Great Wall of Lettuce Update

(The Great Wall of Lettuce today after the first harvest of Rapini and Lettuce)

It's been a few weeks since the start of the great wall of lettuce project. Here's an update and a long overdue thanks to my GM friends for offering up their empty 1-5 gallon pots for the experiment ... and to MM for the chocolate mint plants: they love their new home on The Wall.

The wall supports about 16 1-gallon pots and a few 3 and 5-gallon pots. Here are some observations:

• Keeping the plants hydrated is easier than expected. The plants get enough afternoon shade and are protected from the wind. they only need water 1x per day.
  
• Getting the water onto the pots is harder than expected. The best method has been hand watering with a hose. The line drippers don't spread the water well enough and the spray dippers just don't angle properly allowing too much water waste and runoff.
• The 1-gallon pots are too small for more than one plant at a time. There just isn't enough nutrient in the soil to grow truly useful plants.
• The 5-gallon pots grow enough leaf lettuce for a nice dinner salad and the shoots regrow after harvesting.
• The baby bok choy seeds weren't planted deeply enough. The plants are spindly
• The mint loves it semi-shade exposure (about 4 hours of sun a day)
• The bigger pots have a tendency to topple over. The container cuke was damaged by a bad fall.
• Lettuce and Rapini have worked the best. Both were in 5 gallon pots. Maybe the baby bok choi will be better planted deeper.