More plant stuff

The initial sprouts died. Not sure why but I put it down to excessive heat. Heat pads in the Summer were probably a bad idea. So I planted some new seeds and have left the heater off.

The results appear more promising and as a bonus, with the heaters off, condensation doesn't collect on the sides, making it much easier to see inside. Sorry bout the quality, can't take a clear picture of it for some reason:

NEEMO 20 is underway

Watch live here.

Switch cams on the left.

Another plant pic

We've got sprouts

Nemo's Garden

"Just off the coast of Noli, Italy, tethered twenty feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, hover five bulbous biospheres filled with plants, light, and warm, wet air.

The underwater greenhouses make up Nemo’s Garden, an experimental agricultural project, now in its fourth year, operated by a company that specializes in diving equipment."

Man what the fuck. What even.  No sooner than I'd finished greenhab, some Italians are doing the exact same thing but way bigger and better. Their reasoning for growing terrestrial plants underwater is much the same as mine:

"The balloon-like biospheres take advantage of the sea’s natural properties to grow plants. The underwater temperatures are constant, and the shape of the greenhouses allows for water to constantly evaporate and replenish the plants. What’s more, the high amounts of carbon dioxide act like steroids for the plants, making them grow at very rapid rates.

Ocean Reef Group — a diving equipment company — is monitoring five balloon-like biospheres that house a number of plants, such as basil, lettuce, strawberries and beans. The group has a patent on the structure and plans to build a few more to experiment with other crops, such as mushrooms, which should thrive in the humid environment.

Sergio Gamberini, president of Ocean Reef Group, came up with the “crazy” idea of growing plants under the sea while on a summer vacation in Italy. He immediately made a few calls and started experimenting, sinking the transparent biospheres under the ocean and filling them with air."

Their habitat design is the same one I had in mind for Hamlantis (right). Easy to emplace as you only fill them with air once they're already down there and secured, you can use buckets of sand from the seafloor as ballast, and you can get inside from the waist up to clean cages and resupply food/water.

Update: Check out the livestream here and literally sit around watching plants grow

Summer 2015 update video

Greenhab is humid

That's good! Plants love warm, humid conditions. At least the ones I'll be growing. I had in fact cultivated some seedlings in anticipation and have now transplanted them into the soil of greenhab. It was really rewarding to see the water injection system working for the first time. Depress the plunger up by the compressor, then inside the habitat a moment later there's a brief spray of water. 

While there's condensation (which is weird to see underwater) it means there's enough moisture in the habitat for the time being. The constant throughput of dry air eventually carries it all away, at which point the condensation vanishes, my cue to inject more water. I didn't think doing this with plants would be so interesting, but it already is.

One possible implication is that in any hypothetical undersea colony, the plants and humans should be kept in separate habitats, or the module with plants should be separated from the rest with a humidity barrier as ideal conditions for plants differ greatly from ideal conditions for humans.