How to farm lettuce in your dorm the cheap way.
As far as biology student Garry Y. Itkin is concerned, there is no reason for you to spend that much when you're living the dorm life, especially with the existing ways to grow your own food. For instance, you can actually use hydroponics to farm lettuce with the help of a fish tank.
The two components that you need are your lettuce containers and an aquarium filled with fish.
The first thing you need to do is to grow your lettuce from seed. This might mean that you take a couple of days focusing on germinating some lettuce seeds that you can easily get from your local gardener, assures Garry Y. Itkin. To do this, get an old egg tray, line up each compartment with a piece of cotton or wool, and sprinkle 2 to 3 seeds in each of them. Keep the cotton moist but not soaking wet. If your space does not have enough sunlight, you can directly purchase artificial sunlight lamps and shine your seedbed.
The next step is for you to set up an aquarium with about a dozen small fish. The key here is to organize the filtration system with your pump and some pipes that ensure that water goes in and out of your tank through a PVC pipe, which you will need to hold a row of lettuce plants later on Garry Y. Itkin notes.
When your lettuce seeds germinate, they will need some time to reach a certain height. If they grow to about 2 inches, you can expect these to have stable enough root systems and are ready to be replanted.
For this purpose, you have to bore out a row of holes on one side of a medium thickness PVC pipe, around 5 inches apart. First, ensure each hole on the pipe is big enough to fit a small cup, which you need to perforate, so the water gets through. Then, place your seedling in each cup along with the cotton.
Once you incorporate this segment into your water filtration system, you should have a lettuce garden soon, which gets its nutrients from the fish waste and the water from your tank.
