or salads, Aeroponics is the most popular method to grow lettuce these days just like hydroponic lettuce. Vertical farming makes it easy for home gardeners to grow Aeroponics lettuce quickly within their small garden.
Why Do We Need Lettuce?
Lettuce is a prevalent Salad Plant; eating it can give us essential nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, calcium, potassium, etc.; it is a rich antioxidant source that prevents cancer and boosts our immunity.
It improves our skin texture and also keeps us hydrated. It is one of the primary sources of fiber that keeps our digestive system clean.
Is There Enough Lettuce Available In The market?
It is believed that Egyptians were the first to discover the benefits of lettuce and used it to cultivate it for medicinal and religious purposes.
Later in the 18th century, varieties of lettuce with better nutrition values were cultivated throughout the agricultural regions after subspecies and cross-pollination development.
Currently, in 2022 more than 100 countries are cultivating lettuce, and the annual world production of lettuce was more than 28 million tonnes. China is the world’s highest producer of lettuce.
Why Should We Grow More Lettuce?
According to many researchers, lettuce might help lower high cholesterol levels that often lead to cardiovascular diseases and heart attacks.
It is believed to reduce cholesterol and fat, the primary reasons for cardiovascular diseases.
It is traditionally used in umami medicine to induce sleep, and currently, it is believed to be a stress reliever; its effects on sleep can be compared with the best sleeping pills.
Antioxidants present in Lettuce act as obstacles to free radicals, which can attack our DNA to produce cancer cells in our body.
Thus we should grow and consume more lettuce to avoid these diseases.
Aeroponics Farming Of Lettuce:
Aeroponics farming is an advanced technique in which you can practically farm lettuce and other green vegetables in a controlled environment suspended in the air using vertical gardens.
Why Is Aeroponics A Good Choice For Growing Lettuce?
Lettuce is a year-round useful green vegetable that can be grown more practically by using recirculating Aeroponic. It is a soil-free system in which the lettuce roots are suspended in the air and wet with a fine mist of nutrient-rich water.
In Aeroponics, a temperature-controlled mist supply of the recirculating nutrient solution is beneficial for providing oxygen to Lettuce roots and reducing the chances of root rot diseases.
A massive issue of pest attack can also be avoided by using Aeroponics as it is practiced in a controlled environment.
Almost every variety of Lettuce can be grown by this method resulting in a better turnover with less expenditure.
Optimum Conditions for Growing Aeroponic Lettuce:
Lettuce is classically a cool-season plant that can be severely affected by weather; thus, we need to consider these requirements for a healthy Aeroponics Lettuce garden.
| Temperature: 16 to 18 °C during daytime |
| Temperature: 11 to 12°C during nighttime |
| Nutrient salts with Electrical Conductivity): 1.9 to 2.2 mS/cm |
| Nutrient solution Ph.: 5.8-6 |
| Nutrient solution essentials: Phosphorus, Calcium, Nitrate Nitrogen, iron, zinc, boron, Sodium Molybdate, and Manganese. |
| Humidity: 70 to 80 percent is generally required during lettuce cultivation |
| Time duration: 6 to 12 weeks, depending on your seed |
Types of Aeroponic Lettuce Seeds You Can Grow In Your Garden:
Almost every type of lettuce can be grown using Aeroponics, but the most popular varieties are:
| Oak leaf lettuce |
| Romaine lettuce |
| Butterhead lettuce |
| Lolla Lettuce |
| Loose Leaf Lettuce |
| Crisphead Lettuce |
| Little Gem |
| Bibb Lettuce |
| Frisee Lettuce |
Method to Grow Aeroponics Lettuce:
In an Aeroponic system, leafy greens and salads like basil, Lettuce, and pea shoots are the most common crops. Lettuce is the favorite due to its year-round growth and better return value.
The Aeroponic system allows us to grow Lettuce with a greater taste and nutrition than the traditionally grown in the supermarket.
Aeroponically, Lettuce can be grown using a vertical garden with A-frames with a nutrient solution sprayed on its bare roots where its roots are suspended in the air and sprayed with a fine mist at small intervals to provide oxygen, water, and essential nutrient to grow.
How To Setup Lettuce Farming in Aeroponics From Its Seed:
Tower Garden or vertical garden technology is the best choice. When you want to grow Aeroponic lettuces.
In a Tower Garden, growing lettuces will produce excellent results from bigger crop yields to a greater nutrient density and better levels of antioxidants and flavonoids with an increased shelf life.
Using Tower Garden, you can grow a variety of lettuces in your home following simple steps.
| Step 1 | Arrange your Aeroponic system according to the user instructions guide. |
| Step 2 | Select a bright sunny area to Place your Aeroponic system so it can receive bright sunlight for at least six to eight hours daily on the ground. |
| Step 3 | Next, we must organize our rockwool cubes on a waterproof tray. |
| Step 4 | Arrange your trays where the temperature is 16 to 18 °C during the daytime and 11 to 12°C during the nighttime. |
| Step 5 | Keep the rockwool cubes into the Aeroponic system net pots when lettuce seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall. |
| Step 6 | Mix your nutrient-enriched compost in water and fill the Aeroponic system reservoir. |
| Step 7 | Keep on adding water unless desired p.H is obtained |
| Step 8 | Use air conditioners to keep the room cool, and the air circulating. |
| Step 9 | It will take 45 to 80 days until your Lettuce is ready to harvest. |
A similar method can be tried to grow it from its stem by keeping the stem of the lettuce in water to propagate new roots so we can grow it Aeroponically in our Tower Garden to reduce waste and re-use the same lettuce. Still, it’s not as cost-effective as the above method and will take more time.
Benefits of Growing Lettuce through Aeroponics:
1. Practical Farming Method for Producing Lettuce:
It uses less water due to mist spraying, selected nutrients due to targeted nutrient liquid fertilizer, and produces a hundred percent pesticide-free Lettuce, making it a superior farming method for producing high-value lettuce to traditional farming methods.
2. Most Economical Farming Method:
No doubt its initial investment cost is more than traditional farming. Still, its ability to quickly save costly nutrients and water gives a better nutrient Lettuce crop, saving money in the long run.
3. Frequent Harvest Cycles:
Lettuce crops can be harvested within a year with 45 to 80 growing and harvesting; you can have multiple harvest cycles of lettuce compared to traditional farming.
Usually, selected varieties of Aeroponic Lettuce like butterhead produce 360 heads/ cycle at 12 cycles per year, producing 4,320 heads per year.
4. More Farming in Less Space:
Lettuce plants are stacked vertically in the Tower Garden, and within a small gardening space, a large variety of lettuce or a large quantity of the same lettuce can be grown; it is a profitable method for people with small agricultural land.
5. Sustainable & Environmentally Friendly Lettuce Production:
Controlled Environmental conditions in Aeroponics that retain the plant’s transpiration rate keep it healthy. Enriched nutrient water doesn’t let it rot or is sensitive to pest attacks; it keeps the environment healthy and produces a sustainable lettuce crop.
6. 100 Percent Use of Pesticides is eliminated:
The biggest advantage of Aeroponic is that it is a soil-less method, so chances of pest attack are negligible as their roots are suspended in air, and no soil is present to transport roots through pests.
Even if a pest attacks any leaf of lettuce, you can remove that leave so the whole plant will not be damaged.
7. Other Reasons to Grow Lettuce through Aeroponics:
The following are fundamental reasons we should grow lettuce through Aeroponics
| It uses less water, at least 80 to 90% than hydroponics or other farming methods. |
| It always re-uses nutrient solution, which is very costly and usually wasted in the traditional method. |
| It requires less space as plants stack vertically, not horizontally like traditional farming, which saves space and plants more in small space |
| It requires less space, and the lettuce plants are also less weight, making them convenient. |
| An excellent aeration system in Aeroponics increases roots’ water uptake by mist spraying, producing healthy Lettuce in less time. |
How to Grow Aeroponics Lettuce FAQs
Q1. How can we grow Aeroponic Lettuce?
We can grow lettuce in the Aeroponics system by misting its roots with nutrient-filled fertilizer water and recirculating the solution over several weeks in a Tower Garden.
Q2. How much time does it take to grow Aeroponics Lettuce?
It takes at least 45 to 80 days, depending on the quality and type of seed seedlings used.
Q3. How many hours of sunlight does Aeroponics Lettuce need?
Aeroponics lettuce needs bright sunlight for at least six to eight hours daily.
Q4. How fast does Lettuce grow in Aeroponics?
It grows at least three times faster than traditional farming; you can harvest Lettuce throughout the year at intervals of 45 to 80 days.
Q5. What temperature does Aeroponics Lettuce need?
It requires 16 to 18 °C during the daytime and 11 to 12°C during the nighttime.
Also, check below Aeroponics Planting Tips
- Growing Saffron Using Aeroponics
- Aeroponics Vs Hydroponics Vs Aquaponics
- [8 Steps]: How To Grow Tomatoes Using Aeroponics
- How To Grow Aeroponics Basil On A Tower Garden
Final word:
Finally, we can conclude that Lettuce is such an important crop from our health point of view and as Aeroponics grows three times faster, everyone must learn how to grow Aeroponics lettuce? Hope this article will clear it for you.
My name is Olivia, and I live in the United States and love having plants in my garden. Lots of plants are there on my balcony, indoor and outdoor garden also. Here I am trying to share useful gardening tips, how to grow and care for various plants, etc.
