Thanks for sharing @cregini! These photos of your lab are pretty amazing - I can’t wait to see this full of plants!
italics indicate information was provided by Chris (via email)
The Plan is to germinate in the MV1s over the next couple of weeks while finishing the construction of these systems. I will then transplant from the MV1s into the larger systems to grow them out for 7-10 days before Island Harvest arrives. I will likely be seeding about 400 plants and dispersing them into the MV1s.
Equipment
- 25 MV1s with space for 6 pots or 24 seedlings each
- 10 FG.V1 GCKs with space for 6 pots or 24 seedlings each
- I have two stacked NFT systems that each hold 150 plants.
- I have one 5x10 tent with 12 bato bucket planting sites for the larger plants.
- I have a second 4x4 tent with an additional 4 bato bucket sites.
Seeds
- I am going to run 6 cherry tomatoes and 6 cucumbers in the batos.
- [The lettuces include] Rex Butterhead, Skyphos Bibb, and Gladius Romaine.
- Rex Butterhead (Lettuce): Germination: 2-4 days, Seedling: 7-14 days, Vegetative: 14-28 days, Maturation: 55-65 days total from seed to harvest
- Skyphos Bibb (Lettuce): Germination: 2-4 days, Seedling: 7-14 days, Vegetative: 14-28 days, Maturation: 55-60 days total from seed to harvest
- Gladious Romaine (Lettuce): Germination: 2-4 days, Seedling: 7-14 days, Vegetative: 21-28 days, Maturation: 60-70 days total from seed to harvest
Peter’s recommendations
It sounds like you have several different goals for the lab this Spring. I’ll do my best to answer them separately. I’m preparing for a conference on April 11th, where showcasing the capabilities of our MV1 units is a priority. I plan to start various seeds today and ‘follow along’ with the same recipes in 15 MV1s at MARSfarm HQ. I’ve organized a bunch of (see table below), aiming to create effective recipes for that first stage of growth. These germination recipes are public; I intend for us (and anyone else!) to both use them. This approach tests the MV1s’ capabilities but also encourages a community of shared learning and experimentation.
Spreadsheet showing the configuration of @cregini 25 MV1s:
Temp settings used for germination recipes
Instructions for starting trials in 25 MV1s
1. Producing lettuce using NFT systems
- I created two recipes for germinating any lettuce in the MV1.
- The first is ‘Lettuce Germination (100 ML)’
- The only difference is that one provides 100 ML of water daily, and the other provides 200 ML.
- I would recommend starting with 100 ML - likely that is plenty, I just created the second so you can increase if necessary.
- Sometime in the next 7-14 days (really depends on germination) you can assign a second recipe to each unit - advancing it to a ‘seedling’ phase with slightly cooler temperatures and more water titled ‘Lettuce Seedlings (160 ML)’.
2. Producing tomatoes, cucumbers (peppers?) in bato bucket system
- Recipes for germination (separate recipe for seedling phase)
- Cucumber Germination (100 ML)
- Tomato Germination (100 ML)
- When I post the seedling recipe (next week), I will provide recommendations for how to add fertilizer to the lower reservoir and adjust the spreadsheet above accordingly.
3. Demonstrating MV1s as an experimentation platform by creating a sample dataset
- I would strongly encourage you to use the consumables we sent in at least a couple of the MV1s. If you follow the instructions for provided for setting up with Bok Choy Lab, using the clay media and controlled release fertilizer, then that will give us something to compare.
- I am going to slightly modify six existing recipes to match the settings used in this research paper titled ‘Influence of Day and Night Temperature and Radiation Intensity on Growth, Quality, and Economics of Indoor Green Butterhead ‘Rex’ Lettuce…’.
- My goal is to have you replicate that experiment using six of the MV1s.
- To start these trials though, you’ll use the same
- Here are the recipes you’ll end up testing: DLI: 30 (240ML), DLI: 21 (240ML)DLI: 17 (240ML), DLI: 30 (240ML, 86F), DLI: 21 (240ML, 86F), DLI: 17 (240ML 86F), DLI: 17 (240ML)
- My goal is that by 5/3 you will have grown plants that demonstrate tipburn and heat stress on the primary variety of lettuce ‘Rex’ that you’re growing at a larger scale.
- Those are two things you’ll need to be don’t he lookout for in larger systems as well.
- Depending on what ratio of varieties you actually planted, it might make sense to seeds from two or even all three of the lettuce cultivars (2 pots of each per unit in that situation) for this experiment.
- The outcome will show if one of them does better in high light/high heat situations than the others.
Hopefully, that helps! I’m running a bit behind but will be sending the recipes myself for germination later today. I don’t quite have them loaded yet (publicly) but will 100% have them up by midnight so you (@cregini) can assign the germination recipes to every device possible in the AM on Tuesday (03.25.24).