A Sunday visit to the McMurdo Greenhouse

After Sunday brunch a friend and I hiked up to the back part of town and found the greenhouse. We had never been there and fortunately the town 'farmer' was watering his crops so we had an excellent tour. It is an amazing place!

The funny thing is that I thought about my neighbor's house down the street where I live in Cape Canaveral. The previous owner had turned it into a pot growing house and was doing quite an operation until he was caught. As I was touring the greenhouse I was checking out the large lamps, water and power required with all the associated plumbing and wiring. Yes, this would all work in a few bedrooms! The marihuana was grown in pots with dirt whereas this greenhouse uses the hydroponics method.

Tomatoes.

Lettuce.

Ready to harvest. From seed planting to dinner table is about 7 weeks.

No dirt is used. The plants sit in trays with the roots and water underneath brown screens.

The roots grow through a hole cut in the screen and into the water trough.

Radishes.

The 400 watt lights are on 16 hours a day. The Griswolds are in Antarctica!

About 20-25 pounds of lettuce are harvested each week producing 6 large bowls. This gives us 1-2 salads per week.

Very bright lights. The walls are wrapped in reflective material.

Experimenting with LED lights.

A nice temperature. The humidly is 40%. That sure felt good since we live in less than 1%.

The seeds are planted in a fiber type material.

My Hawaiian flower shirt blends in well.

There are seven varieties of lettuce that grow well here.

Roots below the brown screen. This is the watering trough.

Cucumbers.

More tomatoes.

Basil.

The nursery lettuce at one week.

Wow! Grown in Antarctica!

Bell peppers.

Brussels sprouts.

The last of the lettuce for the season. The Greenhouse farmer is leaving at Win-Fly, the last week in August. At that time the greenhouse will be closed until next winter.

Without exhaust fans the temperature would reach 140 degF.

This container is filled twice a week. It takes over 400 gallons per week for watering.

Nice camouflage. Too bright for my eyes!

Cherry reds are ready.

Root structure.

What a cool place to visit. We are welcome anytime to sit and read, exhale CO2, and enjoy the smells, green and light.

The greenhouse is very expensive to operate. In fact there has been times when the contractor has wanted to shut the operation down. But it certainly is a huge morale boost which is really needed here.

Sunday afternoon I went for a short walk to watch another layer of water being pumped onto the ice pier (see previous 'this and that' post).  Then I walked to Hut Point. I don't know how cold it was but I ended up running back to my dorm because of it. I had all my extreme cold weather gear on but I was almost totally frozen. In fact I could not open the rear door at my dorm. Fortunately someone came out and I got in. I just couldn't grasp and turn the door knob. Back in my room I went through the painful thawing process. I can't believe the pain a body part goes through when thawing. As the body is re-warmed, the nerves come back to life and this is very painful! About an hour later I was warm again. No wonder I hardly ever see anyone else walking around.

A small storm swept through McMurdo yesterday July 20th. A gale brought along temperatures in the -60's. As they say in town "it was blowing and snowing".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysdVGAbDTio

A link to a 1.5 minute video walking from my dorm to dinner Friday at 5.