Buenas tardes, amigos.

I visited the systems both last Friday and today, and all looks well...or at least o.k. The healthy plants are very healthy, and the unhealthy plants are equally unhealthy. The position and quality of the lighting is an issue. I offer this breakdown of what is affecting the plants at the moment:

At the Good Neighbor's Mission, the plants on the highest tier do not receive enough light, and so are not growing at all or are dead by now. This is not an issue at Houghton-Jones because the ceiling is relatively low, and the florescent lights produce enough to help the top plants. In fact, those plants seem to be the healthiest at this point. Pictured here are a row or ruby lettuce thriving on the mid-levels and a row of the same seeds of ruby lettuce perishing at the highest level. Hopefully, Ed Meisel will be able to make his way downtown to elevate the mount of the lights to include the top row of plants in the sun-bathing activities sometime this week.

Plants with less leaf surface-area do not handle the intensity of the lights well. Cilantro and kale, especially, are prone to shriveling and drying under the intense rays of the shop-lights. One kale plant on the top row has done very well, while the rest never sprouted--our prodige kale sprout is pictured here. Again, raising the lights, I suspect, will diminish both of the lighting issues. In the second planting season, probably beginning in mid february, I will make a point to plant Kale and Cilantro on the bottom rows, away from the intensity of the lights.



Another issue is plants with slowly growing roots. Basil, for instance, does not develop deep roots at all as fast as lettuce. What has happened is the lights have dried out the rockwool, and the wicks have deteriorated before the roots of the plants reached the water. Since our whole operation has upgraded to nylon-rope wicks, I am hoping that this issue will not be a factor in Harvest II.

Brooke Pieschke, formerly known as Brooke Gomez, has started her internship with the Good Neighbor's Mission, and is in the process of making plans to beautify the classroom in which Captain Planet and Puck reside.

Be sure to eat your veggies,

Stu