**How I Set Up My Indoor Hydroponic Lettuce Garden This Summer 🌿💡**

 Hello friends, 

Growing salad greens indoors during summer doesn’t have to be complicated, especially with a compact hydroponic setup. It's early June. The heat in zone 8a, Georgia, has settled in, and it's only going to get hotter. When those tomatoes and cucumbers are ready to harvest, I know that I am going to want to enjoy lots of salads. The leafy greens and lettuces I love don't tolerate the heat well could bolt soon after the cotyledon leaves emerge. 

I don't want to add conventional salad greens to my shopping list to go with my homegrown tomatoes and cucumber. I want to limit my time in the grocery store and save on grocery expenses. I have all these seeds just waiting for their opportunity to show their splendor. My solution is to grow indoors using one of my hydroponic garden planters. I have two eight-hole devices and one twelve-hole device. 

In my latest video, I walk you through how I’m planning on growing fresh, vibrant lettuce without soil, even during the heat of summer.

Whether you're new to hydroponics or just want a peek at my low-effort, high-yield system, you’ll find plenty of helpful info in the video.

📺 **Watch the full video here:** 

Why Hydroponics in Summer?

Space-saving - the footprint of a hydroponic garden can be as small as a sheet of printer paper. Devices that size can generate 8 crops in that small footprint.

Heat challenges with outdoor greens - lettuces, leafy green brassicas generally do not tolerate heat well. There are varieties of lettuce that are slow to bolt or heat resistant. Also, there are leafy greens that can thrive in the heat, like my beloved New Zealand spinach. 

Indoor control = better results - My family likes the AC on freezing. Which will contribute to the lettuce and greens thinking it is fall, when it actually is not. Seriously, I can control the indoor temp, the amount of sunlight, and be more exacting with fertilizer application. This all may sound complicated, but trust me, it will not be that way.

My Seed Selection Process

To help me think about what I wanted to grow, I went to ChatGPT to prompt it to suggest lettuces and leafy greens to grow in the twelve-hole hydroponic garden. In the initial prompt, I stated that I wanted the variety to generate enough to feed two people for 2-4 meals a week, and the varieties needed to complement each other in a salad. Lastly, I wanted suggestions that were cut-and-come-again. 

ChatGPT and I go together, real bad. I love automation and learning how AI works and how to use AI myself. That being said, the response to my prompt had suggestions of varieties that I had seeds for and liked, seeds that I had and didn't like so much. It didn't know that much about me. I have to keep some secrets. Also, I noticed that arugula was not included. I had to teach it to get to know me a little better. So I gathered my seed collection of lettuces and leafy green brassicas and typed up a list in the chat thread, as well as mentioning that arugula was missing. After some follow-up chats, a list was compiled that I knew I could thoroughly enjoy eating. The video shows the seed packets that I am growing in this cycle. 

I created a simple Hydroponic Greens Planner you can download and use to plan your own setup.

👉 **[Click here to download the planner PDF]**  

Setting Up the Garden

The device comes with growing sponges, net cups, humidity domes, labels, and nutrients. You add the seeds and distilled water. Some steps I shared from the video are:

• Soaking the sponges for at least 30 minutes.
• Getting your labels created to place over the net cups.
• Soaking the seeds. I decided not to do that. I moistened the seeds before adding the humidity domes. 
• The lighting selection. The device had three options: flowers & fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I selected the vegetable lighting option. 
• Nutrients are not added until the seeds have germinated. 

Results & Reflections

I started this cycle on the night of June 1st. On June 5th, I saw seedlings all over the pods. After I checked closer, I was able to remove the humidity domes from all of the seedlings. There was 100% germination at 4 days! Now is the time to add the first application of nutrients to give the seedlings the boost to grow strong and healthy. I expect to be able to begin harvesting in 3-4 weeks. I can already imagine the salad that I will enjoy eating. 

Want to Try It Too?

🛒 My Hydroponic Garden Tools & Supplies

These are the exact tools and supplies I used in this video: • 12-Hole Hydroponic Garden System → https://amzn.to/4kOlBZH • 8-Hole Hydroponic Garden System → https://amzn.to/4kuvEmb • 5-Tier Rack (fits 3 units perfectly when modified to 3 tiers) → https://amzn.to/3FsjX0p • Squeeze Bottles → https://amzn.to/43BpXgA • Colored Dot Stickers → https://amzn.to/3ZW7RmX

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Let me know in the comments what you’ve grown and loved!

💬 Have you tried hydroponic gardening?

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Thanks for being here, friend. May everything fall into place for you today. 🌿

Nadja 🍄