Author Archives: Kenric

PS #24: How can We Utilize Our Outside Bed?

With the completion of the outer wall, we now have a space that can be used as a big plant bed to grow alongside the hydroponics system. Now we have to decide which plants to grow there. Since the point of greenhouse is to continuously grow throughout the year, we want to look at yearContinue reading “PS #24: How can We Utilize Our Outside Bed?”

PS #23: Which Plant is Best for Our Hydroponics System?

We want to find the most optimal plants to grow in our hydroponics system to make it as efficient as we can. All sorts of plants are actually suitable to grow in hydroponics systems, but different plants work better with specific systems. With the way ours is configured, we should avoid vine plants and sinceContinue reading “PS #23: Which Plant is Best for Our Hydroponics System?”

PS #22: Reinforcing the Greenhouse Walls

Now with the outer wall completed last week, we want to add a bit of support to it. The plan is to split the space between the inner and outer walls into a large plant bed and then two side storage spaces. The two storage spaces would be in the different parts of the wallsContinue reading “PS #22: Reinforcing the Greenhouse Walls”

PS #18: Extended Break

Today’s Build Day was supposed to be our grand return after our break for the winter. Mind that I said “supposed to.” Unfortunately, it was reported that the winds of the winter had done quite a number on the LEAF garden. The roofs of the several greenhouses were blown off, including ours, and there wasContinue reading “PS #18: Extended Break”

PS #17: Wrapping the Greenhouse Pt. 2

Recovering from our failure from last Build Day, we were ready to tackle the shrink wrap cover again. Because the heat contracts the wrap at just the location it is applied, it pulls the surrounding parts of the shrink wrap in. The process of properly shrinking around the whole dome is quite delicate as itContinue reading “PS #17: Wrapping the Greenhouse Pt. 2”

PS #16: Wrapping the Greenhosue

Today is an exciting day! We finally get to cover the greenhouse with the shrink wrap. For any greenhouse to work, you need insulation to help stabilize the temperature. We chose to use shrink wrap because it allows us a greater degree of freedom when covering our uniquely shaped greenhouse. The way shrink wrap worksContinue reading “PS #16: Wrapping the Greenhosue”

PS #14: ACWD Interviews

Build Day this week had a performative twist. Aman, our project manager, alerted us to the ACWD WaterClips Student Video Contest. This is a contest where middle and high schoolers send in videos about chosen topics under water conservation to the Alameda County Water District. While some of us carried out tasks like dismantling planterContinue reading “PS #14: ACWD Interviews”

PS #15: How Much Food can the Hydroponics System Grow?

When you create a system, such as our hydroponics greenhouse, you want to plan it out with a model first. For our model, we will just be looking at how much food the hydroponics system should theoretically be able to produce in a year. First, we need to find the value of all our variablesContinue reading “PS #15: How Much Food can the Hydroponics System Grow?”

PS #9: Completing the Main Structure

Now that the dome is secured to the inner wall, we needed to trim parts off to make way for the entrance. We essentially removed the pipes that were above the 10th edge of the dome up to the top pipes, which we didn’t touch. Since we were going to append a rectangular corridor toContinue reading “PS #9: Completing the Main Structure”