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VIG You are standing next to a cool modern system that does not exist in many greenhouses. This system is just like the NFT, except it is built up, in order to use less space and take in more sunlight. This is the VIG, which stands for Vertical Integrated Growing,or Vertically Integrated Greenhouse. In the VIG there are lot of important parts: The reservoir that holds the nutrients and rainwater, the water pump, the pipe that bring the water up, the trays that hold the plants, the plants themselves, the tubes that connect each tray, the drain pipe that bring the water back into the reservoir, and the pulley that can push the trays down to stack on top of each other, or pull the trays up to separate them There are two columns of trays. Each of the rows with big plants holds 6 plants. In addition, the top 5 rows on the right hold 20 baby plants. This is known as the nursery, and these plants can be closer together because their roots are smaller. The water reaches the roots of the plants with a pump that pushes nutrient solution from the blue tank underneath the VIG up through a really tall pipe that runs in between the two columns of plants. The pump pushes the water with nutrients up the pipe and into the top tray of plants. The trays are all slanted so the water drips over the roots, and then down through the tubes until it reach the next tray. After it reaches the bottom tray, there is a drainpipe that bring the water back into the reservoir so it can be pumped back up the plants again in a cycle. The pump runs all the time and if the pump ever stopped the roots would dry out. Do you think that would be good for the plants? Of course not! Plants can’t live for long without water. The plants in the VIG are lucky because they get all the water, nutrients, sunlight, air, and space that they need and they never have to worry. That’s why they all grow so quickly. If you wanted to harvest the plants in the VIG to make a salad you would find lots of types of lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and herbs like basil. Sometimes there are flowers like marigolds or nasturtiums, but you have to be careful to make sure that the roots aren’t too long or they will block the tubes connecting the trays, and the water might overflow! To harvest the top rows of plants you would need to use the electric pulley, which pulls on one side of the metal cords and it makes the other side of the cords go down. This makes the trays move down to make it easier to take plants out. When you are done you push on the other pulley button, and the cords go in the opposite direction to make the trays move back up. You can only touch the electric pulley button with your teacher. It can be dangerous otherwise.
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NFT You are standing next to a popular hydroponic system right now. NFT stands for Nutrient Film Technique, because the nutrients film across the roots. In the NFT, plants just get what they need without having to search hard or fight other plants for valuable nutrients. Imagine that you and a friend are told that you can have as much candy as you want. You have a huge jar of candy in front of you, and your friend has the same amount of candy, but scattered all around the school. Who will eat more candy? You will of course, you lazy bones! And the plants in the NFT are just like that. It’s fun to work at the NFT because it changes a lot, and it is easy to get to the plants. Plus it is just so beautiful and easy to clean until the white channels are sparkling! In the NFT there are lots of important parts: the reservoir that holds rainwater and nutrients, the pump that pushes the water up from the reservoir, the tubes that carry water from the pump to the NFT Channels, the Channels that are gullies that allow the water to flow slowly down at a slant, the plants themselves, and the drainpipe that lets water flow back into the reservoir. The rainwater fills up from pipes connected to the rainwater catchment tank.The nutrients have to be added by a human like you and the pH has to be adjusted as well. You want the nutrient level to be an EC of 1.6 and you want the pH to be 6.3. The pump is underwater and it means the plants never have to go without water and nutrients. If the pump is turned off the plants could die! There is a large blue tube that carries the water from the pump up to the top of the NFT and another pipe that runs along the end of the channels. Then there are tiny tubes that carry the water from the pipe to the end of each channel. The channel is the white gulley that is sloped slightly to allow the water to flow slowly from one end to the next. There are holes in the channels to allow the plant roots to rest inside. In the NFT system, the plants are usually leafy greens. This means that they are leaves that we usually eat, like lettuce, spinach, kale and swiss chard. The roots calmly lie in the channels, while nutrient water lightly washes over it. The roots absorb the nutrients and the plant grows quickly. After the water flows over the roots it flows into a gutter with a hole in the middle connected to a drainpipe. This drainpipe lets the water flow back into the reservoir to the pump, and the water is pumped back up to the plants again in a cycle.
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Vine Crop System You are lucky to be next to the only plants in the greenhouse that have a large root system, tall vines, and most importantly, fruit! When you think of fruit you probably think about apples and oranges. We don’t grow fruit like that in the greenhouse. Did you know that any plant part that holds seeds is a fruit? That means that tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and squash are considered fruit, and that is the type of fruiting crops that we usually grow. It takes a long time for the fruits to develop, so you might not see them right now. The crops are changed about 2-3 times a year. The seedlings start over at the seedling bench, just like all the other plants, and the seedlings are placed inside large rockwool cubes when they are about a month old. Then, when the roots start to grow out of the rockwool cube, it is time to place them inside the vine crop system. The system has many important parts: the reservoir to hold rainwater and nutrients, the pump to push the water up to the plants, a timer for the pump, pipes to push the water from the pump along the length of the system, small tubes to push the water from the pipe to the individual plants, the plants themselves, the strings that hang down for the plants to grow on, the buckets that hold the plants and planting media, and the drain pipe that bring the water back to the reservoir. When you look at the reservoir you will see that there are pipes that go up. These are the rainwater pipes and they bring water from the rainwater catchment system straight to the reservoir. Then the nutrients are added and the pH adjusted. When the plants are small the EC should be 2.0 but when the plants are flowering and fruiting the EC should be 2.5. Sometimes this changes depending on the needs of individual plants. The pH should always be 6.3. The underwater pump pushes water up from the reservoir to the long white pipe that run from one end of the buckets to the other end. The pump is on a timer, and it only water the plants for 5-10 minutes, 3 times a day. This might change depending on the plants. From the white pipe there are small black tubes that are pushed into the rockwool cubes, one for each plant. The water flows down to the roots of the plants. In the buckets there is also some type of planting media, usually Hydraton, which are clay balls. These clay balls keep some of the water in, while still letting lots of air get to the roots. Did you know that roots need air, too? The plants have lots of roots and they have tall vines for stems that are clipped to strings that hang down. This way the plants are trained to grow up, and the flowers and fruit are easier to maintain. After the nutrient solution flows down from the rockwool cube to the bottom of the bucket, there is a pipe in the bucket that connects to another long white pipe that also runs the length of the system. This pipe flows down to the drainpipe, which flows back into the reservoir so the water can get cycled back up to the plants again in a cycle.
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Aquaponics System You are looking at the only system that has animals as part of it, and it is the only system that does not need nutrient powder added to it. Why? Because the fish waste (that’s a fancy word for “poop”) is changed into something that the plants can use as nutrients. The fish eat their food, and they nibble on the roots. After they digest their food the waste falls to the bottom. Now if the water was not cleaned, it would be poisonous for both the plants and the fish because the waste releases ammonia into the water. Anything that decomposes releases ammonia. The ammonia has to changed into nitrite, which is still poisonous, and then into nitrate, which is the same as nutrients for the plants. How does it get changed? By special bacteria. When you hear about bacteria you probably think YUCK! But actually there are lots of really good and important bacteria. Think about a little animal that dies in the forest and decomposes into soil. The bacteria that work in the aquaponics tank are the same bacteria that exist in nature to change a decomposing animal into nutrients for the soil. Except there are no dead animals, just happy fish and plants. The bacteria are happy, too, The important parts of the aquaponics system are the tilapia fish, the large round tank, the floating raft, the grow table, the siphon, the clarifier, the biofilter, the air pump, the bubbler, and the tubes that connect everything together. The fish tank can hold 500 gallons of water if filled to the top. This holds the rainwater that comes straight from the rainwater catchment tank, as well as the fish and the floating raft. The fish that live in the aquaponics tank are tilapia. The reason that we use tilapia is because they are a type of fish that can stand to have some changes and still survive. For example, the tilapia can survive if the water gets a little warmer, a little cooler, if a bit of algae builds up, or if the nutrients get high or low. The floating raft holds about 10 plants that rest right in holes with their roots in the water. The tilapia like to snack on the roots, and the plants still survive because they don’t need long roots when they are in the tank since they don’t have to search for water and nutrients. There are also plants that are next to the tank in a grow bed, also known as a table. These plants get the same nutrient water pumped to it, but they don’t have fish nibbling on their roots. So how does the water get cleaned by the bacteria? Well, the fish waste falls to the bottom of the tank because it is heavier than water. There is a long pipe called a siphon that pulls up water and matter from the bottom of the tank to a rectangular container called a clarifier. A siphon cannot have air inside, and it automatically makes the water in the tank the same level as the water in the clarifier. There is a drain hole and a handle in the clarifier. This handle is turned and the larger bits of waste flow into a bucket, which is dumped out in the sink. When water is drained out of the clarifier, the water level goes down, and the clarifier needs to fill up again, so it pulls water and waste from the bottom of the tank, and then new rainwater is automatically added so the water levels are always the same. It is really fun to clean the fish poop water, but you have to be sure to only put a little in the bucket or you could spill it on yourself. Gross! There is another drain hole on the other end of the clarifier and the smaller bits of waste are sent to the biofilter. The biofilter is really important, because that is where the bacteria live. The two types of bacteria are called nitrobacter and nitrosomonas. One type changes the ammonia to nitrite and the other changes the nitrite to nitrate. You have to have lots of both type of bacteria. The more space there is for the bacteria to live, the more bacteria there will be, so the biofilter has small pieces of plastic with ridges all over them to have lots of surface area. The more surface area, the more bacteria, and the more bacteria, the more ammonia that can be changed to nitrite and then to nitrate. From the biofilter there is a pump that pulls the water from the bacteria to two places: the grow table and to the aquaponics tank. The grow table is just a place for more plants to live, and the water flows across the roots and back into the aquaponics tank. The water in the tank has a bubbler because both the fish and the plants need oxygen in the water.
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