Today, every meal begins with a salad and there are compelling arguments for this.

The fact is that raw vegetables and greens do not require a large amount of gastric juice for digestion, but their appearance in the stomach provokes the active work of the glands that secrete it. As a result, “heavy” food eaten after the salad enters an environment favorable for digestion, which makes eating healthy and comfortable. Today we will tell you about growing lettuce on the windowsill and in open ground.

Useful properties of salad

Modern nutritionology (the science of nutrition) believes that the ideal start to any meal is lettuce. Several substances give salad its beneficial properties. The alkaloid lactucin gives the salad a bitter taste, but at the same time quickly activates the secretion of gastric juice and speeds up metabolism several times. Lettuce leaves also contain a large amount of carotenoids, which help maintain visual acuity and youthful skin for a long time, and daily use 100g of this salad will help prevent Alzheimer's disease in old age.

The B vitamins contained in the salad cause its calming effect on nervous system, and also improve sleep and normalize blood pressure. Young lettuce leaves and stalks of cabbage varieties contain a large amount folic acid, which has a beneficial effect on the reproductive function of the body. The beneficial properties of lettuce make it a must-have dish on the menu of people who are sick diabetes mellitus. This indispensability is explained not only by the fact that the salad is low in calories, but also by the fact that it contains a large amount of vitamin K, which is able to regulate blood clotting.

Variety of salads

Growing lettuce begins with choosing varieties. Today there are more than a hundred types of lettuce, differing in shape, color, taste of leaves and ripening period. All species are conventionally combined into two groups - leafy and cabbage. As a rule, all plants are consumed in fresh, and yours too beneficial features The salad is stored for 5 hours after cutting from the root. They can be stored at temperatures from +10C to +40C and air humidity of 90%. It is in this state that lettuce is stored on supermarket shelves, but growing lettuce on your own plot and with my own hands, of course, makes it much tastier and healthier.

Lettuce is an unpretentious plant

Lettuce is an annual plant of the cruciferous family. Like most representatives of this family, lettuce is a light-loving and cold-resistant crop, and fast deadlines ripening, from 35 days, allows you to get an excellent harvest of vitamin-rich greens in early spring. This is such an unpretentious crop that lettuce seedlings can successfully develop in an apartment on a windowsill.

How to grow lettuce on a windowsill

To grow lettuce on a windowsill you will need:

• Container

The volume of the container for growing lettuce directly depends on the type of plant. If you plan to grow a succulent rosette large leaves, then you should choose a container based on 400 cm2 per root, that is, the width and length of the container should be at least 20 cm, while the depth of the container should be at least 25 cm. Head lettuce seedlings require a large area - 900 cm2 (30X30), accordingly, the depth should be at least 35 cm.

• soil mixture

The structure of the lettuce root system presupposes the superficial occurrence of the bulk of the roots, therefore the soil for growing this plant should be as moisture-intensive as possible so that thin roots can upper layers the soils did not dry out. The optimal ratio of ingredients in a soil mixture for salad is: 1 part garden soil, 1 part peat, 1 part compost. On a bucket ready mixture you need to add 1 kg of sand, 1 kg of wood ash, 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska, 1 teaspoon of urea.

• Drainage

In this case, it is better to use synthetic winterizer as drainage. Folded in several layers, this material is capable of not only absorbing excess water when watering, but also creating a favorable microclimate on the windowsill by passively humidifying the air.

• Polyethylene film

Plastic film is necessary to create a greenhouse effect over the seedlings.

• Spray bottle and watering can

Young juicy lettuce leaves need large quantities water. A small root system is not able to fully satisfy this need, so daily spraying of plants will help them correctly and fully form a tasty and healthy harvest. When purchasing a watering can, you should pay attention to the gander. Since over time the salad forms a dense forest of greenery on the windowsill, it will not be easy to get to the opposite side of the container, so the watering can’s gander should be long and thin.

• Liquid fertilizer

Intensive growth of lettuce is possible with adequate nutrition. Every week it must be fertilized with any complex liquid fertilizer. If you prefer organic fertilizers, then once a week you should feed the plant with an aqueous solution of mullein (1:10)

• Daylight lamp

To successfully grow lettuce from November to February, additional lighting is required in the evening. A fluorescent lamp suspended above a container with plants at a height of 50 cm will fully compensate for the lack of sunlight.

Early ripening varieties are suitable for growing lettuce on a windowsill, for example Odessky, Maysky, Mustard leaf, Kochanny, Moscow leaf. Seeds are sown in a row in a container filled with ready-made soil mixture. As a rule, lettuce seeds have excellent germination, so you should not thicken the crops. After sowing the seeds, the soil is compacted with a paint roller and watered, then a plastic film is stretched over the container.

In this state, the container is kept on the windowsill until the first shoots. As soon as the first shoots appear, the film must be removed and the seedlings thinned out. Further care for lettuce on the windowsill consists of watering, spraying and weekly feeding with fertilizers. Under no circumstances should you loosen the soil in a container - you can damage the surface roots, and the plant will slow down its growth for a long time. After 30 - 35 days you can already enjoy the first juicy lettuce leaves.

How to grow lettuce in open ground

You can also get early young lettuce greens in your garden plot. There are two options for forcing early greens - the seedling method of growing and winter sowing of seeds.

Growing seedlings

Growing seedlings is fraught with certain difficulties, so before choosing this method of growing lettuce, you need to weigh the pros and cons.

The first difficulty is choosing the sowing time. Despite the fact that lettuce is a cold-resistant plant, a short-term drop in temperature below −20C can be fatal for it. In this case, seedlings at the age of 14 days should already be transplanted into open ground, since there is already little nutrition for the plant in a peat-humus pot. Therefore, seeds should be sown 14 days before the air temperature is expected to reach above zero.

The second difficulty is that lettuce does not tolerate transplantation, so seedlings should be grown either in peat-humus pots or in peat cubes. The mixture for filling the pots is prepared in the same way as for growing lettuce on the windowsill. Seeds of 2 are sown in filled pots or cubes. then the seedlings are thinned out, leaving one plant in the pot. After a week, the plants are fertilized with any liquid complex fertilizer or an aqueous solution of slurry (1:10). At the same time, hardening of the seedlings begins - the gradual adaptation of the sprouts to the open air.

Winter sowing of lettuce

This option is ideal for getting an early harvest of lettuce, because in the spring the seeds will hatch exactly at the moment when the threat of severe frost has passed. Lettuce seeds should be sown in already prepared soil, and for this you need to add 1 bucket of compost, 1 kg of wood ash, 3 tablespoons of nitrophoska, 3 teaspoons of urea per 1 m2 for digging. At the end of October, lettuce seeds are sown in rows on the formed beds. The distance between the rows must be at least 30 cm, the seed sowing rate must be doubled, since during the winter nature itself will carry out natural selection - some seeds will freeze, some will be eaten by mice.

Lettuce care

In the spring, the first thing to do is remove excess plants and sow seedlings. As mentioned above, lettuce has shallow roots and therefore needs a large nutrient area, so the distance between plants in a row should be 25-30 cm, the distance between rows should be 30-40 cm.

A short growing season will require systematic watering. Lettuce will respond positively to spraying and the application of complex fertilizers. The salad does not need to be loosened; moreover, during this procedure the surface roots of the plant can be damaged.

Pests and diseases

The worst enemy of lettuce in the garden is the slug. You can only get rid of this pest manually.

Lettuce is susceptible to diseases such as downy mildew, gray and white rot, and black leg. How to treat with chemicals tender greens If it is impossible, then the only way out is to tear out and burn the diseased plant. You can prevent the occurrence of such diseases with the help of proper rotation of crops on the site - lettuce can be planted in one place 3 years after any representatives of cruciferous plants grew there.

Harvesting

Lettuce varieties reach maturity within 30-35 days after sowing the seeds. After the first collection of leaves, the plant can be left in the garden and after 2 weeks a second harvest of useful greenery can be collected. You can extend the presence of lettuce in the diet by re-sowing the seeds in early May. Unfortunately, the summer harvest will be the only one - with increasing temperatures and dry air, the plant will tend to bolt.

Head lettuce is ready to eat once the head has formed. You can get another harvest of such a salad - after cutting a ripe head of cabbage, the plant is left on the root and within a week young trunks with a head of cabbage will appear on the basal neck. One head should be left on one plant, and the rest should be carefully removed. This head of cabbage, of course, will be smaller in size than its predecessor, but in taste and nutritional values he will not give in.

Lettuce is a crop with a short ripening period. There are several types of lettuce, these are half-head, leaf, romaine, head and asparagus. The most famous and common are leaf and cabbage. Gardeners especially often grow leafy lettuce, since it has the shortest ripening period.
In the leaf variety, the plant forms a rosette consisting of 6 - 12 leaf blades 30 days after the plant emerges. Lettuce seeds remain viable for up to 3 years.
Seeds can be sown in spring and autumn for seedlings to emerge in spring. The salad contains many vitamins and is very healthy, exhibits and medicinal properties, as it normalizes digestion, calms the nervous system, improves metabolism, and improves sleep.

Nowadays, there are many varieties of lettuce; they differ in leaf shape, color of the leaf blade, degree of yield, and resistance to adverse conditions.
Lettuce varieties have become very popular among gardeners: Ballet, Tornado, Moscow Greenhouse, Dubachik, Zabava, Dubrava, Izumrud and others.
Leaf varieties of lettuce must be planted at a distance of 35 cm. Seedlings appear on the 4th - 5th day under favorable conditions and fresh seeds. The most suitable temperature for growing lettuce is between 20 and 22 °C.
Semi-pumped varieties form a raised rosette in the middle with a loose head of cabbage. These varieties have a mid-season ripening period. The seedling growing method is more suitable for such varieties, but it can be grown by sowing in open ground. The variety of hybrids is very large, the most popular hybrids are Festival, Berlin yellow, Stone heads. And new varieties: Podmoskovye, Lolla Rossa, Azart, Gribovsky Kudryavets.
In addition to good taste, these salads are also beautiful.
Red-leaved salads are highly dependent on weather conditions, which affect the intensity of leaf color and the degree of edge corrugation. But this does not make them lose their popularity. After all, lettuce is often grown not in flower beds, but in beds. Such salads acquire a richer color in the fall, although growth slows down.
Late cabbage varieties: Iceberg, Large-headed, Crispy Kudryavets Odessa.

Growing lettuce
Lettuce is a cold-resistant crop with a short ripening period, so gardeners often sow it before winter or early spring. Seeds germinate at 4°C. Seedlings are less resistant to cold. Lettuce needs watering and spraying to increase air humidity for plant growth and health.
Lettuce is a light-loving plant, so the cabbage varieties stretch out when there is insufficient light and the head of cabbage forms loose and small. In dry weather, the flower shoot forms faster and the leaves acquire a bitter taste.
Lettuce can be grown in open ground and in greenhouses. In greenhouses, with low air humidity and temperature fluctuations, flowering increases.
The lettuce seeds are small, so when sowing it is recommended to mix the seeds with sand 1 to 1 so that the sowing is more uniform, and sow superficially in transverse furrows with a distance of 15 cm between them.
In the beds for sowing lettuce, it is necessary to add humus with superphosphate and potassium sulfate or nitrophoska and soluble on acidic soils, adding dolomite flour. Since lettuce does not like to grow in acidic soils.
Before sowing lettuce, you need to select larger seeds; sprinkle the furrow only with loose sand, a thin layer, to avoid the formation of a crust, which can reduce the germination of the seeds.
It is imperative to thin out the seedlings in order to get good rosettes or heads of cabbage; you can thin them twice if the entrances interfere with each other’s growth. The first thinning is carried out by making the distance between plants 5 cm, with the second thinning up to 20 cm. The plants do not need to be thrown away, but planted in another bed.
In order to have freshly picked salad on the table all summer, it is recommended to sow with an interval of 15 days; in the summer you need to sow mid-season and late varieties lettuce, they do not so quickly enter the phase of development of shoots (peduncles).
The latest time to sow is in early September in open ground and for greenhouses in October-November.
The salad should be watered at least once a week, when there is no intense scorching sun. It is recommended to water cabbage varieties along the rows, and leaf varieties- sprinkling method.
Fertilizers must be applied to the lettuce crop in the beds or fed during the summer. Lettuce is very responsive to the addition of urea.
Leaf varieties can be fed once, but cabbage varieties require two feedings due to a longer growing season.
In addition to urea, you can fertilize the salad with mullein, bird droppings, vermicompost, or complex mineral fertilizer.
To get the salad on the table earlier than usual, it is recommended to grow it indoors by growing seedlings.
To grow lettuce in greenhouses, it must be sown under film at a temperature of 18 degrees. The emergence of seedlings begins on the 3rd day.
When most of the seedlings hatch, lower the temperature by 3 degrees. At the stage of 1 - 2 true leaves, the seedlings must be transplanted. When the 4th true leaf is formed, it must be planted in a permanent place of growth, so that the root collar of the plant is at ground level, otherwise it will rot.
The experience of gardeners suggests that to increase the speed of plant development, it is necessary to cover the crops with non-woven material.
Head lettuce varieties grow well in greenhouses through growing seedlings.
Leaf salads can be eaten at the stage of 6-9 leaves, i.e. after 20-30 days from the day of sowing. You can not break out the entire plant at once, but selectively the leaves. When the bush loses its attractiveness, it is cut off with scissors. If storage is foreseen, the leaves should not be wetted; they will rot quickly. The root should not be left in the ground over the winter, as this leads to the proliferation of aphids.
Headed types of lettuce reach maturity at 50 - 60 days, then the head of cabbage will reach a diameter of 8 - 13 cm or more. After the maturity stage, lettuce leaves they begin to taste bitter.
It is recommended to store the salad at a temperature of 0 to 10 °C in airtight packaging.
Lettuce is susceptible powdery mildew marginal burn.

Seedling head lettuce

To grow lettuce, only cassette or potted seedlings are used (peat cubes are also suitable for this) because the seedlings cannot tolerate damage to the root system.

Lettuce should be planted very shallowly - so that the peat cube is not completely buried in the ground and rises 0.5-1 cm above the soil level. When planted in depth, the lower leaves are affected by fungal diseases and rot. If phosphorus and potassium fertilizers have not been applied for plowing since the fall, you can apply them to the beds during planting.

The seedling method is most suitable for growing head lettuce.

Growing lettuce seedlings is done in two ways: with and without picking. Without picking, lettuce is sown in pots measuring 5x5 cm, and when growing seedlings with picking, lettuce is sown in boxes 20-25 days before planting in the ground. For the first 2-3 days after sowing, the temperature in the room is maintained at about 20 °C, and after germination, before the formation of the first true leaf, it is reduced to 10-12 °C.

The soil mixture for salad through seedlings is prepared from materials available at hand: lowland peat, high peat, sand, sawdust, lime, mineral fertilizers, microelements.

Plants are picked at the stage of one true leaf. After this, the temperature is maintained within 16-18 °C during the day and 10 °C at night.

Head lettuce seedlings are planted in the ground in the second half of May, when severe frosts have passed. Lettuce planted with seedlings requires almost no care before harvesting, only watering it in case of drought.

Lettuce is best grown in areas where crops such as cabbage and potatoes were grown last year, that is, those crops for which organic fertilizers (manure) were applied.

Head lettuce

Saline and alkaline soils with an acidic reaction, as well as heavy and clayey soils, are not suitable for salad. In general, the salad is quite unpretentious. A good harvest of this crop can be obtained if the soil contains humus and proper mineral nutrition.

Before growing lettuce seedlings, soil preparation should begin in the fall of the previous year. First, you need to carefully study the species composition of the weeds and, if there are perennials (thistle, bittergrass, wheatgrass, field bindweed, etc.), give them the opportunity to grow, and then treat the soil with a herbicide. After this, you need to wait 10-12 days for the herbicide to completely penetrate the rhizomes and destroy the weed. After this, the main tillage begins.

If the soil in the area is saline, add gypsum; if it is acidic, lime it. On soils with low phosphorus and potassium content, appropriate fertilizers can be applied for plowing. Next, the soil is dug up to a depth of 22-25 cm and immediately, in the fall, cultivated with harrowing, leveling. For planting, choose a well-warmed area with a southern slope.

How to feed lettuce seedlings to get fresh greens early dates? The soil is fertilized with humus (3-4 kg/m2) and mineral fertilizers: ammonium sulfate (20-30 g/m2), superphosphate (35-40 g/m2), potassium salt (10-15 g/m2), and when increased acidity- lime (300-600 g of lime per 1 m2).

Lettuce seeds are very small, and they have to be planted at a shallow depth, so the soil is prepared very carefully: in the fall and spring it is dug to a depth of 25-28 cm, carefully breaking up lumps and blocks and leveling it.

The video “Seedling Salad” clearly demonstrates how to grow this crop:

Growing lettuce in open ground does not cause any trouble to the summer resident, and there are many benefits from it. Lettuce contains almost all groups of vitamins and many minerals: potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, iodine, copper, molybdenum, boron, as well as organic acids. Eating lettuce leaves promotes proper digestion, speeds up and normalizes metabolism. There is only one obligatory condition - the leaves should not pass through heat treatment, i.e. The faster they come from the garden, the more useful they are.

Temperature and humidity conditions.

Leaf lettuce is a cold-resistant, light-loving and moisture-loving crop, like radishes. The needs of these cultures are also practically the same. A good decision will sow radishes and lettuce in the same bed. They will protect each other from pests.

Lettuce seeds begin to germinate at +4 +5°C, so they must be sown immediately after the snow has melted, in slightly warmed soil. Seedlings can safely withstand frosts down to -2 -4°C, and strong plants with 4 - 5 true leaves can withstand temperatures down to -6 - 8°C.

The optimal temperature for plant development is +15 +20°C; it is in this temperature range, provided there is sufficient soil and air moisture, that active growth of green mass begins. As the temperature rises above +20 +25°C, the plant produces less greenery, withers and shoots out seeds. Also when elevated temperature Seeds do not germinate well, so you should not wait until real summer to sow lettuce.

Leaf lettuce is demanding of sun and light and does not like to grow in deep shade. It is preferable to plant it in open sunny areas in early spring. If you are late with spring planting, then plant lettuce in shaded areas. The scorching hot sun completely stops the growth of lettuce, so try to shade the seedlings with other crops.

Lettuce cannot develop without plenty of moisture in the soil and air. Therefore, it is advisable to water it every day, and better evening(after sunset). Moreover, it is better to water by sprinkling, wetting the leaves with water too, but not in the heat.

What soils?

The best thing leaf salad grow on loose soils with large quantities organic matter and microelements, while the acid reaction of the soil should be neutral or slightly alkaline from 6.0 to 7.2 pH.

Acidic, saline, heavy clay soils are not suitable for growing lettuce. Otherwise, the salad is unpretentious, i.e. It grows well on sand, and on loam, and on black soil, and on carbonate soils.

It is necessary to prepare beds for leaf lettuce in advance, in the fall. It is advisable to use those beds that have been fertilized. In the fall, they need to be loosened and, if desired, rotted manure or compost added at the rate of a bucket per 1 m2.
We leave everything as is until spring.

Due to the fact that the root system of lettuce is not buried, the soil must always be kept loose and moist.

Varieties

For open ground:

• Emerald, Robin,
• Ballet,
• Dubachek MS,
• Kritzet,
• Rizhsky,
• Odessa curly haired man,
• Leafly,
• Eurydice,
• Red Credo and others.

In the spring, as soon as the snow melts, we cover the bed with black film so that the earth warms up faster. After a week, remove the film and sow the lettuce seeds.

Important! To speed up the emergence of seedlings, you can build a greenhouse with a transparent film over the garden bed. Optimal humidity will be created under it. When the shoots appear, the film can be removed for the day and covered again at night.

We make grooves up to 2 cm deep, the distance between the grooves is 15 - 20 cm, depending on the type of lettuce. The bushier the variety, the greater the distance required.
Water the grooves with warm water and scatter the seeds. You can try to sow so that one seed is 2 - 3 cm deep, or you can not bother at this stage and sow with a continuous ribbon, and then thin out the seedlings. Planting depth is 0.5 - 2 cm.
Fill the grooves with soil.

Important! Lettuce is convenient to grow as an additional crop in beds with radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, zucchini and other crops.

Shoots should appear in 5 – 7 days. After the appearance of 3–4 true leaves of the lettuce plant, it is advisable to thin out. Therefore, we pull out the excess ones, leaving one plant at 5–7 cm.

We carry out the second thinning when the seedlings have 6–7 true leaves, leaving a distance of 15–20 cm.

For growing in a greenhouse:

• Moscow greenhouse,
• Lollo Rossa,
• Odessa curly haired man,
• Rizhsky.

In a heated greenhouse, lettuce can be grown all winter; in an unheated greenhouse, you can start sowing on March 1. The soil is prepared in advance, sowing is carried out shallowly - 0.5 cm is enough, you can fill it with soil or peat. To grow lettuce in a greenhouse, a thermos greenhouse is quite suitable for you, which is easy to build with your own hands

Otherwise, the technology for growing lettuce in a greenhouse is practically no different from growing it in open ground. It is necessary to create optimal temperature and humidity conditions and ensure that diseases do not appear. There is only one feature: the greenhouse must be ventilated. Only when the weather is very cold can the ventilation be turned off.

In open ground conditions, the surface of the lettuce leaves and the soil dry out quite quickly in the wind. This does not happen in a greenhouse. Therefore, watering must be done by drip and the soil surface must be kept dry. Falling onto wet soil, lettuce leaves begin to rot very quickly. And increased soil moisture leads to the appearance of root rot.

For growing on a windowsill:

• Red credo,
• Odessa,
• Lollo Rossa,
• Lolo biond,
• Grand Rapids.

Any early ripening varieties with a not too developed root system can be grown at home all year round. Only in winter, when the sunny day is very short, is it necessary to supplement the lighting with lamps.

For growing lettuce on a windowsill, ordinary pots for indoor flowers with a height of at least 10 cm are suitable.

Be sure to add drainage (expanded clay, pebbles or other material) to the bottom in a layer of 2–3 cm. Fill the pot with soil from the garden with the addition of rotted manure and sand. We make small depressions in the soil, no more than 0.5 cm. The distance between the holes is 2 - 3 cm. We spill them with water. Then put 1 - 2 lettuce seeds in each hole. Sprinkle with soil and water with water. Cover the pot with cellophane film.

It is best to place the pot on the windowsill on a glassed-in loggia, since leaf lettuce does not like too hot air and high temperatures that can await it on the windowsill above the radiator. It will be just right on a glassed-in loggia.

After 5 - 7 days, lettuce shoots will appear. We remove the film. Now you need to make sure that the soil under the lettuce does not dry out. We constantly water the plants and arrange a “shower” with a spray bottle. Definitely only in the evening.

When the height of the leaves reaches approximately 8–10 cm, you can pick them and eat them. Approximately 5 - 7 weeks after sowing, the entire lettuce bush can be consumed. Then it is advisable to cut the bush completely, leaving only the root. Just a little more, a week or two, the plant will be edible, tender short leaves will grow, but then it will send out an arrow with seeds. Then remove it from the pot completely.

Care

Caring for leaf lettuce crops consists only of timely watering, loosening the soil and removing weeds.

It is necessary to water once a day in dry weather and 2 - 3 times a week in cool and cloudy weather. This is best done by sprinkling after sunset. You can’t water salad from a watering can on a hot day., as wet leaves will wither.

It is not necessary to fertilize, since the crop is early ripening. It is better to add all the necessary microelements in advance. Only in exceptional cases can you combine watering with fertilizing by adding a little manure to a bucket and carefully hanging it in the water.

Control lettuce pests with chemicals it is forbidden. You can use only natural remedies, garlic infusions, biological products.

If a disease is detected on a lettuce plant (root rot or other), it must be completely removed immediately so that the disease does not spread.

Harvest and storage

You can harvest the salad when its leaves have reached the optimal length for consumption, i.e. at least 8 cm. You can pick individual leaves and eat them on the same day or pick the whole plant and store it in the refrigerator.

You can pick lettuce leaves only in the morning in dry weather, since wet leaves are not stored even for one day. After the leaves have been picked, they are carefully placed in plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator. There they can lie for up to 1 - 1.5 weeks, then they will begin to deteriorate.

At room temperature leaf lettuce is not stored. Only when reduced. You can wash the leaves only before use and it is advisable to dry them immediately, otherwise they will lose some of their taste.

Leaf lettuce is a spring-autumn plant. Grow it in summer hot weather quite difficult, and not necessary. By that time, a sea of ​​other useful and delicious herbs. But in early spring, salad is a salvation from vitamin deficiency and spring depression.
Sow and eat for your health!

Agricultural technology of greenery:

In the spring, we planted lettuces and greens in three separate hydroponic systems to find out which fertilizers grow the most. delicious harvest. The test participants included dill, basil, cilantro, sorrel, parsley, celery, lettuce, arugula and mint.

Equipment:

Hydroponic system: AeroFlo
Fertilizers: Flora Series

Substrate: expanded clay
Lighting: sun and HPS
Ventilation: duct fan TD 350
Room: polycarbonate greenhouse

Environment Settings:

Vegetative period

In the spring, we planted salads and greens in three separate hydroponic systems to find out which fertilizers produced the most delicious crops. The test participants included dill, basil, cilantro, sorrel, parsley, celery, lettuce, arugula and mint.

Harvest

We cut the greens for two months, and before harvesting, we once again took photographs of all plant systems. From left to right:

1. AeroFlo 28 system with Flora Series nutrition and organic supplements.
2. AeroFlo 60 system with a nutrient solution of mineral fertilizers with additive No. 1.
3. AeroFlo 40 Salad system with a nutrient solution of mineral fertilizers with additive No. 2.
4. AFPRO-2160 system in an industrial hydroponic greenhouse.

Taste testing

On the day of cutting, we laid out the harvest at the reception in the form of 4 groups of plants grown with different fertilizers for hydroponics, so that 30 employees of our company could try and evaluate the taste, aroma and juiciness. Until the last moment, the test participants did not know what kind of fertilizers this or that greenery grew on. From left to right in the first photo:

Group 1 - greens on Flora Series nutrition with organic Bio Boosters additives.
Group 2 - greens on mineral fertilizers with organic additive No. 1.
Group 3 - greens on mineral fertilizers with additive No. 2.
Group 4 - greens from an industrial greenhouse without organic additives.

results

The "+" symbol indicates greens that received greatest number positive ratings. The symbol "-" means that 75% of the employees did not like the taste.

№	Dill	Basil	Cilantro	Sorrel	Parsley	Celery	Salad	Arugula	Mint
1	+	+	-	+	+	+	+	+	+
2	-	+	-	-	+	-	+	-	-
3	+	+	+	+	-	-	+		+
4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

On the Flora Series with proprietary additives, all greens had the most mild aroma and taste without bitterness. Apparently this was the reason for the largest number of advantages. Group No. 2 came out in third place, and group No. 3 came out in second place in terms of advantages; there was no arugula in it. The last quarter group, without organic additives from an industrial greenhouse, according to taste qualities It turned out to have an unpleasant aftertaste, which is probably why she wasn’t given a single vote.