Day 10: November 30th

Well, today is the final day of our hydroponics systems. We took one last measurements of out basil plants, Plant number three came in at a stunning 9 inches!  That is a good bit of growth since the last time we measured before break.  Over all, we have been more than pleased with the outcome of our system. Yes, we believe there are some modifications that could be done to better our system. But over all, we are very pleased. We plan to try to continue to maintain our system through out the winter on only natural light that will come through the window. Thank you for following our progress, we wish you all well.

-Greg And Jared

Day 9 : November 22nd

Did a quick check on the system today, all is well, added a little bit of nutrient solution today, was not as low as i expected it to be. I was not able to measure the plants but they have shown a lot of growth since the last post. I estimate that plant # 3 has grown 2″ since the last measurement. I think this is due to the increased amount of light.  The light cycle is now at 18 hours on and 4 hours off i believe. Photos and measurements to come before we leave for thanksgiving.

Day 8: November 16th…where has the time gone?… I think i hear a gobble gobble in the near distance

So, since the pH was checked yesterday, there was no need to check it today.  Same goes for the nutrient level ( it was looking good). Today I measured the plants so that i could chart there growth from here on out. I also labeled the cup holes so that they can be tracked individually. Plant #1 came in at a whole 1″ tall, plant #2 was 1 1/4″ tall, and plant #3 came in at a solid 3″. All the plants were measured starting from the rockwool. After discussing with my fellow classmate Am0s, i decided to pinch back the top two leaves on the smaller plant in cup #3 as an experiment to see if it will become bushy instead of a tall stalk. Also, by another suggestion from Amos, I increased the light source time to be at 20 hours on, 4 off.  So if all the plants shrivel up and die, we all know who to blame. More measurements to come later on Thursday. We will see how the increased amount of light effects the little buggers.  I am expecting positive outcomes, just also expect the plants to use up the nutrient solution a lot fast, and a lot more evaporation.

Day 7: November 15th

Went into the lab today to check on the little guys, they are still making positive progress.  I did the standard solution check/pH check.  Both were doing good. Solution was low so i topped it off and the pH was a 7, which is awesome because we have yet to have used pH up or down.  We still plan on draining all the fluids out and putting in a brand new batch. One interesting thing we have noticed is the growth of all three plants is very different. All three seem to be doing very well, but they all seem to be growing at different rates. They were all planted at the same time. And we also made sure that we spaced our holes out far enough that when the plants began to mature they would not choke each other out. Like i said, they look healthy and are all growing just fine, just at different rates.  We will begin measuring the plants tomorrow, and will most likely label the plants 1,2, and 3 for tracking purposes.  That is it for now, check back for updates!

-Greg & Jared

Day 6: November 9 & 11th

Once again, pH was checked and we are still standing solid with a 6.5-7.0 . We have been very happy with the consistency of our nutrient solution quality. On Tuesday morning before the field trip we added a little less than a 1/4 of a gallon of newly mixed solution.  We did start to notice a difference in the coloration of the solution that is currently in the system.  We plan on completely flushing the system this coming week to take extra precaution so that we do not come into any later issues with excessive algae growth or what not.  Our plants what had an enormous amount of growth within the past few series of days.  We will begin to track the growth height of each basil plant now that they seem to all be thriving very well.  All plants has roots that grown past the rockwool and now are hanging in the nutrient solution.  That is all for now, stay posted for updates Tuesday. More photo’s to come.

-Greg & Jared

Day 5: October 28

We have been showing some nice growth.  The pH was checked today and it come up again as a 6.5-7 which we are very happy about.  We have not had to alter the nutrient solution due to high or low pH which is very awesome.  We have had some evaporation of nutrient solution.  We can tell due to the white crusty residue around some of the cups.  The water does not look like we have had any algae growth. Overall the system is working just right.  We are still working on 12 hours on and 12 hours off of light source.-Greg & Jared

Day 4: October 26

We check the PH today and we still remain neutral (6.5-7.0) We show very steady growth and seem to be on-par with the rest of the groups. We also checked the water level which seems to be currently good but we plan to add just a bit more before the weekend.  We have some very healthy roots that are now protruding from the rockwool.  We will have more photo’s of the current growth tomorrow.

Plans for the future:

We have been researching techniques on how to prune basil to promote growth.  We plan on experimenting with one of our plants to see if we can put our research to work. More to come on pruning in the near future.

-Jared & Greg