John Rennie High School #Microgreen project

Students leaning about plants by growing microgreens in class.

Phase 1

#greenhouse whiteflies captured

Eradicating whiteflies in a greenhouse is no easy task.

This year we are experimenting with different crops.

Here is an image taken from a pepper leaf with our digital microscope.

These whitefly nymphs are a sign that the greenhouse still has a pest problem.
It seems that we are in need of tighter standards to deal with this.

According to Cropking.com

"Whitefly adults usually congregate at the top of plants. They lay their eggs on the bottom side of the upper plant leaves. The eggs hatch and go through three larval stages while on the bottom of the leaves. The last two larval stages settle down in one location and suck the juices from the leaf cells. This is followed by a pupal stage from which the new adult whitefly emerges. During the time this temperature dependent, 21 plus day process occurs, the plant continues to grow. Later stages of the life cycle are found lower on vertically growing plants."

greenhouses-keeping-bugs-out

LINK to JRHS Greenhouse Data Loggers

Click Link to view: Internet of things project Dashboard
JRHS Greenhouse Data Collection

#raspberry pi data collector

Data logger nearly online. Should be interesting.

Pepper plants being planted from our greenhouse

Mushrooms along-side our pepper plants

Wood chips added to ensure moisture.

Ready for eating

Beekeepers

JRHS teacher JF Pepin shows student and staff what to look out for in the JRHS beehive.  The drone,which is larger than the worker bees, is spotted and there is only one queen bee. Both good signs.

Now there are three wasps!

Now there are three wasps buzzing around the JRHS greenhouse. I also spotted whiteflies on the pepper plants, likely wasp food. 

More greenhouse whiteflies?

It appears the whitefly problem is still present on some pepper plants.  Now that chance if frost is hopefully over, time to get these babies outside for good!

Wasp makes greenhouse its home

Hard to believe, but the wasp that had landed on a succulent growing in the JRHS greenhouse was still on it this morning. Looks like this wasp is happy here. Certainly better than being outside with today's light flurries!

Wasp in greenhouse

Spotted this wasp in JRHS greenhouse hanging out with tomato plants and this succulent. Hopefully a parasitic wasp eating leftover whiteflies.

Vermie composter maintenance

Time to collect the rich earth from our worm composter.

Growing well

Lettuce is looking good  in promising weather

Tomato and pepper Plants

Peppers and tomatoes were relegated to the outdoors to help solve flying insect dilemma.

What's plaguing jrhs tomato and pepper plants?

Whiteflies are gone, but now there is another insect flying in theJRHS Greenhouse.  Are they the reason our tomatoes and peppers look....well, unhealthy? Or are they attacking already diseased plants?

After planting

Thanks to my helper, romaine lettuce, bunching onions and chives are finally planted in the JRHS garden.

Before planting

Lettuce survived outside last night despite the frigid air . JRHS's Haden gardens provide a microclimate where tender plants are protected.

Bunching onions and lettuce in#jrhsgarden

JRHS greenhouse plants

They're baaaaaaaaaack! Greenhouse whiteflies are back in business. They are attacking our peppers and tomatoes!

Room 402 Mr Pepin indoor garden

JRHS Ressource students helping move plants

Our ressource students are helping prepare the garden.

Helping plants adjust to the outdoors

Acclimatization of the greenhouse plants is very important. We are going to do this several times before transplanting them into the Haden Garden.

JRHS GREENHOUSE

Greenhouse after third whitefly treatment

Battered plant after treatment.

The white fly infestation was rathet severe. Sucking insects causing the plant to have a whitish appearance. Still infested but at a much lower rate.

Aftermath of white fly invasion

Greenhouse is cooler now. After spraying the white flies witg 2 nd treatment yesterday and having had to destroy several plants, the lower temperature is keeping the pest at bay.

White flies in greenhouse

Yesterday we spent 2 hours treating the plants with insecticidal soap.
The white flies had infested our lettuce and pepper plants.

Today the plants seem to be recovering but gradually the white flies will continue to increase in number.

Another treatment will be needed by tomorrow.

Arduino weather station project: Internet of things (IOT)

Using the Arduino Uno Sparkfun breakout boards we have begun the first phase of our greenhouse weather station.