Food Lettuce in a jar

[Faroe]

I was actually looking up some hydroponics information, but I came across some interesting web sites via Google images. It turns out lettuce will last much longer in the fridge if it is kept in an airtight jar that has had all the oxygen removed. The lettuce is washed, dried, and cut first. According to the site, the lettuce will last fine in the jar for up to nine additional days without any brown spots.

What I like about it is, the lettuce is already prepped for a salad. Salads are a pain to make. This way, I just need to throw on some sprouts, and mix up a quick dressing.

I used quart sized wide mouth mason jars, and the Food Saver attatchment with a hand pump to get out the oxygen. I find I like this method. Just dump the lettuce in a bowl, and half the work of making a salad is already done. It has kept very well too.

There is another type of "lettuce in a jar" that I'm also trying out. According some literature by a prof. out of HI, hydroponic lettuce doesn't need an air pump! Apparently you can grow it in a container with all the water and nutrients already added, and as the water level descends, the lettuce will send both roots down to get the water, but will also change its upper roots into oxygen gathering rooots. The upper roots won't dry out in the high humidity of a closed bottle or jar.

I seeded some "lettuce jars" today to see if I can make this work.

 

[lectrickitty]

This sounds very interesting. Can you post pics of your results?

 

[Faroe]

This sounds very interesting. Can you post pics of your results?

Ha! My computer skills are limited to basic posting. I can barely work the digital camera someone once gave me, never mind get the pics on to anything else!

Nevertheless, I will report my own progress - or lack of it. I had to experiment a little here, since I have no rock wool, perilite, vermiculite nor those clay pellets that hydroponics people generally use for the substrate. Nor did I have the proper hydroponic fertalizer solution. I used some old neppy waste-combed actual wool for the substrate (raw wool makes a good garden mulch), stuffed into a cut up plastic dixi cup for the "net pot." For fertility, I used some water left from a couple pounds of wheat berries that were soaked overnight. The dixi cups are each suspended in a hole cut into the lid of an old quart size plastic yogart container that is filled with the wheat berry water.
What could possibly go wrong?

In the meantime, there are multiple sites that show other's experiments with this. It does seem to work - at least assuming one buys all the proper stuff.

 

[naturallysweet]

Lettuce is still a plant and still needs co2. So I don't understand how a sealed container can work unless it has something that generates co2 inside it.

 

[Faroe]

Lettuce is still a plant and still needs co2. So I don't understand how a sealed container can work unless it has something that generates co2 inside it.

The washed and cut lettuce for salad in the sealed jar isn't growing. Lack of oxygen just means it won't turn brown, as decay organisms need the oxygen. The one jar of preped lettuce that I have left in the fridge still looks perfect and it was older lettuce to begin with.

The lettuce that is growing hydroponically is exposed to air, even at the top roots, as the substrate is airy, but with high humidity above the waterline. One of the DIY sites has the lettuce growing in dixicups suspended in the lid of a mason jar.

 

[Faroe]

Update: The seedlings sprouted. They are still very tiny, but look good. I actually have countless lettuce seedlings planted in soil pots in the green house right now. The first seedings took extra long to sprout. I reseeded those pots heavilly, since I mistakenly thought my old lettuce seeds were mostly dead.

As for the salad lettuce in a jar, we finished the last I had of it today. That Romaine was a long way from the supermarket, but still fresh and crunchy. I mixed it with a Vietnamese-style lacto fermented carrot and daikon pickle that was ready. Very quick salad to pull together. The only thing I had to make was the egg yolk/olive oil/lime/acv dressing. Jar storage of already cleaned, trimmed, bite-sized leaves seems like a good way to go. I like eating salads, but I don't enjoy the last minute making of them.