Nothing is more gratifying than watching nature unfold right into your salad bowl and many traditional gardeners are finding that growing salad greens like assorted lettuces, radiccio and endive are a great way to enjoy their hobby year round and put healthy food on the dinner table. For this brief introduction, I've planted an assortment of lettuces known as "mesclun" which is french for "mixed." Among the seeds sown were romaine, bibb, assorted spicy mustards, lolla rosa and red oak leaf.

To keep my home grown salad grit-free and "in the green" at all times, I decided to use a hydroponic system that delivers a gentle spray of nutrient infused water to each plant's roots. Plants are supported atop holes in a chamber that measures about 5 in. wide by 5 in. tall and 54 in. long. Unused nutrient solution simply drains back into a reservoir situated directly beneath where it is recirculated by a small pump on a continuous basis. Since there is no soil, there is no grit, no soil-borne problems and no mess. With the hydroponic system constantly supplying food and water, there's not much to do but enjoy watching the process. Here's what I did.

First Things First Most salad greens do not require much light so anywhere between 30 and 40 watts per square foot should deliver strong, healthy growth. For more on choosing the appropriate sized indoor grow light click here. Above this garden, which measured approximately 42" wide by 54" long, I hung a 600W MH lighting system to insure an ample amount of light. I painted the walls around the garden white for maximum reflectivity and the lighting system's reflector and bulb assembly was suspended with a reflector suspender to make vertical adjustment easy as the crop grew up towards the light. This particular garden has room for 42 individual plants with an approximate spacing of 9" on center. This allows for the plants to grow unencumbered until they reach salad bowl size at which time they are harvested and replaced with a new seedling.

To get started, Annette gently inserted each seed into the preformed hole in our Perfect Starts plugs which help promote rapid germination, and make for a real easy way to keep your garden stocked. Once our seeds were planted, all there was left to do is insert the seeded Perfect Starts into each plant site within the hydroponic system and allow mother Nature to do her thing. When growing indoors under high intensity lights plants grow very fast because you have complete control over the weather. In fact, all of these lettuce seedlings were well sprouted and growing on after just 48 hours. In the first week growth begins to progress so quickly in a hydroponic system that many first timers can't believe their own eyes.

What's important to remember during this early part of a plant's life is to keep a close watch on its development so you can pickup on any early warning signs that something may be amiss. Signs to look for are wilting, indicating insufficient access to water or too much heat. Stunted growth could be indicative of over fertilization and a lack of color could mean just the opposite.

It's All About The Roots! When it comes to hydroponics, one of the most significant advantages over soil is that a plant's roots are afforded unlimited access to water, nutrients and oxygen. Water, being most obvious, is something most gardener's take for granted. During a seedling's early stages, their root system is poorly developed so it can take some time before a plant can naturally acclimate itself to the environment and pull enough water from it to survive in blazing sun. In a hydroponics system, water is everywhere and so are all the essential elements they need to grow since they are dissolved in the very same water their roots are bathed in. Last but not least is Oxygen, insuring sufficient levels of this life giving gas in the root zone will help insure a trouble free, fast growing crop. Oxygen speeds metabolism and metabolism supports growth.

One of my favorite things about growing hydroponically is the ability to check shall we say "under the hood?" That's correct, where one could once only wonder how our garden might be growing, hydroponics allows us to check the actual root formation and ultimately, the health of their plants all along the way.

Are you getting hungry yet? Well if you are, then you're just in time! While only 21 days have gone by since we first planted these seeds, baby greens have the best taste and texture at this ripe young age. If we left them to grow another week, they'd literally double in size, but I have other plans, 42 little cherry tomato seedlings ready to take their place! What I really love about growing hydroponically is that replacing your crops is so easy. There's no tilling or turning over the soil. You simply pull out the old plant and place the new. If I wanted to grow a continuous garden of salad greens, it's as easy as 1..2...3... - pull out the old and place in the new. Of course there's some simple labor that needs attending to between salads! But it's nothing more than keeping a reservoir topped off with water and some nutrients. Boun Appetite!

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