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Children then fill in the missing words from sentences explaining each part of the process. After, they are challenged to explain the life cycle of a sunflower. Children should grow more confident as they complete each task, supporting their independent learning. Plant health is just about the most important thing a budding gardener can learn. After years in the garden nurturing and learning from our successes and our failures, gardeners become kind of ‘plant doctors’! It’s useful to ask: have I over watered or under watered the plant? Is it in too much sunlight or not enough? And is the soil healthy? These three areas are absolutely key to plant health.Space brings with it unique environmental constraints for crops. This inspired the concept of a Crop Readiness Level or CRL ( Wheeler and Strayer, 1997), which is a maturation scale analogous to technology readiness levels (TRL) but for crops and BLSS. For example, short or dwarf growth, high harvest index, high yields, organoleptic acceptance, good nutrient content, and ability to control microbial contaminants are all desirable traits for the selection and maturation of CRL for space ( Romeyn et al., 2019; Spencer et al., 2021). The current scale is focused on ISS and Mars transit needs, but surface settings with larger BLSS crop systems might consider different criteria or factors appropriate for those settings, such as higher macronutrient content, ability to grow in multispecies plantings, or radiation tolerance. Like applying TRL for aerospace hardware, a CRL approach provides a logical progression of testing for future space crops. Historical Context of Preparing Crops for Spaceflight: Ground-Based Research Plant Life Support is probably exactly what you’d imagine. It’s a mini IV-drip filled with water that gradually ensures your plants get the H2O they need even if you forget for days on end. “Introducing Plant Life Support, the miniature lifelike IV drip for your houseplants! Pop it into a pot with the included stand, fill it up with water and it’ll take care of the rest – slowly feeding your plant with just the right amount of water as and when it needs it,” the item description reads.

Plant Life Support ™ is the ideal gift for a gardener that can’t trust their friends to keep their plant family alive when they’re away. If your roots are slimy and smelly then you’ve got a problem. It’s important to look at whether or not the roots of a plant have been immersed too long in water – causing root rot. If you have got a case of this then, remove the plant if you can, then allow the substrate to dry out completely before deciding whether to return the plant to this space or to find a better suited environment for it. Using light emitting diodes (LEDs) to grow plants was proposed and patented through a NASA Commercialization Center at the University of Wisconsin ( Barta et al., 1992). LEDs were first used in the Astroculture (ASC) plant chamber aboard the Space Shuttle ( Morrow et al., 1995) then the Advanced Astroculture Chamber (ADVASC) ( Link et al., 2003), and later the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat for the ISS, both of which are currently flying aboard the ISS ( Massa et al., 2016; Morrow et al., 2016). To support the development of LED lighting for space, NASA sponsored ground testing from the early 1990’s through the mid 2000’s with leafy greens and other crops ( Goins et al., 1997; Kim et al., 2004; Massa et al., 2008). These studies showed that both red and blue light improved plant photosynthesis and growth ( Bula et al., 1991; Dougher and Bugbee, 2001; Yorio et al., 2001; Douglas et al., 2016). Subsequent LED studies revealed important roles for green and far-red light as well ( Spencer et al., 2020). Recent NASA research showed that supplementing with far-red LEDs can act like adding more photosynthetically active radiation--PAR (400–700nm) ( Zhen and Bugbee, 2020), and that LEDs can achieve remarkable efficiencies (>3µmol/J), which could greatly reduce electrical power needs for BLSS ( Kusuma et al., 2020). This has far-reaching implications for future missions. In addition to electric lighting systems, solar lighting techniques that use concentrators and fiber optics were also explored for growing crops ( Cuello et al., 2000; Nakamura et al., 2009). It’s great for when you’re away. Maybe you’re not necessarily forgetful when it comes to watering your plants but you are going away for a few days and don’t have anyone who can come in and keep them hydrated. Plant Life Support will work for that too and ensure they stay nice and lively while you’re not there.

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Christina M. Johnson 1 Haley O. Boles 2 LaShelle E. Spencer 3 Lucie Poulet 1 Matthew Romeyn 4 Jess M. Bunchek 5 Ralph Fritsche 4 Gioia D. Massa 4 Aubrie O’Rourke 4 Raymond M. Wheeler 4* When you’re ready to repot your plants into something more fitting (coming soon: the Firebox terracotta vagina), the magical eco-friendly cube will slowly decompose and turn into valuable coconut fibre fertiliser for the plant, enriched with all sorts of stuff that makes chillies fully erect big and handsome. This year in National Plant Health Week (from the 9th May) we are working with the RHS to encourage younger garden visitors to learn why plants are so important to our survival and what we can do in our own gardens at home to contribute to this important work nationally.