GMU:DIY Biolab “Driver’s License”/Christian Wiegert: Difference between revisions

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→‎1:Growing plants under very artificial light

Tseh

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 :[[#experiment2|-> experiment #2]]
+==Motivation==
+As the topic of growing plants, espacially for food purpuses, under artificial circumstances is becoming more and more popular i began feeling more and more uncomfortable with it. As i was not able to tell why i felt like this, i decided to start experimenting in this field myself, to get in touch with the topic the hands-on way. In contrast to most of the experiments that are conducted recently my goal was not to find a more efficient way of planting but just to watch the effects that a really unnatural way of growing plants can have on the plants or on us.
+==Concluding Thoughts==
+During my trials of growing plants under artificial light or in artificial growth medium I understood, that probably my initial thoughts were right and wrong at the same time. I still feel, that there is some problems in the way plants are grown but they don't derive from the fact that it's unnatural.
+===Artificial Light===
+Growing plants under artificial light consumes a hole lot of energy, even if you're only lighting a tiny space, as i did. I used 4 1W LEDs that ran for 12 hours a day which equals 48Wh per day. Thats not too much energy, it is about the energy that a human needs to ride his bycicle for half an hour. But as you can see this was only enough to produce 12 really tiny and week sprouts (and some of the energy they used had already been stored in the seeds). according to wikipeda the sun produces roudn about 1367 W/m² which would result in roughly  68 Watts on the area of my growbox. That means on only one hour the sun produced way more energy than my LEDs during 12 hours and that without any effort.
+===Artificial Growth medium===
+The growth medium that i used was able to give tha plants a base and to provide them with moisture for around two weeks. After roughly one week mold started growing, because i didn't work sterile enough. And so all tha plants died. Using simple soil that you can find all around has to be watered more often (but at least it can be rewatered) and for some reason usually keeps molds under control, again without any effort
+===Conclusion===
+So during my experiments I learned interesting things about the life of plants and in fact right now I have more questions than when starting out, but for my one thing is very obvious: Trying to to make plants grow in an artificial way is nothing bad just because its not like nature, basically we are only using things that are somehow derived from nature, but it needs a whole lot of effort and consumes a big amount of energy. So in the end for me the question is how much energy is it worth e.g. growing plants in winter and where do we get that energy from. Using fossil energy for these purposes surely is quite a bad thing. Using renewable energy is much better, but as a conversion of energy always inherits some inneficiency its always less efficient than using the sunlight directly to grow plants. And regarding the time and work it takes, conventional planting also seems to make more sense to me, as this uses symbiotic effects of organisms to achieve a friendly growing environment very easily compared to buying and controlling different ingredients plus always having to monitor the process.
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 <div style="margin-top:50px; margin-bottom:100px;line-height:1.5em;">
-== <span id="idea1">1:GROWING PLANTS UNDER VERY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ==
+== <span id="idea1"></span>1:GROWING PLANTS UNDER VERY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ==
 Set up several boxes to grow plants under artificial light. Vary color, duration or other aspects of the light and see, if it changes anything in the growing of plants.<br/> [[#experiment1|scroll to experiment 1]]
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 File:biolab_plants_tseh1.jpg
 </gallery>
+<br/>
 ==<span id="idea2"></span>2:GROWING PLANTS UNDER VERY ARTIFICIAL CIRCUMSTANCES==
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 === Day 0 ===
-I build and set up a box, seperated in 4 sections. Each section containing one 1 Watt LED to support the inhabitants with light. The boxes have fans, so the air inside will be interchanged from time to time. To control the amount and - for the first experiment -  the duration of the light and the fans i wrote a little script that is running on an arduino. This script also counts the time (and in case of a powerdrain stores this information on the eeprom).
+I build and set up a box, seperated in 4 sections. Each section containing one 1 Watt LED to support the inhabitants with light. The boxes have fans, so the air inside will be interchanged from time to time. To control the amount and - for the first experiment -  the duration of the light and the fans i wrote a little [[:File:artiPlants_01.zip|script]] that is running on an arduino. This [[:File:artiPlants_01.zip|script]] also counts the time (and in case of a powerdrain stores this information on the eeprom). The LED are suspended from the top of the box using some bend metal strips, which simply clamp the star platine of the leds in place. Therefor i was able to adjust the space between LED and Pots to my liking, plus i didn't have to use any additional heatsink, as the LED were completely surrounded by air.
 For the first part I did not do controlled watering, i just gave them water by hand.
+'''List of Parts'''
+*Housing made of MDF
+*Arduino Uno
+*2x 1W LED 660 nm (deep red)
+*2x 1W LED 440 nm (royal blue)
+*4x LDD-350L MEANWELL LED Driver
+*2x 12V Fan
+* generic switching relay
+*12V 4A power supply
+*terminal strip
+*Wires
+[[:File:artiPlants_01.zip|->Arduino Script]]
 [[File:day_0_box_web.jpg|390px|Front View of Growbox]]
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 As a first step i prepared thy seeds, by soaking them in warm water, which was boiled and thus sterilized before.<br/>
 Then I prepared some Agar-Agar medium using the following recipe:
+'''Growth Medium Recipe'''<br/>
+''based on notes of Azucena Sánchez, adopted to what was available in the Lab''
+*0,46 gr (2*0,23gr) Murishage Skoog medium (bought via ebay[https://www.ebay.de/usr/www_dephyte_com?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754])
+*4 gr (2*2gr) Sacharose
+*400ml (2*200ml) distilled water
+*0,96gr (2*0,48gr) agar
+stirred until nearly everything was dissolved<br/>
+pH medium 1 =  7,3 | pH medium 2 = 8,8
 <gallery  widths=120px heights=160px mode=nolines>
 File:day0_jelly2.jpg
+File:day0_table.jpg
 File:day0_num3.jpg
-File:day0_table.jpg
 </gallery>
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 Both waters already look greenish. And the guy from aqua-zoo told me that i should get some "Schmieralgen" growing, as he knows that this usually happens. A Quick research gave me the information, that "Schmieralgen" are usually Blue algea, which in fact are commonly not algea but cyanobacteria[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobakterien].
 So next step will be using the microscope to see if i can find something in the water. Afterwards i will set up the artificial-light box again, to help the cyanobacterie and or algea grow better during these lowlight days
+</div>
 </div>