Category: Greenhab Report

Crew 306 GreenHab Report 25Dec2024
GreenHab Officer: Adriana Sanchez
Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatic at 94 and off at 82
Average temperatures (last 24h): 82.1
Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8
Minimum temperature (last 24h): 69.4
Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200
Daily water usage for crops: 8.5 gallon
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None
Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 167.47
Time(s) of watering for crops: 8:40 am, 5:15 pm
Changes to crops: Removed 14g of cucumber leaves
Narrative: I inspected the cucumbers very closely today, we have four that should be ready to harvest in the next 1 to 2 days. I thinned out a few of the carrots and chopped them up for our chickpea curry dinner. I went out pretty late to give the plants their evening watering and one pot, an arugula pot, was not happy at all. It was very wilty so I gave each of them a ¼ gallon of water. I had everyone try the arugula because it is mature and a little spicy for my taste, I want to find a good use for it before I decide to change it out for a different plant. A sunflower is getting close to blooming.
Harvest: 14g of Carrots, ~1 gram of Arugula
Support/supplies needed: None

Crew 306 GreenHab Report 26Dec2024
GreenHab Officer: Adriana Sanchez
Environmental control (fan & heater): Heater and fan on automatic at 94 and off at 82
Average temperatures (last 24h): 82.1
Maximum temperature (last 24h): 94.8
Minimum temperature (last 24h): 69.4
Hours of supplemental light: 1700 – 2200
Daily water usage for crops: 5.5 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None
Water in Blue Tank (200-gallon capacity): 162 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:10 am, 5:30 pm
Changes to crops: Moved sunflowers from the top of the shelf to the middle of the floor in the green house.
Narrative: The HSO and I went out to the GreenHab this morning to harvest some Thyme and Scallions for Lunch. Everything looked good this morning. I also harvested 5 cucumbers for our morning snack and dinner. At dinner time I harvested the remainder of the broccoli microgreens. The sunflower started blooming today. Tomorrow I plan on harvesting arugula and basil and moving the pea and sunflower sprouts to bigger pots if it is cloudy.
Harvest: 646g of Cucumber, 2g of Scallion, 1g of Thyme, 14g of Broccoli Microgreens
Support/supplies needed: None

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