Math and the Internet can be our friend
Scholar.google.com is a great source of academic papers. Not all science is tainted with politics.
According to a few papers I dug up, lettuce can have high nitrate concentrations in the leaves which can be an issue for some people.
The sweet-spot for nitrogen seems to be about 200 pounds per acre ---or--- 2.1 grams-per-square-foot ---or--- 4.5 grams-per-square-foot of urea ---or--- 36 grams-of-urea-per-eight-square-feet which is the size of my trays. That would be 9 grams per week for the next four weeks when I expect to start harvesting.
Other sources suggest that 300 PPM of nitrogen is the sweet-spot for hydroponics. 1% solution is 10,000PPM. Translating that into something a little bit more user-friendly, 12 grams of urea dissolved in five gallons of water is very close to 300 PPM.
Chickens
I slaughtered four chickens today.
90 minutes to kill, scald and pluck. 40 minutes to break into major pieces.
That works out to 32 minutes per bird. I want to get to half that time and most of that has to come out of the scald/pluck part. I am leaning toward skinning the birds if I can keep the dust off the exposed meat.
Spigold
I lost a Spigold tree last night. It broke off at the graft. Bummer!
After we harvest, I need to double-check the posts that I use to stabilize the trees. Obviously, the one I had next to the Spigold rotted off at ground level.
Dust doesn't get on meat underwater or in a tote or bucket with lids or trash bag...
ReplyDeletesam
Lol@ Sam FTW!
ReplyDeleteI have been growing lettuce hydroponically outside here in ETN this year. It does work... minimal food goes in the water, mild flavored lettuce grows on top. Heat was brutal and unforgiving however. All bolted, all bitter, even shaded. Flavor isn't as rich as the lettuce I grew in soil, but smothered in ranch dressing I hardly noticed.
May try covering the setup to create a poor man's greenhouse, see how late in the season I can grow. Suspect until a hard frost in Dec/Jan.
https://www.planetwhizbang.com/copy-of-plucker-introduction
ReplyDeleteI think this is linked elsewhere here, but it might be worth it. Even more so if you re-rigged to run off the PTO of a handy device so as to not require an extra motor.
My daughter and I did about thirty chickens one afternoon several years ago. Skinning is the way to go. I never understood why plucking was a thing. Wet the ground before you start. That works when you spray paint a vehicle in a dusty shop, too.
ReplyDeleteBlog called 'Chickens in the Road', still up, just no activity. In google it'll come up with how she divided her writings. Go to cooking and on right side of page will be day with chicken. She raises white cornish males and the methods of killing and processing.
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