Collaborate Disseminate
[GreatScott!] was bummed to see his greenhouse be empty and lifeless in winter. So, he set out to take the greenhouse home with him. Well, at least, a small part …read more Continue reading Plant Growth Accelerated Tremendously with LEDs
Certain pictures draw attention like no other, and that’s what happened when we stumbled upon a Twitter post about “resuscitating supermarket garlic” by [Robots Everywhere]. The more we looked at …read more Continue reading Aeroponic Cell Grows Garlic, Forwards CellSol Packets
Science fiction movies often portray horticulture in the future, be it terrestrial or aboard spacecraft, with hydroponic gardens overflowing with leafy greens and brightly colored fruit. There is no soil, just clear water that hints at future-people creating a utopia of plant strains untethered from their earthly roots.
This star-faring …read more
While bioluminescent mushrooms certainly are fascinating, getting the things to grow in your home or garden can be challenging. Thanks to a new study, however, it may soon be possible to buy glowing versions of otherwise-conventional easily grown plant… Continue reading Scientists use mushroom DNA to produce permanently-glowing plants
Conservation scientists found that 261 out of 1,438 cactus species are unprotected by preserves or conservation regulations, putting them more at risk than mammals and birds. Continue reading A Booming Black Market Is Putting Many Cacti Species in Danger
If you compulsively search online for inexpensive microcontroller add-ons, you will see soil moisture measurement kits. [aka] built a greenhouse with a host of hacked hardware including lights and automatic watering. What caught our attention among all these was Step 5 in their instructions where [aka] explains why the cheap soil sensing probes aren’t worth their weight in potting soil. Even worse, they may leave vacationers with a mistaken sense of security over their unattended plants.
The sensing stakes, which come with a small amplifier, work splendidly out of the box, but if you recall, passing current through electrodes via …read more
Continue reading Sensing Soil Moisture: You’re Doing it Wrong!
[Daniyal]’s goal is to build an automated garden that allows him to grow plants in any environment he chooses. He’s got a good start with this rig, which is controlled by a Pi Zero connected via serial to an Arduino Mega clone, which in turn controls a bank of relays and sensors.
Monitoring the environment is a temperature and humidity sensor as well as a series of six soil moisture sensor spikes. The relays control the water pump(s?) and lights, allowing [Daniyal] to maintain specific conditions depending on what he’s growing.
[Daniyal] has ambitious goals for the project. The Pi …read more
