Depending on his current power situation and remote connectivity, a Home Assistant box with some sensors wouldn't go astray as an additional safety. Checklists plus monitoring > just checklists after all
Could design it with a spring and auto-latch so it's one less thing to worry about. Make a chicken coop inside a chicken coop for extra redundancy if your life depends on it.
Fans are a must have for indoor greenhouses. They help strengthen the stalks, as well as increasing transpiration. Pretty much, if the leaves aren't transpiring, then there is a limit to the amount of new nutrients they can pull up from their root system. This can also cause edema (where the leaves get water pressure buildup and start to die).
Don't ignore this advice Cody! You Need fans if you want thick, hardy stalks. You can even go pretty big with the fans you if you want too. You'll need to actually if you ever decide to install some powerful lighting to maximize food production.
I love that full room pipe heat exchanger. Never thought of trying something like that but it would be perfect for a lot of barns and workshops. Could do geothermal with nothing but a continuous pipe and a pump. I like that there's no moving air so it could operate completely silently. Would maybe need to be clever about how condensation runs down the pipes so it doesn't rain on your stuff in a non greenhouse application
ventalation fans can have a condensation trap fitted.... its a short length of pipe with a internal gutter which channels the water to the outside via a drain.... its a simple device but really helps
I remember an episode of dirty jobs where Mike was working with guys that were installing geothermal systems in a new housing development, giving cooling to entire homes. it might be worth looking into how they handle those issues when trying to cool off an entire house with just a continuous pipe with water running thru it.
Cody you reminded me of my rooster. He was extremely smart. He would always sleep right at the entrance of his home, protecting his chickens. Whenever i would give him anything, he would immediately drop it on the ground and call the chickens. He always knew me, whenever i would sit in the back yard, he would come and sit in my lap to get petted. He really had a beautiful soul. Through every illness, every cold season, he pushed strongly. Only to be stolen by some bikers just a few months ago... I miss him a lot, i grew a quarter of my life with him after all.
Got one that went blind after getting attacked but still ruled the roost when out and about and the hens see something they want him to look at there is a main one that has different clucks for left right forward and fluff.
that's messed up man.. of all the horrible things in nature, man is the worst... let's hope he's actually still ok and fighting strong to get back to you still.. or with some miracle they are actually looking after him and he's ok..
The plants are fighting for light, that's why they are tall and thin. It's quite not bright enough for them. You need a fan or other way of having a constant breeze just like outdoors has. That's why they are pliable and don't stand up well. The breeze works a plants stem almost like lifting weights builds muscle. Microscopic rips that heal tougher and stronger than previously. The flavor directly comes from minerals in the water and growing medium. Get some worms and a little heavily mineralized soil and decaying organic materials to add to your plant boxes. Work castings are amazing plant nutrients and the mineralized dirt/ organic materials will slowly break down from plants and worms and water. Fish emulsion is good for a quick fix. A couple of cheap solar panels could give you fan power and even a grow light or two to brighten up the container. If you don't want worms directly in your soil, make a bucket worm farm to get castings,chicken feed and fish bait . Some trout worms or Canadian crawlers from a sports shop will work well and will die in the desert so they won't become invasive.the hardest part is keeping them cool enough.
@@KainYusanagi These are to simulate food for humans. Adding a fan is easy enough to simulate wind. Light in a spaceship would be brighter, on mars it could be an issue. Worms are an issue, but the more we learn about plants the more we know that worms, fungus and bacteria play a vital role in how plants grow and these are things that should be addressed in space like conditions. I dont know much about growing plants in space, but i would assume hydroponic system would be ideal, no need to transport soil from earth which would be super expensive. I thought these videos were about Mars base and less about space travel/base.
The wind would dry out thin spindly plants and make them worse. When there's low light you don;t need constant breezes drying them out. Humidity would be helpful. More light is the solution. Dunno how to get it though without changing to a glass panel enclosure or adding artificial lighting.
@@aminorityofone Considering I only addressed the worm castings and other additions to the soil... And no, Cody said that it was about existing on even an asteroid base.
From gold mining, through refinery, chainmails, bee keeping to rewarding radishes for being big. Cody, our world would not be the same without your videos! Thank you!
Make a "windmill powered fan" -- that is, the outside wind would rotate the windmill, and a mechanical contraption to transfer the wind to an internal fan propeller, while keeping the two atmospheres separate. This is good stuff for Mars research! The low light level too -- I'm guessing the light is dimmer on Mars because of the greater distance from the Sun.
If you have Internet on base you should run Home Assistant on a raspberry pi and digitize all of your sensors. A zigbee network would allow you to track temperatures, humidity, etc, and chart data over time. Also you can automate anything on the network like valves, etc.
Great idea! Home assistant is a rabbit hole for sure but I think it’s the perfect fit for Cody. The kind of metrics and data you can collect and display make it feel like a space station. I can already imagine Cody giggling about the graphs and things he can infer from them.
One thing to remember; This is supposed to simulate an off-world base, so it has to be maintainable and fixable with on-site parts. Pretty sure you can't just call tech-support from Mars. Analog systems are far preferable in this scenario. Basically, apply the "kiss" principle of Engineering.
As an agriculturalist, the lack of wind to strengthen the petiole and leaf will cause many commercial crops to fail indoors as they don’t experience the needed stressors. Running a large fan for a few hours a day to stress the petiole and leaves will correct your lettuce. Add a nitrogen fixing plants to your mix, it will take two “seasons” and if you supplement those with a product like MycoMaxx in the soil it will help with breakdown. Copper based organic products will protect from powdery mildew without any bad effects when uses only on the leaves.
We all need to thank the Patreon members for keeping him alive while youtube castigated him. Let's all make this man roll in cash so we get more of this priceless content.
@@dehiscence His funds were locked away for a good while for some reason. Like at least a few years worth of ad revenue if I recall correctly. He talked about it in the last, or next to last episode of ChickenHole Based I believe
@@dehiscence Awesome! He did get it fixed with UA-cam, so now he gets his ad revenue monthly like normal I believe. If anyone deserves money for their crazy projects, it's Cody!
I did a science experiment with a radish that got soft and started to sprout leaves and planted it in a pot in the yard...over the course of the next 8+ months it grew over 3 ft tall with multiple main stems around an inch across...the main tap root when I finally pulled it out went down over 18 inches in the pot and out the bottom hole into the ground underneath...I then threw the giant root behind our hot tub and it managed to root itself again and has greenery taking over a 3ftx3ft area...the flowers from the radish are a really cool light pink. We definitely enjoyed watching the radish grow...and did a similar experiment with the top 1 inch leftover piece of celery root...that grew a giant plant over time and made over a cup of celery seeds...So that can be very cool to do and watch.
"Critter acquitition & termination systems" 😂 Cheers from a much wetter & greener rural Portugal - thanks, Cody! @HowardsPortugal PS We call Arugula "Rocket" - appropriate name for a plant on your project! Pps If you put in a 1000litre IBC inside, it'll regulate the temperature...latent heat warms the water during the day etc...then you'll need less pumping!
Hi Cody, based on my prior research into aeroponics, having some airflow over the plants will yield stronger stems and crunchier leaves. I even recall that larger grow operations could tailor the texture/crunchiness of salad greens for their customers by modulating the airflow through the crop.
As always a fun series to watch. I do have 2 suggestions/remarks if you don't mind. The thin leafs and stems... Yea that is partially a lack of wind. And possibly a shortage of K and Ca. Also some extra Co2 could help a bit. Plus wind can help with a bit more evenly warmth distribution. (But dont put a fan directly on your crops because that will increase the evaporation a lot) And Co2 generation is easly solved by using a bottle with water, sugar and some bakers yeast and a hole in the bottlecap. (Or a couple of bottles) And the streching of the plants. I think you might have made a wrong conclusion there. (But i could be wrong ofc). Plants need light and grow towards the place that provides the most light (Most of the time). That the beet plants outside are shorter than inside tells me that the plants outside get enough light and dont need to stretch/grow so much towards the sun to get enough. This might be a controversial suggestion but look at the indoor grow suggestions from experienced weed growers (That info is abundantly available on internet nowadays.) Those guys have decades more experence with growing plants indoors.
Growlights are well within the spirit of this experiment. I mean, an off-world base is not likely to get as much sunlight as earth, so it only makes sense to have to supplement with artificial sunlight.
As an ex-chicken-owner, I highly suggest getting an automated sliding chicken door for the chicken run. All it takes to lose an entire flock is forgetting to close the door just once when a fox or raccoon decides to come by in the evening or early morning. If you never have to manually open the door to let them roam, you also never have to remember to close it. There are fairly cheap kits; mine was a cheap 12v battery, a trickle charger solar panel, an auto-reversing motor and a timer. All told, I think I spent $70 on it, and it worked without fail for three years, winter months included, and that's with the 12v battery also driving a grain-scattering feeder (to get them to STFU in the morning by giving them something to do). We'd still have chickens today if the humans hadn't given in to the chickens wanting to be out at 5am every day during the summer...
Those who think this is Minecraft are mistaken. This is a straight-up Stationeers LARP. Stationeers is a settlement simulator with a decent thermodynamics model, so systems like Cody's are the norm.
@@captainkittygaming9022 I did, but chickenhole base is an exercise in moving air, water, and energy from places where they are less useful to places where they can do useful work. That is what is gamified by Stationeers.
Those chickens are extremely lucky to be alive. As for the plants they need wind. Put an oscillating fan in there. You might also want lighting, but no way to tell unless you test to see how much of the light from the sun is attenuated.
@@SlaaneshChampionMako Probably why it roosted where it did, too. If it gets attacked as a solo chicken, then it doesn't lead predators to the others, while also providing a more inviting target so it's more likely to be attacked than the flock.
im sure that the chickens killed the rooster because they wanted to escape thats why they trying to hide from Cody , they hate him for having them there during winter
Something my grandfather did, and it was a bit of genius on his part both for the recycling aspect and for using an already existing bit of tech. He used a toilet tank to water his plants, it filled automatically, and all you had to do was "flush" it to water the plants to deliver a roughly metered amount of water. You could probably set up a similar if not identical setup. Have a large reservoir that feeds into a flusher setup. Might take an extra solar setup for a pump to feed the toilet tank or just do a gravity feed, whichever.
That's common with greenhouse plants for them to be weak, put a fan in there to make wind for them to fight against, it's actually what we have to do with our weed plants. Also it helps keep mold down to have airflow. The spiciness in vegetables often has to do with the ph/acidity of the soil they are grown in. I know I grew daikon raddishes years ago and those are the most mild raddishes you can buy and ours ended up so hot you could barely eat them and it all was thanks to the crappy dirt they were grown in that's very high in clay and iron. Now we just grow everything in smart pots and good compost. KITTIES! and DOG! :P
Cody, I am watching your videos for many years, and became a patreon long ago. Thank you for inspiration! You return belief that humanity will survive.
So I'm sure the brightness plays into the plant growth to a degree, however a lack of wind will cause them to grow spindly. Maybe get a fan in there if you can, directed to move the leaves at least a bit. Also, the flavour of things like rocket (arugula) and radish is coming from the plants defense mechanism. Instead of picking whole plants, take a leaf off many plants regularly to trigger the production of those compounds (stimulating a response to pests that are otherwise absent).
Really looks like things are coming together in the greenhouse. Also that tank would look great with a space blanket, bonus points if you get some gold coloured ones.
In most places about 10 feet deep in the ground there is a constant 45 degrees F. If you bury your heat/cooling tanks you may be able to take advantage of that.
I love the tips on using all parts of the plant. Wasting food always makes me feel sad but im also not a garbage disposal so finding ways to utilize all parts is amazing
Hey Cody. You can solve your plants issue by installing a few Grow lights and reflectors on the windows to catch extra sunlight and throw in through the windows. Plus you also can harvest the crickets in large numbers by making a few simple traps with barrels and holes in the ground. You can process these crickets as winter feed for chickens as they are high in Protein. Also consider farming fly larva and crickets for Fish
Omg your cat has such a sweet little voice, so cute! I can tell they're having the time of their lives just following you and exploriing all the things.
I used to work for one of Australia's largest hydroponics farming companies, we produced mostly herbs and microgreens. I am an engineer and i always argued with the growers that more control and automation would leverage better crop. however contradictory to this belief, the more we tried to control the variables the less taste/flavourwould be imparted in the plants. Ultimately one of the growers deduced that it is the stress in the plant from Wind, Rain, Heat, Frost etc that made the plants grow structure and fibres that ultimately led to particular taste's that we associated with that plant. It's not that one plant was better then another, it was just that the 'pure' controlled variable plant yielded tastes noone wanted.
i just gotta say, Cody, youre my favorite homestead/off-grid type channel out there. So many people are out here doing stuff that effectively ampunts to aesthetic, but youre out here using technology and engineering in new amd smart ways to actually solve real problems. it's very cool!
Might I recommend installing a voice module into Robo Cody? I know being outside can be a bit warm in the coming months and allowing robo Cody to present the work will help with potential heat stress.
Lower light and wind are exactly what would've caused that in your crops. A small oscillating fan on a timer in the corner would help solve one of those problems.
The tall spindlyness is because it's not bright enough inside the tank. Plants grow like that because they think they're in the shade of another plant, so they're trying to get tall enough to get out of the shadow. And the reason why they're so delicate is because there's no wind inside the greenhouse. Not sure how you could fix the first problem, but the second problem could be mitigated somewhat by putting a fan in the greenhouse.
Another good episode. Some strawberry and trailing tomatoes might be an option for those buckets on the walls. Not sure if there is enough light, but worth a try.
PVC piping tip: You're doing some things because you're not sure if the pipe layout is final. I recommend to stop using PVC couplings (to join pipe lengths together), and switch entirely to PVC unions instead. These are as strong as coupling but will basically turn your piping into a LEGO set. This way all your inputs, outputs, and pipelines are easily taken apart or rearranged at any time for any reason, anything that needs to changed you can easily swap out just that section that needs to change. It makes modifications and repairs so much easier. Some brands of union are interchangeable with each other, but ideally you want to pick a brand and use it for everything so that you know that any of your pipe sections can be connected to any other pipe section. A union does cost 3x as much as coupling but I've found that to be a bargain next to the time saved down the road (especially with the scarcity of supplies at CHB)
Just like you can taste the difference between greenhouse grown tomatoes vs. tomatoes grown outside. Flavor and nutritional differences. Both advantage to outside although you are able to grow more produce per sq ft in a greenhouse from the pampered climate.
I'm betting if you get some air moving with a fan it will help harden up your veggies. I had the same issue with a hydroponic garden and just a box fan helped a lot.
I won't go into the specifics, but I've been around a few indoor grows. Your terrariums would massively benefit from airflow, even just a little bit, a small PC fan or two running on a solar panel. Also, if you can increase the CO2 level, that should help combat the powdery mildew and other pests.
I know that kind of operation. :D On a "totally unrelated" side note, Hemp would actually be a very beneficial offworld crop. The leaves are edible, and the seeds make some of the best/healthies plant-oil in the world. The stems make for great natural fibers, and can in a myriad of ways. And the plant is hardy as heck, and grows very fast.
I wonder how practical a rigged up thermal fan (like the kind that work on a wood stove heat to disperse heat) would be on hot days to give some breeze to the plants. I know industrial green houses use big fans to give breeze to plants that need it for structural growth. Probably wouldn’t work out but it’s just an idea I thought of.
You ever consider doing some simple swales and simple soil depressions to encourage rainwater to stay on your property longer? You could plant natives in those features to take advantage of, strengthen, and to fertilize the soil around the earthworks. Amazing what you can do just by making water slow down a bit. Really love your channel, its been one of the best on youtube for years now.
thanks for including the definition of Insolation, since otherwise EVERYONE would think you said Insulation and would "um actually" you to death. instead, I learned something new!
it's probably a good idea to use your CO2 meter to check the concentration inside the greenhouse, both for peace of mind as well as maybe to plot it over time to see if it changes as the biomass increases. would need to make it airtight though
I've had hunting cats alongside chickens for years, the cats never went after the chickens after the first few times they got pecked. While it's possible, I would not expect it.
fantastic work! This is peak Cody in my opinion 😃 As you complete experiments and refine the habitat designs, you could write up schematics and share them as a perk for your patrons.
Thank you for making these videos Cody. You're the only one making content like this. I was having a really rough day and was in a really bad mood but this video brought me joy. Keeping yourself we love you.
Cody, if you find the siphon which waters the plants doesn't start easily because of the very small intake flow: Big Clive has made a video a while back on the Autosiphon. It's a siphon which never fails to start, no matter what, and it's a purely mechanical solution. Very rugged and durable, which is exactly what you want for a Mars base. It is a very interesting system, too.
5:59 had similar thing with sunflowers when I was growing them in a room with low light levels. They turned out to be longer and thinner, more like some kind of vines. Planted them outside recently, I wonder what will happen to them
Mars' solar irradiance is only 43% of earths, but I think its still realistic enough to use a solar light set up in the garden tank to see if it makes a difference. And the ice caps on Mars are mostly made of CO2 which could be used to provide an enriched atmosphere for the plants to grow in, so a C02 dosing system is in the realm of possibility too
Ooh, very neat, maybe investing in some extra air-tightness for the door might be a good idea, who knows if some other critter might find a way through the gaps?
The wind is definitely a big factor. You need to shake your indoor plants if you want them to grow stronger. Playing some rock music works too, it's silly, but it works ☺
Love the Chickenhole Base videos, and the bees, and the science things... love it all. Really enjoying this series at the moment though, some nice progress with the base.
You can use a ductulator to calculate airflow given pipe size/bends/fan cfm. Also a 15⁰ temperature drop at the supply air is comparable to a residential a/c! Bravo! Brilliant work!
When growing plants indoors, you need fresh air, which you have addressed well in this video, but you also need air movement to simulate a breeze. The lack of a breeze will produce weaker, leggy plants. Maybe try getting an oscillating fan or two in there on a solar panel to help with this.
You just solved a mystery for me! I've been growing radishes for a few years in my backyard, and I've heard that the greens were edible. I had assumed that it was the leaves the sources were talking about, but they are kinda spikey and are generally unpleasant. Turns out, it's the stalks i should have been eating. Thanks Cody
Thank you for the video Cody. I have been watching your informative videos for years. I will say that without ANY doubt this series is my favorite of your content so far. THIS video in PARTICULAR is in my opinion the VERY best content you have EVER made. It is all coming together and it is all due to your hard work. Your grit and fortitude to keep going when things do not go as well as you might want (LOOKIN' AT YOU yooootooob!) is admirable. Peaceful Skies.
your crops are etiliolating due to low light most likely, also the lack of any wind will cause weak stems. As for the thinner more easily bruised leaves - perhaps the humidity. Plants literally grow & yield more when stressed. It causes them to upregulate a slew of stress responses, which are usually favorable traits from a crop perspective - such as secondary metabolites that contribute to 'spicy' flavour, stem cell wall thickening & more robust leaves.
Hey Cody, Ive been building a greenhouse for about a year now and had issues with heating during the winter. It might be worth your while to look into building parabolic reflector water heater/boilers. The manufacturing process is fairly simple and seems like the type of project you'd be good at, and heating would otherwise use up a lot of your energy (I have a fairly small greenhouse and even then it would take about a full car battery's wattage to heat it from 20-70f through just resistive heating). They would also fit your environment quite well since you still get a lot of sun during the winter. I'm currently designing a loop and I'm building it to work like a bubble pump, requiring no external electricity/complexity.
Nice! :) looking good, really like the new features! Consider putting in a nice strong-ish fan on a timer so you don't have to run it all the time: Wind helps to build stronger stems, similar to how exercising your muscles creates tears that harden and get stronger over time, movement in the stems causes them to harden up for an overall stronger plant. As for the stems stretching out too much, that's usually characteristic of insufficient lighting: you might need to supplement with some additional lighting in the early hours of the morning and late hours of the afternoon, at the very least in the seedling/vegetative phase. Consider LED lights with lenses that focus the light over a given area, gives you more efficient application of the light energy vs spreading light over a large area. This will probably make a big difference on your crop yields as well. Cheers Cody :)
Your wall buckets look like they need strawberries. Also maybe anchor some bolts into the greenhab wall and hang a hammock, if you can keep mid 80's in summer that might be nice. Give some CO2 back too. But your weak stalks need a breeze, which could also speed up heat exchange.
your comment about the lower humidity really helping you comes from the fact that convection and evaporation is far more effective at moving heat than radiation is. That is why a "radiator" for an air conditioner or heat pump on a building has such a large fan in it.
Long stems usually indicate low light. And because there’s no wind, the stems are weaker. Weed growers often put the oscillating fans for better circulation and stronger plants
You can harden the plants a bit by adding a some oscillating fans. That tiny bit of abuse induces the plants to toughen. I imagine you'd also see some ancillary benefits in such a thoroughly sealed system. As well as reduce the risk of fungal growth which is always a concern.
You can get considerably more food from a radish plant by just letting it grow and eating the seed pods. The blooms are also much loved by pollinators.
If i had 50+ acres to play with, id definately do something like this. These pod/modular structures have a lot of benifits from maximising space and resources, to containing them for easier maintenance and mobility. One thing I always wanted to try was your heat exchanger, but using a buried pipe for geothermal applications.
My favorite Minecraft Survival series
lol
Insane graphics too!
Cody and his cousin Etho need to tour each other’s worlds.
For sure
mine too
You forget to close the door because you don't have checklist. Every astronaut has a checklist.
Depending on his current power situation and remote connectivity, a Home Assistant box with some sensors wouldn't go astray as an additional safety. Checklists plus monitoring > just checklists after all
Could design it with a spring and auto-latch so it's one less thing to worry about. Make a chicken coop inside a chicken coop for extra redundancy if your life depends on it.
Nah just wait the half hour round trip for earth comms
At least he isn't stuck in Space like Butch and Suni
Put a few small fans in the greenhouse to rustle the plants, it'll help em strengthen up to stand tall.
Good idea!
Fans are a must have for indoor greenhouses. They help strengthen the stalks, as well as increasing transpiration. Pretty much, if the leaves aren't transpiring, then there is a limit to the amount of new nutrients they can pull up from their root system. This can also cause edema (where the leaves get water pressure buildup and start to die).
Very true. Fans will also reduce mildew growth, too! 😀
Yup. Learned about this in like 3rd grade. Plants need physical stresses to help them grow stronger fibers.
Don't ignore this advice Cody! You Need fans if you want thick, hardy stalks. You can even go pretty big with the fans you if you want too. You'll need to actually if you ever decide to install some powerful lighting to maximize food production.
I love that full room pipe heat exchanger. Never thought of trying something like that but it would be perfect for a lot of barns and workshops. Could do geothermal with nothing but a continuous pipe and a pump. I like that there's no moving air so it could operate completely silently. Would maybe need to be clever about how condensation runs down the pipes so it doesn't rain on your stuff in a non greenhouse application
.. no problem though with waterproofed tarps over the valuables :]
ventalation fans can have a condensation trap fitted.... its a short length of pipe with a internal gutter which channels the water to the outside via a drain.... its a simple device but really helps
Whole greenhouse water-cooling
I remember an episode of dirty jobs where Mike was working with guys that were installing geothermal systems in a new housing development, giving cooling to entire homes. it might be worth looking into how they handle those issues when trying to cool off an entire house with just a continuous pipe with water running thru it.
In a theoretical sealed greenhouse and not insects or birds, how will pollination take place? Will you need to manually do it?
Love to see a new update! You’re working on the off-planet life-support dream of a thousand engineers stuck in the office.
Yeah this looks a lot more stimulating than work rn, I wish...
I'm a homeless person, can go sleep there..
@@Science-Vlog In general, I’ve read that Utah has good supportive services for the homeless. Gotta stay sober though.
@@astebbin its also utah which just kinda sucks
Cody you reminded me of my rooster. He was extremely smart. He would always sleep right at the entrance of his home, protecting his chickens. Whenever i would give him anything, he would immediately drop it on the ground and call the chickens.
He always knew me, whenever i would sit in the back yard, he would come and sit in my lap to get petted. He really had a beautiful soul.
Through every illness, every cold season, he pushed strongly.
Only to be stolen by some bikers just a few months ago...
I miss him a lot, i grew a quarter of my life with him after all.
Sorry for both of your losses.
Got one that went blind after getting attacked but still ruled the roost when out and about and the hens see something they want him to look at there is a main one that has different clucks for left right forward and fluff.
that's messed up man.. of all the horrible things in nature, man is the worst... let's hope he's actually still ok and fighting strong to get back to you still.. or with some miracle they are actually looking after him and he's ok..
I'm sorry man, that's sad. Do you have any of his sons?
Maybe the thug life chose him
The plants are fighting for light, that's why they are tall and thin. It's quite not bright enough for them. You need a fan or other way of having a constant breeze just like outdoors has. That's why they are pliable and don't stand up well. The breeze works a plants stem almost like lifting weights builds muscle. Microscopic rips that heal tougher and stronger than previously. The flavor directly comes from minerals in the water and growing medium. Get some worms and a little heavily mineralized soil and decaying organic materials to add to your plant boxes. Work castings are amazing plant nutrients and the mineralized dirt/ organic materials will slowly break down from plants and worms and water. Fish emulsion is good for a quick fix. A couple of cheap solar panels could give you fan power and even a grow light or two to brighten up the container. If you don't want worms directly in your soil, make a bucket worm farm to get castings,chicken feed and fish bait . Some trout worms or Canadian crawlers from a sports shop will work well and will die in the desert so they won't become invasive.the hardest part is keeping them cool enough.
Yup - Thigmomorphogenesis! Want strong trees or shrubs - don’t give them canes or stakes!
The greenhouse is to replicate outer space conditions. Doing all those things to increase soil nutrition directly contradicts that.
@@KainYusanagi These are to simulate food for humans. Adding a fan is easy enough to simulate wind. Light in a spaceship would be brighter, on mars it could be an issue. Worms are an issue, but the more we learn about plants the more we know that worms, fungus and bacteria play a vital role in how plants grow and these are things that should be addressed in space like conditions. I dont know much about growing plants in space, but i would assume hydroponic system would be ideal, no need to transport soil from earth which would be super expensive. I thought these videos were about Mars base and less about space travel/base.
The wind would dry out thin spindly plants and make them worse. When there's low light you don;t need constant breezes drying them out. Humidity would be helpful. More light is the solution. Dunno how to get it though without changing to a glass panel enclosure or adding artificial lighting.
@@aminorityofone Considering I only addressed the worm castings and other additions to the soil... And no, Cody said that it was about existing on even an asteroid base.
From gold mining, through refinery, chainmails, bee keeping to rewarding radishes for being big.
Cody, our world would not be the same without your videos!
Thank you!
"its been about 60 days scince the last episode was filmed" we know cody. we know. we await each one
The plants may need the wind to tell them to grow more roots. Trees are like that, at least. A fan would go a long way
it'll also be good for ventilation, moves the humidity around better
Was gonna mention this! A little bit of wind, a small desk fan in the right place, would probably help with the flimsy and bruising plants.
Arduino running a timer circuit for a fan could keep the runtime low but still provide the wind.
Yes, a fan in the greenhouse helps with the leggy stems as well, must have.
Make a "windmill powered fan" -- that is, the outside wind would rotate the windmill, and a mechanical contraption to transfer the wind to an internal fan propeller, while keeping the two atmospheres separate. This is good stuff for Mars research! The low light level too -- I'm guessing the light is dimmer on Mars because of the greater distance from the Sun.
If you use 45s instead of 90s for the vent pipe it’ll help… I’m a plumber and we only use 45s for vents/fresh air movement
HVAC guy here. Yep..Just use 45s for less restricted airflow. A 90 will create vortices in the elbows.
All i need to see after a long day is another episode of chicken hole base.
Can we all appreciate how he made all those plumbing connections without any leaks?
If you have Internet on base you should run Home Assistant on a raspberry pi and digitize all of your sensors. A zigbee network would allow you to track temperatures, humidity, etc, and chart data over time. Also you can automate anything on the network like valves, etc.
Can do that without the internet anyway, more about power usage.
But even a basic timer/relay setup would work.
@@wobblysauce Good point. Internet just for monitoring when not on base.
Great idea! Home assistant is a rabbit hole for sure but I think it’s the perfect fit for Cody. The kind of metrics and data you can collect and display make it feel like a space station. I can already imagine Cody giggling about the graphs and things he can infer from them.
One thing to remember;
This is supposed to simulate an off-world base, so it has to be maintainable and fixable with on-site parts.
Pretty sure you can't just call tech-support from Mars.
Analog systems are far preferable in this scenario.
Basically, apply the "kiss" principle of Engineering.
@@The_Keeper for those confused "Keep it simple, stupid"
As an agriculturalist, the lack of wind to strengthen the petiole and leaf will cause many commercial crops to fail indoors as they don’t experience the needed stressors. Running a large fan for a few hours a day to stress the petiole and leaves will correct your lettuce.
Add a nitrogen fixing plants to your mix, it will take two “seasons” and if you supplement those with a product like MycoMaxx in the soil it will help with breakdown.
Copper based organic products will protect from powdery mildew without any bad effects when uses only on the leaves.
We all need to thank the Patreon members for keeping him alive while youtube castigated him. Let's all make this man roll in cash so we get more of this priceless content.
What did yt do?
@@dehiscence His funds were locked away for a good while for some reason. Like at least a few years worth of ad revenue if I recall correctly. He talked about it in the last, or next to last episode of ChickenHole Based I believe
@@CIubDuck Thanks, just became a patron! He very much deserves ad revenue.
@@dehiscence Awesome! He did get it fixed with UA-cam, so now he gets his ad revenue monthly like normal I believe. If anyone deserves money for their crazy projects, it's Cody!
I did a science experiment with a radish that got soft and started to sprout leaves and planted it in a pot in the yard...over the course of the next 8+ months it grew over 3 ft tall with multiple main stems around an inch across...the main tap root when I finally pulled it out went down over 18 inches in the pot and out the bottom hole into the ground underneath...I then threw the giant root behind our hot tub and it managed to root itself again and has greenery taking over a 3ftx3ft area...the flowers from the radish are a really cool light pink. We definitely enjoyed watching the radish grow...and did a similar experiment with the top 1 inch leftover piece of celery root...that grew a giant plant over time and made over a cup of celery seeds...So that can be very cool to do and watch.
Rip King. I'm sure your final fight was glorious. Maybe you even took an eye out.
"Critter acquitition & termination systems" 😂
Cheers from a much wetter & greener rural Portugal - thanks, Cody!
@HowardsPortugal
PS
We call Arugula "Rocket" - appropriate name for a plant on your project!
Pps
If you put in a 1000litre IBC inside, it'll regulate the temperature...latent heat warms the water during the day etc...then you'll need less pumping!
It's very true cats kill a crazy huge amount of native animals
That IBC would take up A LOT of space though.
Hi Cody, based on my prior research into aeroponics, having some airflow over the plants will yield stronger stems and crunchier leaves. I even recall that larger grow operations could tailor the texture/crunchiness of salad greens for their customers by modulating the airflow through the crop.
As always a fun series to watch.
I do have 2 suggestions/remarks if you don't mind.
The thin leafs and stems... Yea that is partially a lack of wind.
And possibly a shortage of K and Ca. Also some extra Co2 could help a bit.
Plus wind can help with a bit more evenly warmth distribution. (But dont put a fan directly on your crops because that will increase the evaporation a lot)
And Co2 generation is easly solved by using a bottle with water, sugar and some bakers yeast and a hole in the bottlecap. (Or a couple of bottles)
And the streching of the plants. I think you might have made a wrong conclusion there. (But i could be wrong ofc).
Plants need light and grow towards the place that provides the most light (Most of the time).
That the beet plants outside are shorter than inside tells me that the plants outside get enough light and dont need to stretch/grow so much towards the sun to get enough.
This might be a controversial suggestion but look at the indoor grow suggestions from experienced weed growers (That info is abundantly available on internet nowadays.) Those guys have decades more experence with growing plants indoors.
Growlights are well within the spirit of this experiment.
I mean, an off-world base is not likely to get as much sunlight as earth, so it only makes sense to have to supplement with artificial sunlight.
As an ex-chicken-owner, I highly suggest getting an automated sliding chicken door for the chicken run. All it takes to lose an entire flock is forgetting to close the door just once when a fox or raccoon decides to come by in the evening or early morning. If you never have to manually open the door to let them roam, you also never have to remember to close it.
There are fairly cheap kits; mine was a cheap 12v battery, a trickle charger solar panel, an auto-reversing motor and a timer. All told, I think I spent $70 on it, and it worked without fail for three years, winter months included, and that's with the 12v battery also driving a grain-scattering feeder (to get them to STFU in the morning by giving them something to do).
We'd still have chickens today if the humans hadn't given in to the chickens wanting to be out at 5am every day during the summer...
Those who think this is Minecraft are mistaken. This is a straight-up Stationeers LARP. Stationeers is a settlement simulator with a decent thermodynamics model, so systems like Cody's are the norm.
Did you not watch the mine videos?
@@captainkittygaming9022 I did, but chickenhole base is an exercise in moving air, water, and energy from places where they are less useful to places where they can do useful work. That is what is gamified by Stationeers.
The engineering behind recycling and recondensing your cooling loop is impressive.
Those chickens are extremely lucky to be alive. As for the plants they need wind. Put an oscillating fan in there. You might also want lighting, but no way to tell unless you test to see how much of the light from the sun is attenuated.
There's no doubt to me that the rooster kept the other chickens safe the whole time until it was finally taken down.
@@SlaaneshChampionMako quite possibly, I've seen roosters sacrifice themselves to protect the flock.
@@SlaaneshChampionMako Probably why it roosted where it did, too. If it gets attacked as a solo chicken, then it doesn't lead predators to the others, while also providing a more inviting target so it's more likely to be attacked than the flock.
im sure that the chickens killed the rooster because they wanted to escape
thats why they trying to hide from Cody ,
they hate him for having them there during winter
@@NikoMoraKamu smeh.. I guess his chickens wanted to be snow birds
Something my grandfather did, and it was a bit of genius on his part both for the recycling aspect and for using an already existing bit of tech. He used a toilet tank to water his plants, it filled automatically, and all you had to do was "flush" it to water the plants to deliver a roughly metered amount of water. You could probably set up a similar if not identical setup. Have a large reservoir that feeds into a flusher setup. Might take an extra solar setup for a pump to feed the toilet tank or just do a gravity feed, whichever.
just not the mercury toilet
That's common with greenhouse plants for them to be weak, put a fan in there to make wind for them to fight against, it's actually what we have to do with our weed plants. Also it helps keep mold down to have airflow. The spiciness in vegetables often has to do with the ph/acidity of the soil they are grown in. I know I grew daikon raddishes years ago and those are the most mild raddishes you can buy and ours ended up so hot you could barely eat them and it all was thanks to the crappy dirt they were grown in that's very high in clay and iron. Now we just grow everything in smart pots and good compost.
KITTIES! and DOG! :P
Cody, I am watching your videos for many years, and became a patreon long ago. Thank you for inspiration! You return belief that humanity will survive.
This series is very impressive and it really does give great insight about what leaving earth really means.
So I'm sure the brightness plays into the plant growth to a degree, however a lack of wind will cause them to grow spindly. Maybe get a fan in there if you can, directed to move the leaves at least a bit.
Also, the flavour of things like rocket (arugula) and radish is coming from the plants defense mechanism. Instead of picking whole plants, take a leaf off many plants regularly to trigger the production of those compounds (stimulating a response to pests that are otherwise absent).
Really looks like things are coming together in the greenhouse. Also that tank would look great with a space blanket, bonus points if you get some gold coloured ones.
In most places about 10 feet deep in the ground there is a constant 45 degrees F. If you bury your heat/cooling tanks you may be able to take advantage of that.
I love the tips on using all parts of the plant. Wasting food always makes me feel sad but im also not a garbage disposal so finding ways to utilize all parts is amazing
Hey Cody. You can solve your plants issue by installing a few Grow lights and reflectors on the windows to catch extra sunlight and throw in through the windows.
Plus you also can harvest the crickets in large numbers by making a few simple traps with barrels and holes in the ground. You can process these crickets as winter feed for chickens as they are high in Protein.
Also consider farming fly larva and crickets for Fish
Omg your cat has such a sweet little voice, so cute! I can tell they're having the time of their lives just following you and exploriing all the things.
I used to work for one of Australia's largest hydroponics farming companies, we produced mostly herbs and microgreens. I am an engineer and i always argued with the growers that more control and automation would leverage better crop. however contradictory to this belief, the more we tried to control the variables the less taste/flavourwould be imparted in the plants. Ultimately one of the growers deduced that it is the stress in the plant from Wind, Rain, Heat, Frost etc that made the plants grow structure and fibres that ultimately led to particular taste's that we associated with that plant. It's not that one plant was better then another, it was just that the 'pure' controlled variable plant yielded tastes noone wanted.
Critter acquisition team hard at work! RIP King Bawk😢🫡
i just gotta say, Cody, youre my favorite homestead/off-grid type channel out there. So many people are out here doing stuff that effectively ampunts to aesthetic, but youre out here using technology and engineering in new amd smart ways to actually solve real problems. it's very cool!
That's a really clever cooling and water recovery system. Well done!
Try some shade cloth over the planting container, its a life saver for people in the south that plant in the summer time.
Might I recommend installing a voice module into Robo Cody? I know being outside can be a bit warm in the coming months and allowing robo Cody to present the work will help with potential heat stress.
Lower light and wind are exactly what would've caused that in your crops. A small oscillating fan on a timer in the corner would help solve one of those problems.
The tall spindlyness is because it's not bright enough inside the tank. Plants grow like that because they think they're in the shade of another plant, so they're trying to get tall enough to get out of the shadow.
And the reason why they're so delicate is because there's no wind inside the greenhouse.
Not sure how you could fix the first problem, but the second problem could be mitigated somewhat by putting a fan in the greenhouse.
Another good episode. Some strawberry and trailing tomatoes might be an option for those buckets on the walls. Not sure if there is enough light, but worth a try.
I'm glad to see that you have so many projects and that you make the most of every day.
RIP king bok
PVC piping tip: You're doing some things because you're not sure if the pipe layout is final. I recommend to stop using PVC couplings (to join pipe lengths together), and switch entirely to PVC unions instead. These are as strong as coupling but will basically turn your piping into a LEGO set. This way all your inputs, outputs, and pipelines are easily taken apart or rearranged at any time for any reason, anything that needs to changed you can easily swap out just that section that needs to change. It makes modifications and repairs so much easier. Some brands of union are interchangeable with each other, but ideally you want to pick a brand and use it for everything so that you know that any of your pipe sections can be connected to any other pipe section. A union does cost 3x as much as coupling but I've found that to be a bargain next to the time saved down the road (especially with the scarcity of supplies at CHB)
Yes, the arugula is less spicy because of the blocked light. The more stress (UV, drought), the more secondary metabolites and vis versa
Same with the radish
Just like you can taste the difference between greenhouse grown tomatoes vs. tomatoes grown outside. Flavor and nutritional differences. Both advantage to outside although you are able to grow more produce per sq ft in a greenhouse from the pampered climate.
This series is the perfect combination of backyard science / DIY / beautiful nature - I love it.
I think I counted 4 or 5 cleverly placed eggs in that episode.. lol well done.
I'm betting if you get some air moving with a fan it will help harden up your veggies. I had the same issue with a hydroponic garden and just a box fan helped a lot.
I won't go into the specifics, but I've been around a few indoor grows. Your terrariums would massively benefit from airflow, even just a little bit, a small PC fan or two running on a solar panel. Also, if you can increase the CO2 level, that should help combat the powdery mildew and other pests.
I know that kind of operation. :D
On a "totally unrelated" side note, Hemp would actually be a very beneficial offworld crop.
The leaves are edible, and the seeds make some of the best/healthies plant-oil in the world.
The stems make for great natural fibers, and can in a myriad of ways.
And the plant is hardy as heck, and grows very fast.
He does have an episode where he kills an insect infestation by increasing CO2 concentration
This is quite impressive, the amount of planning and execution of some pretty creative ideas on this project wow , bravo
We lost a real one this episode, RIP King Bawk
I wonder how practical a rigged up thermal fan (like the kind that work on a wood stove heat to disperse heat) would be on hot days to give some breeze to the plants. I know industrial green houses use big fans to give breeze to plants that need it for structural growth. Probably wouldn’t work out but it’s just an idea I thought of.
Today is turning out good after all 😎
factsss cody posting is always a great day
Beginner gardener here and in my research some people use fans to create artificial wind/breeze to strengthen the plants as they grow.
Hellas Planitia is looking beautiful this time of year! :)
You ever consider doing some simple swales and simple soil depressions to encourage rainwater to stay on your property longer? You could plant natives in those features to take advantage of, strengthen, and to fertilize the soil around the earthworks. Amazing what you can do just by making water slow down a bit.
Really love your channel, its been one of the best on youtube for years now.
@24:12 A Martian Tarantula!
Okay, that's it. We're nuking Mars.
Thanks, I really needed those 2 comments.
thanks for including the definition of Insolation, since otherwise EVERYONE would think you said Insulation and would "um actually" you to death. instead, I learned something new!
Heck yeah. Thanks for the video, Cody.
Love to see Cody thriving in his natural environment!
woo-hoo! chicken hole base and Cody uploaded!
Like this comment if you want Cody to become a Real Astronaut!
it's probably a good idea to use your CO2 meter to check the concentration inside the greenhouse, both for peace of mind as well as maybe to plot it over time to see if it changes as the biomass increases. would need to make it airtight though
I wonder if the Critter acquisition & termination system would ever go after a rooster... hmmm....
Nahhhh.
I've had hunting cats alongside chickens for years, the cats never went after the chickens after the first few times they got pecked. While it's possible, I would not expect it.
fantastic work! This is peak Cody in my opinion 😃 As you complete experiments and refine the habitat designs, you could write up schematics and share them as a perk for your patrons.
Thank you for making these videos Cody. You're the only one making content like this. I was having a really rough day and was in a really bad mood but this video brought me joy. Keeping yourself we love you.
Keep being yourself*
I appreciate the inclusion of footage of the Martian Feline Corps. They're the true unsung heroes of Chicken Hole Ranch.
Cody, if you find the siphon which waters the plants doesn't start easily because of the very small intake flow: Big Clive has made a video a while back on the Autosiphon. It's a siphon which never fails to start, no matter what, and it's a purely mechanical solution. Very rugged and durable, which is exactly what you want for a Mars base. It is a very interesting system, too.
Cody is literally making home made heat-pumps, amazing
5:59 had similar thing with sunflowers when I was growing them in a room with low light levels. They turned out to be longer and thinner, more like some kind of vines. Planted them outside recently, I wonder what will happen to them
2:50 now THAT’S a life worth living!
It’s really cool seeing people doing stuff they enjoy, once in awhile
Ohh great to see you happy and still working on the Chickenhole Base. Watched the whole Serie, its great to see some progress :)
Been subbed for like 7 years now. Still love the content. I've watched every chicken hole base episode. I love the new phase of Cody's lab. 👍👍
Watching the harvest yield with Cody occasionally munching on one is strangely cathartic, hope we see more!
Mars' solar irradiance is only 43% of earths, but I think its still realistic enough to use a solar light set up in the garden tank to see if it makes a difference. And the ice caps on Mars are mostly made of CO2 which could be used to provide an enriched atmosphere for the plants to grow in, so a C02 dosing system is in the realm of possibility too
Ooh, very neat, maybe investing in some extra air-tightness for the door might be a good idea, who knows if some other critter might find a way through the gaps?
This is so rewarding watching the fruits of your labor and ingenuity!
You got a really sweet slice of paradise their man.
The wind is definitely a big factor.
You need to shake your indoor plants if you want them to grow stronger.
Playing some rock music works too, it's silly, but it works ☺
Love the Chickenhole Base videos, and the bees, and the science things... love it all. Really enjoying this series at the moment though, some nice progress with the base.
You can use a ductulator to calculate airflow given pipe size/bends/fan cfm. Also a 15⁰ temperature drop at the supply air is comparable to a residential a/c! Bravo! Brilliant work!
When growing plants indoors, you need fresh air, which you have addressed well in this video, but you also need air movement to simulate a breeze. The lack of a breeze will produce weaker, leggy plants. Maybe try getting an oscillating fan or two in there on a solar panel to help with this.
You just solved a mystery for me! I've been growing radishes for a few years in my backyard, and I've heard that the greens were edible. I had assumed that it was the leaves the sources were talking about, but they are kinda spikey and are generally unpleasant. Turns out, it's the stalks i should have been eating. Thanks Cody
Thank you for the video Cody.
I have been watching your informative videos for years. I will say that without ANY doubt this series is my favorite of your content so far.
THIS video in PARTICULAR is in my opinion the VERY best content you have EVER made. It is all coming together and it is all due to your hard work.
Your grit and fortitude to keep going when things do not go as well as you might want (LOOKIN' AT YOU yooootooob!) is admirable.
Peaceful Skies.
That greenhouse/hab looks beautiful with all the greens inside. Great work as always Cody!
your crops are etiliolating due to low light most likely, also the lack of any wind will cause weak stems. As for the thinner more easily bruised leaves - perhaps the humidity.
Plants literally grow & yield more when stressed. It causes them to upregulate a slew of stress responses, which are usually favorable traits from a crop perspective - such as secondary metabolites that contribute to 'spicy' flavour, stem cell wall thickening & more robust leaves.
Hey Cody, Ive been building a greenhouse for about a year now and had issues with heating during the winter. It might be worth your while to look into building parabolic reflector water heater/boilers. The manufacturing process is fairly simple and seems like the type of project you'd be good at, and heating would otherwise use up a lot of your energy (I have a fairly small greenhouse and even then it would take about a full car battery's wattage to heat it from 20-70f through just resistive heating). They would also fit your environment quite well since you still get a lot of sun during the winter. I'm currently designing a loop and I'm building it to work like a bubble pump, requiring no external electricity/complexity.
Nice! :) looking good, really like the new features!
Consider putting in a nice strong-ish fan on a timer so you don't have to run it all the time: Wind helps to build stronger stems, similar to how exercising your muscles creates tears that harden and get stronger over time, movement in the stems causes them to harden up for an overall stronger plant.
As for the stems stretching out too much, that's usually characteristic of insufficient lighting: you might need to supplement with some additional lighting in the early hours of the morning and late hours of the afternoon, at the very least in the seedling/vegetative phase.
Consider LED lights with lenses that focus the light over a given area, gives you more efficient application of the light energy vs spreading light over a large area.
This will probably make a big difference on your crop yields as well.
Cheers Cody :)
Your channel is a gem. And your content is made with passion and it shows.
Your wall buckets look like they need strawberries. Also maybe anchor some bolts into the greenhab wall and hang a hammock, if you can keep mid 80's in summer that might be nice. Give some CO2 back too. But your weak stalks need a breeze, which could also speed up heat exchange.
Way to keep us entertained, every new episode is just as exciting as the first ones!
your comment about the lower humidity really helping you comes from the fact that convection and evaporation is far more effective at moving heat than radiation is. That is why a "radiator" for an air conditioner or heat pump on a building has such a large fan in it.
Long stems usually indicate low light. And because there’s no wind, the stems are weaker. Weed growers often put the oscillating fans for better circulation and stronger plants
You can harden the plants a bit by adding a some oscillating fans. That tiny bit of abuse induces the plants to toughen. I imagine you'd also see some ancillary benefits in such a thoroughly sealed system. As well as reduce the risk of fungal growth which is always a concern.
You can get considerably more food from a radish plant by just letting it grow and eating the seed pods. The blooms are also much loved by pollinators.
Hi Cody! Nice to see an update! Sorry to hear about King Buck.
If i had 50+ acres to play with, id definately do something like this. These pod/modular structures have a lot of benifits from maximising space and resources, to containing them for easier maintenance and mobility.
One thing I always wanted to try was your heat exchanger, but using a buried pipe for geothermal applications.