Category: Greenhab Report

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 88 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 77.2 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 142 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 7:50 am, 6:02 pm

Changes to crops: None

Narrative: In the morning, there was no cucumber wilting, but by 6:00 PM they were quite wilted despite their soil still being damp. This is consistent with the weather being very sunny with no clouds and a high of ~95 F in the GreenHab, in contrast to yesterday’s weather (overcast) and the plant conditions (not wilted). I am going to water only two of them to see how well they recover with/without water given the cooler temperatures at night. All the tomatoes are still doing great.

I am happy to report the water monitoring system will be up and running tomorrow morning thanks to a soldering tutorial from the engineering-minded crew members; I had a lot of fun. I will also end the blackout period for the peas and sunflower microgreens tomorrow.

Harvest: none

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 16Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 86 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.6 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 75.2 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 6 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0.25

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 135.75 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 10:16 am, 4:30 pm

Changes to crops: Removed blackout cover for peas and sunflowers

Narrative: The two cucumbers I watered last night are a bit less wilted, but not much. The plants closest to the eastern wall of the GreenHab seem most affected. Regardless, they are staying green and not dying, so I think I will relax finally about the wilting situation and accept that they should always get a morning and evening watering. Excitingly, there are some baby cucumbers growing (~1 cm) that have gotten larger than the withered ones I observed last week, so hopefully they will continue to mature.

My recommendation for the arugula, sunflowers, and tomatoes is to just water them when they start to wilt because they bounce back quickly and don’t need water every day at this point.

I removed the blackout cover from the sunflower/pea microgreen bed and one sunflower is starting to sprout.

On a research front, I have started my soil moisture monitoring experiment. The soil moisture sensors are giving data, and I took multiple data points today to make sure they are working. Because of the small pots I’m using, the moisture sensor needs to be off the bottom of the pot and closer to the surface to get a consistent reading. Because I primed the soil yesterday, it wasn’t completely dry to start, but that should be accounted for based on the initial measurements prior to watering.

Harvest: none

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 17Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 85 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 75.6 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 130.75 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 10:12 am, 5:22 pm

Changes to crops: none

Narrative: Dill, cilantro, and parsley are growing a lot. A lot of radish microgreens are sprouted and can be harvested soon. A few more sunflowers sprouted, and some peas were peeking. All other crops are nominal. Scallions were harvested to be used in savory oatmeal tomorrow morning.

Harvest: 8 g

Support/supplies needed: There are only a few gallons of soil left after the tomato repotting and microgreen seeding. I don’t need any, but the next crew might.

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 18Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 86 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 78.6 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 125.75 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:30 am, 6:45 pm

Changes to crops: harvested cilantro

Narrative: The thyme has shown significant growth in the past two days, and the herbs generally keep proliferating. The cucumbers enjoyed their morning and evening watering, though it seems the cucumbers that are in contact with the east wall of the GreenHab are more prone to withering; there are a few yellow leaves near their base. A lot of radish microgreens are sprouted and can be harvested soon. A few more sunflowers sprouted, but the pea shoots have still not made a full appearance. These will likely be enjoyed by the next crew rather than ours. We harvested 20 g of cilantro, 10 for lunch today (black bean burger burritos) and 10 g for dinner (Jambalaya).

Harvest: 20 g cilantro

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 19Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 87 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 76.5 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 6 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: none

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 119.75 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:15 am, 5:22 pm

Changes to crops: harvested cilantro

Narrative: The crops are doing well today; I have a well-established watering schedule for the current crops in the GreenHab that I will include in my final report. One of the cucumbers is about 4 inches long! It will be ready to be harvested soon, hopefully before we leave. The microgreen raised beds continue to make progress, but not enough to harvest yet. The soil moisture experiment looks more promising, as the microgreens’ growth rate seems to be significantly impacted by the water content, which I hope is reflected in the soil moisture measurements. The arugula should be harvested ASAP; it is not growing any larger and wilts quickly. I might pull a couple containers before I leave to improve water efficiency. 8 g of cilantro were harvested to be used in our chicken curry dinner.

Harvest: 8 g cilantro

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 20Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 87 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 95 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 80.1 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 10 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: none

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 109.75 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:15 am, 4:16 pm

Changes to crops: none

Narrative: It is my final day in the GreenHab and everything is looking healthy. There are a lot of cucumbers growing and even the first cherry tomatoes appeared! I hope the following crews appreciate them. I thoroughly watered all of the plants which is why the consumption is higher today, and I disassembled my experiment.

Harvest: none

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 12Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

NOTE: No environmental data available from 1800 (12-11-24) to 1200 (12-12-24), so following numbers from 1200-1600 (12-12-24) unless otherwise specified

Average temperatures (last 24h): 85 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 90.3 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 78.6 F (45.0 F observed last night (12-11-24) in GreenHab at ~2200)

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 3.5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 156 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 11:39 AM

Changes to crops: Pulled remaining raised bed and seeded soaked pea and sunflower microgreens.

Narrative: Cucumbers were wilted in the morning but are doing fine and the plants survived the night entirely unscathed. Today, one raised bed of old microgreens was pulled, ~1 gallon of soil added, and seeded with pea and sunflower microgreens. Then the bed was covered with a synthetic burlap bag to start the blackout period (3-5 days). At 8:00 PM tonight I observed no wilting. I ran into some troubles with wiring my experiment to monitor soil moisture content, so I am seeking help from crew members with engineering experience and will attempt to get it working tomorrow. Tomorrow I plan to transplant some tomatoes and sunflowers.

Harvest: 6 g cilantro

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 13Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 88.0 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.5 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 78.1 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 9 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 147 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:10 AM, 4:00 PM

Changes to crops: Harvested arugula, thyme, thinned basil, transplanted sunflowers

Narrative: Today the cucumbers were very wilted by the afternoon watering; I’m not sure why some days are better than others for this. The higher water consumption today has to do with the sunflower transplant. There was a pot with 3 sunflowers in it, and I transplanted each into its own pot. A couple look like they’re ready to flower, so I hope the stress of the transplant doesn’t slow that down too much. A tip for using the potting soil in the GreenHab: because of the climate here, the bag of potting soil is very dry. If you put it directly from bag to pot, the soil retains essentially no water, and it drains out the bottom of the pot. I have found by priming the soil, this no longer happens. I dump soil into the wheelbarrow and then pour water on top of it, then stir it with a trowel kind of like making dough. When the soil starts to clump and the water no longer separates from the soil in the wheelbarrow, it is ready to be used for potting. Spruha assisted in the following harvest: ¾ box of arugula to be sauteed as a side for dinner tonight, thyme and parsley for the tomato sauce, and basil to top the spaghetti. The basil is young, but it needed to be thinned for future healthy growth. I also noticed a lot of small flies in the GreenHab hanging out in the raised bed and observed a couple of red mites in the carrots.

Harvest: 156 g arugula, 5 g parsley, 1 g thyme, 2 g basil

Support/supplies needed: none

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 78

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 93.4 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 63.0 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 3.5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 159.5 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 745, 1615

Changes to crops: Thinned/pruned cucumbers and tomatoes

Narrative: Everything is looking less wilted this morning and it is 83 F which the plants seem happiest at. By 4:15 the cucumbers and half arugula were wilted. Today I pruned and thinned the tomatoes, and pruned dead leaves from the cucumbers. I observed some stunted cucumbers (1 cm) but they were withered. I removed flowers on some lower stems to encourage stronger fruiting. I prepped pots with soil to begin my experiments. Around 5:00 PM we lost power and exited the sim. We attempted to find solutions to plug the GreenHab heater into the portable generator, but could not. By ~9:00 PM the temperature in the GreenHab was ~45 F, but this was with no less than 10 times entries and exits from the GreenHab which undoubtedly caused loss in heat. The space heater from the RAM was set up in the GreenHab and the plants survived the night well. More details to come in the next report.

Harvest: 5 g cilantro, 160 g carrot greens, 20 g radish greens

Support/supplies needed: none

Crew 305 GreenHab Report 14Dec2024

GreenHab Officer: Hunter Vannier

Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatically.

Average temperatures (last 24h): 88 F

Maximum temperature (last 24h): 91.8 F

Minimum temperature (last 24h): 73.6 F

Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 142 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 8:55 am, 2:30 pm

Changes to crops: Transplanted and thinned tomatoes; only one tomato per pot now. Thinned scallions.

Narrative: Today there was no wilting in the cucumbers. When the high temp in the GreenHab is lower than 95 and it’s overcast, it seems that the cucumbers are much less stressed. I added another string that hangs from the bar on the ceiling so ambitious cucumbers grow up rather than into the tomatoes. Since their transplant yesterday, the sunflowers are doing great and show no signs of stress. The broccoli microgreens began to sprout today, the second of the crops during Crew 305’s stay. Today I spent an hour thinning, transplanting, and adding cages to the tomatoes. All of the tomatoes in there are rainbow cherry varieties, so I thinned them to one per pot, transplanting the more mature plants. Though it pained me to uproot some of the tomatoes, they were crowded, and it would not have been sustainable water-wise to have that many tomato plants. Given the volume of the pots, they need to be one per pot in order to bear any fruit down the line. Scallions were thinned and used for dinner tonight, SPAM fried rice.

Harvest: 4 g scallions

Support/supplies needed: none