10 days ago, most all the seedlings in rockwool went into the two nursery channels. Early last week, I found some of them had grown roots 2-3″ in a single day and were ready for planting into the finishing channels. I didn’t know exactly what to look for, so I moved over a few to the finishing channels that looked promising.
Then I went out of town for 5 days. Oops.
The system ran fine. I had a friend come check on it, as well as monitored it with a IP-camera that can pan around the room to see any water leaks, plant height, or people breaking in thinking I’m really not growing basil.
Day 31 basil and roots
The growth over 5 days was huge. Here is a basil plant that had 3-4 leaves and 5-10 small roots (less than an inch) when I left. And 5 days later its, well, a root ball thingy.
The PH and EC in the reservoir didn’t move too much – so we’re still within a good healthy range.
Current Scoreboard
So after moving everything from the first planting from the nursery channels to the finishing channels, the score is:
Sweet basil: 37
Bibb lettuce: 7
Day 32: finishing channels mostly filled and lit
This is from nearly 50 seeds of each plant type. The lettuce I killed off early due to a lighting issue. What happened to the rest?
Basil
There were 2-3 basil plants that I moved a bit too early. Their roots were not long enough to touch the bottom of the channel to get their nutrient film; so they died.
2 basil plants just didn’t root well. Instead of many small roots with root-hair, they tried making one large root down to the bottom. This left them wilted. I went ahead and removed them, as plants at this stage don’t seem so keen on quick recovery.
There are a few basil plants still in the nursery channels. Some just didn’t grow quick, some had multiple seeds sprout within the same rockwool and I clipped the larger sprout (so that some are smaller and a bit behind the main cycle, in an effort to have a continuous supply of this stuff).
Lettuce
Day 33 lettuce woes
The lettuce plants are growing pretty good. A few have an issue with some browning on their interior leaves. Initial research says lack of iron, which the basil might be taking most of. A few adjustments and few days should tell.
Day 33 happy lettuce