How the Plants are Growing- Gina

Interviewing the Greenhouse "roles"

Zaiu (engineer)

The systems are doing well and nothing major has gone wrong. The water is flowing and the algae hasn’t been a big problem but the heater isn’t woking well and needs to be fixed. Also, the fish are okay so far but they may have a hard time during winter.

Plants in the horizontal system

Karoline (manager)

The greenhouse is very cold and the snow has piled on top of the greenhouse which stops and blocks the sunlight from going in the greenhouse. The plants are doing fairly well so far but none of them has fruits and some have withered or are starting to. The fish are in very cold water and they and the plants might have a hard time during the winter.

Jared (safety manager)

Everyone is doing they’re jobs and the greenhouse is organized. There hasn’t been any major problems yet but there are many things to be done and people need to be more aware about the greenhouse

JiHee's tomatoes in the vertical system

Pumpkins in the grow-bed system

Greenhouse Report #2 - Jason 7A

Introduction: We have recently started a project called the iGrow Project in which every student contribute to the greenhouse one way or another. I have chosen to do blogs about the greenhouse. I will post updates to this blog weekly. 

Grow Bed System: I saw many successful, and healthy plant growth in the grow bed system. The grow bed system is particularly for plants that requires a lot of space. For example, if the plant has big leaves, then it would cover the other smaller plant and would block out the sun. While in the grow bed system, there are big plants such as pumpkins, which I think is the reason to why the grow bed system is so successful. The bigger the plant, the more it can endure. Most of the plants in the grow bed system is pumpkins and they grow very big. As you can see in the photo (picture #1) underneath, the pumpkin leaves are taking over the system, and growing at an exponential rate. No plants in the grow bed system is having trouble in growing. 

Picture #1

Greenhouse Fixers: The students in the picture (picture #2) below volunteered to fix leaks, and algae issues in the greenhouse. In the picture, Stephen and Steve are sharing the silicon, stopping leaks. On the other photo (picture #3), it is a picture of Aldous, and Min Woo cleaning up the algae that grew in the rubber tube, which was a big problem and harmful to our plants growing in the greenhouse. Thanks to the 4 people, the greenhouse is slowly recovering from leaks, and the algae is being cleaned continuously.

Picture #3

Picture #2

Another Problem: The plants are still in very dangerous conditions because the big plants in the horizontal system is about to snap off, which is not good. We need farmers that can help me fix the problem by using wires, and plastic strings. This problem is also from the last post, and this problem seemed to occur once again when I visited the greenhouse today. Please help me by fixing the problem with the method I've used, or if there are any other better methods you can think of, then you are always welcome to use it.

Greenhouse Report - Jeffrey 7C

Reports- December 1st

Farmer's Report: The farmer realized that there were some plants that were growing the way we didn't want it to. On some of the plants, they had leaves with brown tips. Some plants were facing downwards and they didn't seem to look healthy. Thankfully,  most of the plants are healthy

Engineer's Report: Today in the Vertical System there was a leak under the cap of the bottle. At first we knew that there was a leak in the Vertical System, because water was dripping, but we didn't know were the actual leak was. We started to find leaks. As we looked for it, we realized that it was coming out from the under of the bottle. We realized that between the tube and cap, there was a small gap. As a result we fixed it by just simply covering the tiny gap.

Research Biologist's Report: Because some plants were not growing the ways we want, we decided to research about why this is actually happening. Some of our plants had brown tips. This was happening because of dryness, not getting enough water, or if the humidity of the temperature is too low. Some plants were facing down and they look like they are withered. This is because they didn't have enough water or if they receive too much water.
       
                     

The 2014 Greenhouse- Gina Lee

Fish in the Greenhouse

The Greenhouse this year(7th grade) and the greenhouse last year(6th grade) are basically similar but we have more fish and more materials in order to make the greenhouse more attractive and easier to handle. The systems are the same but 
they've become cleaner and more organised. The algae from last year still remains so we have to clean it but otherwise the greenhouse is in good shape. Although the greenhouse is good, some plants aren't growing well and some withered. This may be because we germinated them in autumn when the weather was getting cold and there weren't enough sun. Pumpkins, peppermints, and bok-choy are growing the best and the pumpkin is especially growing at a fast rate.

The vertical system last year

The Vertical System is a system which we made out of recycled 1liter water bottles. We stacked the bottles "on top of each other" and but pipes between them so the water flowed. Although this system doesn't require much water since it reuses the water, algae forms frequently in the pipes and the pipes sometimes gets blocked and the pots flood.The vertical system flourished with plants last year. Most of the plants in the vertical system were cucumber and basil.

Lettuce growing in this system

The grow-bed system last year

The Grow-bed system is made of clay beads we use for every system and has a total of 3large rectangular "pots" in which 2classes share one large "pot". This system can hold big plants and the cucumbers especially flourished in the grow-bed system. There are also "poles" in the back of the grow-bed system so plants like beans or pumpkins can climb and by steadied. This system is good for all types of plants and the water flow is excellent, but the plants sometimes gets unorganized, the plant leaves might get scattered, and the big plants covers the small plants and prevents it from getting sunlight.

The horizontal system last year

Bok-Choy in this system

The horizontal system is a system in which we have plastic pipes with "pot holes" evenly in them. We placed the pots(with plants) in the holes and made sure the roots reached the water flowing in the pipes. The horizontal system is an aquaponics system and uses fish to nutrient and helps the plants grow bigger and stronger. Our fish survived through the year, even during summer when we didn't take good care of them, and they don't require much money. This system is great but big plants like the pumpkin or the cucumber don't grow as well since there aren't enough space for the plants and the roots to grow.

Greenhouse Report #1 - Jason 7A

Introduction: We have recently started a project called the iGrow Project in which every student contribute to the greenhouse one way or another. I have chosen to do blogs about the greenhouse. I will post updates to this blog weekly. 

Update: 

1. Horizontal System: So far there are not many unhealthy plants in the greenhouse and not much problems are encountered yet, but there are still some plants that are having a hard time growing. For example, take a look at the picture below (picture #1). This plant isn't growing well, and some parts of it is brown, which means it is unhealthy. Take a look at the other picture (picture #2). That plant shown in picture #2 is the same type of plant shown in picture #1. So why doesn't it grow equally if they are planted in the same date and are the same type of plants? They received an equal amount of sunlight as well. It turns out that the plant in picture #1 is at the edge of the horizontal system and the plant shown in picture #2 is in the middle of the horizontal system. I thought that might be the problem, but I don't know if my thesis is true yet. 

Picture #1

Picture #2

2. Vertical System: The vertical system is very interesting. Plants that are thriving are growing at an exponential rate, while plants that aren't growing isn't showing any growth for the past few days. For example, the plant shown in picture #3 is a bean. This bean is very unhealthy and seems like it's about to die, but in picture #4, the same kind of plant is growing very well. So why is this? I came up with an idea that it is the effect of the algae in the rubber tube. In picture #3, the pipe is full of algae. On the other hand, in picture #4, the tube is very clean. These two plants are the same type of plant, and is near each other so the germination date, or the sunlight does not have to do anything with the amount they are growing. It's just that one tube is more taken care of than the other. 

Picture #4

Picture #3

3. Another Problem: Please take a look at picture #5. The plant is bent, and is about to snap. We have to prevent this from happening and find a solution. I came up with a solution (with Mr. Martin). Picture #6 is after the set up is complete. It requires a wire, and a plastic string. It's quite simple, but I don't like how we have to add a lot of plastic strings to tie the plant to the wire. Perhaps we can use another type of object that would be capable of tying the plant easier and doesn't need a lot of something. This is only a first draft, so we can polish it to make it more effective, and more compact. I would like suggestions from people in the comment section of how to fix this kind of problems. 

Picture #5

Picture #6

May 18 Post

It is incredible how fast time goes when you are having fun and this has been an extremely fun year.   Wow what a group of committed and passionate people can accomplish is fantastic.  We are pretty lucky to have a department of professionals completely committed to students.  I wanted to share some of the comments and feedback we have received from different teachers as our team has so much to be proud of this year.

"Congratulations on such an amazing student opportunity! I am excited to be part of the action in the coming years! Have a great day and keep on keeping on!"  

"I agree, hats off to the science team!!!"  

"YES! It is quite a work of science. Well done science dept!"  

"Wow. I just had a look at it. It's amazing! Kudos to the Science Department."  

"Outstanding! Kudos to the team who put this together."  

"smartly done - I'm truly impressed!"