How to Grow Lettuce in the Basement

One of my aunts (hi Auntie Omi) asked about the lettuce-growing setup. I’ll run through it in case anyone else wants to know how we do it.

We bought this a few years ago:

It’s a frame with three shelves and three lights. The lights are adjustable using chains. If you don’t need the shelving but want lights, the Barrina lights are what most people use. (Ignore those totes—that was a different project.)

I start the lettuce seeds in these Rapid Rooter plugs, which I get from Amazon.

These are not the same as little peat pots. I tried starting seedlings in these and putting them directly into the ground in the garden and that did not work very well. These are meant for hydroponic systems.

I’ve found it works best to pack the rooting plugs into a casserole dish, allow them to soak up water from the bottom, then plant the seeds in the holes. Once the seeds have sprouted, I move the plugs to half-pint mason jars. The jars have rings on them but no lids. A plastic “net pot” sits in the jar and is supported by the rings:

Net pots come in different sizes (also from Amazon). The ones I use are 2".

This is what the seedlings look like when they are growing in the mason jars:

And eventually, we get this:

At that point, the lettuce plants will produce for 6-8 weeks. I keep them watered and just cut off the new growth for our salads.