Reference Material

With the accumulation of crop production data from universities and NASA centers, a need arose to compile the findings into a database. Such a database was initiated in 1997 by Frank Salisbury and Mary Ann Clark at Utah State University by canvassing past and present ALS investigators (see Salisbury and Clark, 1996). Survey questionnaires requested inputs on crop yields, growing techniques, environmental requirements, and nutritional analysis. Maintenance and upkeep of the database will be an ongoing effort and serve as a resource for generating crop production protocols, or "handbooks" for BIO-Plex and future ALS projects.

7.Knight, S.L. and C.A. Mitchell. 1988

Growth and yield characteristics of ‘Waldmann’s Green’ leaf lettuce under different photon fluxes from metal halide or incandescent + fluorescent radiation. Scient. Hort. 35:51-61.

19.Wheeler, R.M., C.L. Mackowiak, and J.C. Sager. 1991

Soybean stem growth under high-pressure sodium with supplemental blue lighting. Agron. J. 83:903-906.

21.Yorio, N.C., C.L. Mackowiak, R.M. Wheeler, and J.C. Sager. 1994

Vegetative growth of potato under high-pressure sodium, high-pressure sodium SON-AGRO, and metal halide lamps. HortScience 30:374-376.

Other reference material also exists:

Biomass Production Chamber (BPC)

The BPC uses ... 400 W high pressure sodium lamps, each requiring a separate ballast. Each plant growing shelf in the BPC is covered by ... 3 lamps per canopy. ... with the lighting intensity in each section being variable between 200 and 1200 umols/m2/s.

Horticultural Requirements

Temperature requirement is the one parameter that can not be overlooked. Warm temperature crops (26/22 oC) could be grown cooler by sacrificing some yield but growing cooler crops under warm conditions can lead to little or no edible biomass for a variety of reasons, e.g., excessive vegetative growth, bolting, and infertility.

In the dark, both humans and plants respire, giving off CO2. For a given day, enough O2 must be produced by the crop canopy during the light cycle of a photoperiod to support the human requirements. ... This equates to the O2 requirement of nearly 1 person for the 20 m2 of growing area in the BPC. A growing area of 25 m2 would provide the air revitalization for one human.

Offered by Mike.