Indoor salad garden

The goal is to keep myself and my gf supplied with fresh greens for salads. Spinach is awesome, but it's expensive.

I'm planning on starting up a few beds of lettuce and spinach. I know there's lots of info out there, and I plan on doing lots of reading, but I figured I'd post my plans here to work things out, and eventually post some pics of putting everything together.

I'm planning on using a coco/perlite mix, and I picked up some Age Old Organics - Grow (12-6-6). This should work, whether or not it's ideal I don't know yet, I've still got to track down the optimal nute and PH levels for leaf lettuce and spinach.

I'll be throwing together a pretty simple system, maybe three different shelves. One on the bottom for a 10-15 gallon reservoir, and a bed on each level or something like that...

I'd love to hear any input anybody has!

Nutrient and PH Information

Nutrient and PH Information

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Pictures

Pictures

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I live in an apt. and want to do the same thing, except use lettuce rafts.
Im trying to find styrofoam slabs...for free of course.


I think the ph, if i understand correctly, should be set at 6--at least in my case, but im sure coco is the same .

I myself have a bunch of coco, but I got a gnat problem, and the lettuce garden is to be located on my kitchen counter and i dont want flying bastards all around me in there.

I picked up some Seeds of Change Mesclun mix. I think wats great about the lettuce thing, is that you can harvest some (micro greens) for a nice spice to anything, and let some grow out big and huge for some GOOD salads.

Ill probably end up using some coco for my wheat grass patch. Pretty much...all greens and herbs since im only using t8s.

You dont wanna go straight coco ?

I might go straight coco... not too attached, it'd just be easier because I use the coco/perlite mix for my main grow.

It's surprisingly hard to find info... seems I may have trouble with spinach since I don't plan on keeping my apartment in the 50-65 degree range... I'm still going to give it a shot though.

I thought it'd be easier to find a site that lists different crop types, and their specific NPK needs... I'm not going to worry too much about that right now, I just want to get it up and running so I should focus more on the hardware aspect...

I've got about a 30"x20" footprint to work with... I'm putting together some 3D blueprints in Sketchup right now...

I think I'm going to be using a recirculating drip system, but again, nothing is solid right now. The only things I've actually bought specifically for this are a few packs of seeds, and some of the Age Old Organics Grow formula I mentioned.

I've got an air pump, a water pump, some tubing, fluorescent ballasts, and a PH meter/adjustment solutions already. I'll be buying the 2x4s and MDF, some Rubbermaid containers, and some fluorescent tubes. This should be a pretty cheap little project.

Edit: I think one of my best resources is going to be http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums

Tip: If you're having trouble with the search on any forums, including ICMag, go to Google, type in your search term, and follow it up with site:icmag.com/ic or whatever the url of the forum you're interested in is. This has found me many hidden gems in many different forums.

Thanks for the link...i actually go there for some info as well.

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2009...build-your-own-hydroponiclettuce-raft-system/

im sure you know about these. Im trying to run the same set up

Spinach is relatively easy to grow, IMO. My parents kept a patch of spinach outside and just watered it...no fertilizers at all, and we always had plenty of spinach.

I grew some basil and it was quite easy to do so. Just keep 'em moist and add a bit of bat guano and Maxicrop.

good luck!