K-12 students in Hopedale grow greenhouse lettuce and tomatoes from space
Students at Amos Comenius Memorial School have been learning how to grow vegetables through the dead of winter — in northern Labrador.
The program is spearheaded by Grade 2 teacher Pearl Cobb, and has five hydroponic systems to grow lettuce, tomatoes, peas, dill and thyme and a greenhouse to keep crops protected from the elements through the winter.
The growing season begins in autumn for the K-12 school in Hopedale, or the beginning of the school year, according to Cobb.
"Labrador is a rough spot to grow things. We have a very short growing season and there's not a lot of ground around, and dirt and gardens. So it's nice to teach them how to start their things inside," Cobb told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
"It's a great learning experience for them. Perhaps later on they'll be growing more at home."
Cobb said the high school students are responsible for looking after the hydroponic systems; changing the chemicals and cleaning the systems is a weekly task. They also harvest the lettuce and peas.
The tomatoes, on the other hand, have something extra special involved in their growing process.
Tomatosphere
Cobb has gotten her school involved in Tomatosphere, a program run by Let's Talk Science, which sends tomato seeds to more than 15,000 classrooms across Canada.
Each student will receive two packages of seeds for experiments. One package contains seeds sent into space or treated in space-simulated conditions, according to the program's website, while the second package contain untreated seeds as the control group.
The idea behind the program is for students to plant the seeds in the spring and conduct experiments to explore the effects of the space environment on the germination of tomatoes.
"You sort of do a little experiment, which-will-grow-better sort of thing," Cobb said.
"Come the end of the month every kid took home two plants.… They really enjoyed it. They'd come in every morning and water their plants, and tended to them and made sure they were getting lots of light."
Expanding
While the school year and growing season are over for Cobb — the greenhouse and hydroponic equipment tucked away for another year — next year will be bigger and better she said.
"We've got a bigger greenhouse. The Hopedale Food Security Committee and community council donated a really big indoor greenhouse to us," Cobb said.
"So, come September we're hoping to get some herbs and things planted and perhaps in spring some flowers for Mother's Day."
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