Myself and my lettuces

As my first blog entry, I shall start off by introducing myself and my little ones that I've been growing for quite some time now.

First of all, my name is Ulyssa Marie Torbiso. I am 20 years old (this age would vary depending on when you are reading this :)) and I am a Business Administration Student. It's part of our course to start up a business throughout our 4th year and see it through till graduation. The business I ventured into is Hydroponic Gardening.

One would ask, why this? It's not every day that you find a person within my age range in the Philippines who is engaged into this activity. Honestly, when I proposed this project to the panel (Nov,2010), it was merely an a fascinating topic to me. I had no hands on experience on how to deal with plants, nor with hydroponic systems. In fact, I hadn't even seen an operating system. In other words, I'm what you call a complete 'noob' at this (a slang term used to refer to persons who are beginners or amateurs).

I have started growing my produce since January; mind you! I went through countless of trial-and-errors in order to get a stable system, or even get quality results. Many were failures and some, who had grown till old enough to harvest, didn't have the quality that you'd find edible.

But finally, I have maintained a stable system that produces excellent produce and I must say, that I am proud of myself. Hydroponic materials are difficult to source-out in the Philippines, and even with the great headache that has caused me, my plants are looking well.

Enough about me, I shall introduce my produce!

LETTUCES!
As a beginner, it was always suggested to start off with growing lettuce. To tell you honestly, these guys are fast to grow (30-40 days), however, they are extremely sensitive! They drive me up the wall! Haha, they react to almost every variable around them, may it be the nutrients, the water content, the heat, the humidity, the amount of sunlight... *sigh*, you name it!

Thankfully, i've gotten used to growing these babies. It took me 3 months to figure out a stable way to produce them efficiently.

Now, these were my first success! I've had previous good batches but they weren't as green, crisp or LARGE as these ones. These lettuces were in the system for about 3 weeks after transplanting (10 days from sprout). I'd have to say, that they're looking well.

This ends my first introduction. My next entries will introduce my culinary herbs and the different hydroponic systems that I have around the garden.


Ulyssa