Forgot to mention something else in my post above.
Living Room Lettuce
A bit of cost up front to set up, but I've been growing a lot of lettuce in my living room for years.
The setup:
10" by 20" nursery trays on a stainless steel wire bakers rack.
Around 14" between racks gives enough room that you don't need to figure out a way to raise and lower the lights. Plenty of light for the whole growth cycle and enough room to get in there to harvest.
LED grow lights hung from the shelf above the lettuce. the Barrina brand from Amazon has outperformed all others. Only failures were a switch or two going bad and easily fixed by bypassing the switch.
The lights are on a timer to run 14 hrs so the timer handles the on/off.
You need 2 - 3 lights per tray. Preferably 3.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082ZL1Q63?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_6&th=1
Master blend fertilizer and Sea 90 sea salt mixed in the water for the trays. I keep a 55 gallon plastic drum of it nearby and water by dipping a small plastic watering can into the barrel.
About every other day they need water.
For the trays above my head I gauge the water level while filling with my finger as a dipstick.
https://tool-rank.com/masterblend-hydroponic-fertilizer-calculator-for-any-container-size/
Plastic berry containers with the lids cut off hold the growing medium, which is compost from my pile . Any potting soil works. This makes cleanup easier and gives you a reservoir of water you can visually monitor.
There is one size of berry container, 5" x 7 1/4" that fits six of them in a 10 x 20 tray.
I sprinkle a few tablespoons of Mosquito Bits in the bottom of the tray when I'm building a new tray to keep those skeeters at bay. The mosquito bits are Bacillus Thuringiensis, making a film on top of the nutrient solution that wipes out any skeeters that hatch.
Same folks make a bigger product called Mosquito Dunks that works the same way in larger hydro setups like Kratky, which involves a pool of standing water.
Lettuce wants light to sprout so I sprinkle the seeds on the surface and press them in. You can sprinkle sifted compost over them lightly if you want. Planting a new tray every 15 days keeps the rotation going.
You want leaf lettuce because you harvest it with a pair of scissors.
The more frequently the harvest, the more it grows.
