Today we made a visit to the Taos Charter Academy (TCA) to share some of our aquatic plants so their water system could be cleaned and benefit from the plants like ours has. We conversed at length about how we can collaborate around our Grow Domes and our agricultural efforts. Since we have plans for aquaculture, we are hoping to help create and/or inspire the same kind of system in their grow dome to further our collaboration, have respective back up plans for our plants and fish, and continue with ongoing learning, experimentation, and comparison.
It was really awesome to observe their system and get ideas. The Grow Dome at TCA is more streamlined in that they are mostly focused on tomatoes, salad greens, and a fig tree. I was also impressed by their drip irrigation system that was on a timer. We would like to employ a similar system. I also liked the fact that they had raised beds surrounding the south and west sides of the their Grow Dome as well as a vestibule over the entry door to keep out the cold in the winter. They were also employing about 4 fans to keep the air circulating and to cool off the interior of the Dome.
As we look to the future of our Grow Dome at Chrysalis, we would like to incorporate raised beds and a vestibule as we saw here. We hope to employ a shade cloth, aqua culture, and aquaponics in addition to a lemon tree and hibiscus bush and hope that our experience can inspire and inform other Grow Dome operations like the one at the Taos Charter Academy. The ultimate plan is to get our respective students to communicate and collaborate around their experiences with indoor growing and see what kinds of relationships and projects we can build together in the future.
Sol Feliz Farm 