Experiment in AIR Growing
Some of us have this image of science being clean and organized. My experiment, pictured here, should destroy that image, at least for me. I purchased a cheap small greenhouse at a discount store, assembled it and placed it on a card board box full of compost and put layers of plastic over it separated by pieces of air bubble packing material. Only the door, which I must open once and awhile to water the plants, has just one layer of air bubbles over it. I can add more but will need to keep the zipper accessible. Next I will program the temperature data logger in the greenhouse and put a wireless temperature gauge outside of the greenhouse. The data logger temperature gauge can be programed to take the inside temperature in time intervals of my choice. The goal of the project is to keep the inside temperature consistent to a growing temperature despite how cold it might get on the outside.
For now I have placed five planters of collard greens and one of arugula inside the greenhouse. Depending on the temperature we can maintain with the air pockets, we can always exchange the planters with ones we have growing in the sunroom, also insulated by AIR.
To add more layers of Air I need more bubble-wrap, which is easy to get. I just got some in a package today with some ink cartridges and have some more in the basement from other things sent to us in the mail. This is another example, bubble-wrap, of what is one person’s waste can be another person’s energy source. As I found out in the sunroom it is not the thickness of the plastic, or layers of plastic, that keeps the heat in and cold out, but the pockets of air. The air and messy science saves.
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