Thats it! The system at the Bronx Writing Academy is completed! In the past 3 weeks we have been building 2 hydroponic system using mainly re-purposed material with a group of student at the Bronx Writing Academy. We had a slow start the first week with 6 students in the classroom, but the students are enjoying it, so each week there was a couple more students joining the class. This week, we had 10 out of the 12 students who signed up in the apprenticeship!
In the past 4 weeks, we have learned how to use some tools (hand drill, screw diver, woodworking square, ect ...), we also learned the basic ideas that explains how an hydro/aquaponic system works, and how plants use water, CO2 and sunlight to produce sugars. We also learned about Ron Findley, a Los Angelino who started to grow food on sidewalks and explain his story in a TED talk.
The students have build these system (with guidance of course) and today they where pretty exited to see that we were going to be done by the end of the day. We installed hooks to hold the grow towers, we unpacked and cut tubing for the pump, installed the pump, and planted lettuce, cilantro and parsley seedlings. We finally tested the system and adjusted the pipes to make sure water was going into both towers. Some of the student took their cellphones out and started
filming the system! We then added the fertilizers to the systems!
By the end, we were ready to get the systems to the roof. there it went !
Only one thing is not 100% great, the school decided to not allow the system to be on the roof, after we set it there, I will have to go and remove it on Friday. Instead, the system will be put in a classroom used for small meetings, as close to the window as possible. The window is oriented to the west. I am yet to know whether we will be allowed to have supplemental lighting for It.
We will see how many of the seedlings need to be replaced ! (on Saturday it was snowing in NYC so I am not sure the seedlings had liked that.
*** I will add some pics of the students working as soon as I processed the video to extract a few snapshots.
