Plants

[Allen Jiang]

how long do seedlings take to grow in aquaponics

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Tough to say.  It depends entirely on the plant, Allen.

[Allen Jiang]

what if its a lettuce plant or tomato plant?

[TCLynx]

There are many different varieties of lettuce, some grow faster than others.  There are some that are harvested as baby greens in only a couple of weeks under optimum conditions of light, temperature, and humidity.  Most small leaf lettuce varieties can be harvested small in about a month (maybe less) under good conditions.

 

Keep in mind that if there isn't enough light or if the temperatures or other conditions are not right it will usually slow the plants down if it doesn't kill them.

 

Tomatoes, well there again you can find 100's of varieties of tomatoes.  And how advanced are the seedlings?  I've got some seed packets for some heirloom tomatoes that say 74 days, I'm not sure if that is to bloom or to fruit or to fruit harvest.  And then indeterminate tomatoes might keep producing fruit for months, heck in the right climate they might keep going for a year.

[Allen Jiang]

the lettuce seeds say 10-14 days to seedlings

[Allen Jiang]

so how long would they take to grow?

[TCLynx]

to grow to what stage?

(pardon me for my impatience but it's kinda like me asking you how long it is going to take me to say "grow hair".  While you may know how long you go between hair cuts will that really answer the question I'm asking?)

So if the packet say 10-14 days To seedlings, then I'm guessing another 3-6 weeks probably depending on how big you want to let the lettuce get before you eat it.  So probably a total of 5-8 weeks if conditions are good.  Keep in mind you didn't tell us the type of lettuce or how big you want it to grow. 

[Allen Jiang]

well the lettuce is all seasons and I want it at a reasonable size.

[Eric Warwick]

Well there's a few ways to find out but my favorite is throwing the seeds in and trying.