Asking the internets

[beccaelizabeth]

If you were growing food plants in space would they have to have seasons so they'd do the flowers and fruit thing or could they just stay the same all the time and still have flowers sometimes and fruits other times?

It's the same question like growing things under lights indoors without being in space.

I started looking up how to grow plants and discovered airponics is (pretty much) a real word and supposed to work really well. Also that there's really a lot of stuff to know about plants. Which I knew, but, trying to sift, not so simples.

Comments

[ex_peasant441]

Some would need seasons, some wouldn't. Crops like tomatoes rely on changes in day length to stimulate fruit production. Others require temperature changes to tell them when and how to grow. Also I'm fairly sure plants would require gravity because they rely on it for a few things to do with growth (shoots grow up, roots grow down).

[beccaelizabeth]

yes, I read about plants liking gravity. my imaginary gardens are spinning when they aren't being pushed by engines, so they think they have a down.

I wanted to make 4 different seasons of garden, so if plants need temperature and day length I have a pretty good excuse.

[anne_d]

There are some plants that fruit and flower throughout the year (citrus, mostly, if I remember correctly), so I suppose the logical thing to do would be to breed for that trait. Otherwise, you'd have the problem of growing and storing enough produce to last through "winter".

You do have the most interesting thinky thoughts, becca!

Also, if you're going to have flowering fruiting plants, you'll need a pollinator, like bees, which would also complicate things.

[beccaelizabeth]

I think I mentioned bees in an earlier story, had thought of the pollinator thing, then you get space honey too. And bees trying to make hives in the life support... complications, space has them...

the storage would only be a problem if all the gardens had 'winter' at the same time. if you had more than one garden you could have a year of seasons going on all at once. which has awesome poetic possibilities and was what I wanted to set up, but needed to know if there was a botanical excuse.

[anne_d]

if you had more than one garden you could have a year of seasons going on all at once. which has awesome poetic possibilities and was what I wanted to set up, but needed to know if there was a botanical excuse.

Oh, of course, silly me! Yes, there certainly are good reasons to have a whole set of seasonal space gardens, all at once.

[aurorra.livejournal.com]

Most seeds have to have a period of cold before they will germinate. You have to put them in the freezer for a few weeks and then when they come out they think it's spring...

However, you've missed a vital cheat here: GM.

GM foods are coming, and the idea of people in a spaceship not modifying the genes of their plants is a bit far fetched. xx

[beccaelizabeth]

the idea of people in spaceships not modifying the genes of themselves is a bit far fetched

so I'm writing about the humans who decide against that option, decide 'natural' is important, try and define what 'human' is by chucking bits out.

Their attitude to GM food I had not thought about until this instant, but suspect it follows logically as a big NO... if they can find any by then that hasn't been modified already...

[aurorra.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... Space hippies.

In that case they are going to need different temperature controlled rooms with artificial day and night.

They might want a wormary too. Wormaries are awesome.

xx

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I "solved" my space garden problem with two gardens that are set two seasons apart, and just about anything that can continuously fruit.

And canned goods, since this is just for one person.