Species Spotlight 🌱

Happy Friday Everyone!

In honor of the end of another long week, I thought it would be a fun idea to introduce you to a few of our hard-working "employees" ... since they're the ones who do the real heavy-lifting around here anyways.

Presenting the Green Team's nominations for November's "Species Spotlight"

... aka our "employee of the month" 😁

Name: Butterhead Lettuce

Age: 1.5 months

The fourth generation in our grow room this semester, this plant produces gorgeous, thick green growth. Along with its neighbors, it spreads out to fill up our towers very quickly, forming a blanket of delicious salad potential!

Name: Parsley, Giant of Italy

Age: 1.5 months

No harvests from this one yet, but we're getting very close! A beautiful green baby with vigorous growth.

Name: Chervil

Age: 2.75 months

Two harvests to date of this delicate-looking herb. Exhibits beautiful green coloring and rapid growth!

Name: Fine Verde Basil

Age: 2.5 months

A kitchen favorite. This individual (and friends) have produced regular harvests for Blair and Garst for over a month now! Definitely a plant with a can-do kind of attitude.

Name: Olympic Red Kale

Age: 3 months

Beautiful deep purple foliage and rapid growth make this one a favorite as well. Regular harvests for several weeks now!

Feel free to vote for your favorite in the comments, and have a great weekend!

Rachel 👩🏼‍🌾

Salad Anyone?

Hey y'all! 

Check out what was delivered to the dining halls this morning,

 courtesy of the Green Team!

Unbe-leaf-able amounts of fresh, beautifully green lettuce! 

Grown right here on campus and just waiting to be paired with 

tomatoes and ranch dressing... yum!

Have a great day!

Rachel 👩🏼‍🌾

EC made E-Z!

Hope everyone had a great week!

Rachel here, and I realized as I was brainstorming for a new blogpost that no one has explained what the Green Team means when we use the term "EC" ... and no, it's not "extra credit" 

Our EC stands for "Electrical Conductivity," and it is a very important component to the overall health and success of your hydroponically-grown plants. (... However, I'll definitely sign for some "Extra Credit" if you already knew that!)

Joking aside, your system's EC is no laughing matter. Simply put, it is a measure of the nutrient concentration found in your growing solution. The hydroponic plants' nutrients exist as mineral salts dissolved in water. Water containing more salts is able to conduct electricity more easily, and this is a great way to test your nutrient concentration! Special meters are used to test EC, and they look similar to the picture below, which is the EC meter we use in the Grow Room.

EC is important to monitor because an excess (EC too high) can cause salt buildup in your growing media, irrigation drippers, etc. and can actually prevent the uptake of nutrients by the roots. Deficiency (EC too low) can cause plants to starve and exhibit various symptoms of sickness based on the lacking nutrient (known as deficiency symptoms).

For more information on EC, its measurement, and why it's so important, I would encourage you to check out Growth Technology's page on Electical Conductivity!

Hope this made understanding EC a little more E-Z!

Till next time,

Rachel 👩🏼‍🌾