Planting

This year we have a little twist on our Martian gardens because of the generous grant funding from Inside Education and APEGA we now have lunar simulant regolith to go with the Mars! Last year we discovered that mixing in Earth soil was one of the most successful ways to support plant growth in this hostile soil. It is a great lesson about soil ecology and all the biotic factors in our ecosystems. We decided that this year we will try and figure out just how much Earth we need to grow plants on "Mars".

Near the end of October we planted:

• 5 plants in Earth soil (control)

• 5 plants in Mars regolith (control)

• 5 plants in 1/8 Earth: 7/8 Mars

• 5 plants in 1/4 Earth: 3/4 Mars

• 5 plants in 1/2 Earth: 1/2 Mars

• 5 plants in 1/4 Earth: 3/4 Lunar