Category Archives: Planter Justice

Service Report

We are team Planter Justice, and our members include Maria Morris, Jiaying Wang, Ziqing Song, and Yan Tung Ip. We worked with Brian Twyman and George Davis at the City Park Greenhouse. Our group learned new ways to grow plants and make the recycle plant containers. This experience makes us become better members of this community and contribute to the awareness and solution to the gardening and plants growing.

At the first time, we met Brian and George. We discussed the ways grow plants, like the hydroponic growing way we used at last. Besides, we also discussed the problem of food wastes, food safety, and food shortage which probably will happen. We had a nice conversation, and we planned works we were going to do with them this semester.

On March 22, the second time met with them, we learned about urban planting, which uses the least cost to grow plants at home. George taught us making the container or the hydroponic pot for plants. We used two kinds of plastic to make the pot. And George told us the roots of the plants would be growing with just sunlight, water circulation, and bacteria in those hydroponic pots. We painted the pots in black so that when the Sun shines on them, water circulation is active.

We took a long time to made the hydroponic pots, and at the same time, we make the nana pot which can grow some bigger plants, like corn. At the third time we met with them, we decorated the hydroponic pots with pink spray to make them more presentable and made the nana pot. We colored nana pots by the black spray, and we make holes on those pots so that water can flow out if there’s too much water in the pots.

On April 5, we started planting on the pots we made, and we planted the lemon which can grow lemons after five years. At first, we washed away the dirt on our plants. Then, we planted it into the plastic pot. The pots have no dirt, but we used rice hulls and perlite to replace dirt to help the plants grow. Finally, we added water into the pot. At the last time we met, we did the same planting process as last time, but we grow the lettuce and oranges.

In conclusion, we learned a lot about planting this semester. Through the techniques we learned in this ECAP project, we can grow food and plant at low cost and recyclable at home by ourselves. This is an amazing journey to do the planting and learn knowledge. We are so appreciated to have a chance to do this ECAP project in this class.

On 5 April 2019, we finally planted our plants into the pots we made. We washed away the dirt on our plants, then plant it into the plastic pot we made last time. There’s no dirt used in those pots, instead, we used rice hulls and perlite (some small round white balls formed by cracking of the volcanic glass during cooling) to replace dirt as they are some useful plant growth media and can help the plants grow more effectively in those pots. Then, we added water into the pot. All we have to do now is wait for the plants to grow!

On 29 March 2019, we decorated the hydroponic pots with pink spray to make them more presentable. We also made some larger pot for planting corn as they have larger and longer roots. We colored those pots by the black spray and we make holes on those pots so that water can flow out if there’s too much water in the pots.

On Thursday, March 14th Planter Justice met up in our classroom. We utilized our class time to make progress log and outline on our EACAP research. All member, Yuki, Maria, Jiaying, and Ziqing, were all present for the meeting. We main focused on the definition of global warming, history of global warming, possible causes and consequences of global warming. At the last, we also updated the progress log that we have been doing for the project.

On 22 March 2019, we learned about urban planting, that is to use the least cost to grow plants in the city. We started off by making the pots for the plants. George, one of the people in charge of the organization, taught us how to make them. We have to use no.2 or no.5 plastics for the pots as others would be too vulnerable. The roots of the plants would be growing in those pots with just sunlight, water circulation, and bacteria. We painted the pots black so that when the Sun shines on them, water circulation is active. It is amazing that no matter the size of the plants, they can still grow in pots that do not have soil and only with water.

We are team Planter Justice and our members include Maria Morris, Jiaying Wang, Ziqing Song and Yan Tung Ip. Maria’s on her first year at Penn State Berks and is majoring in Film-Video. Yan also on her first year and is majoring in Hospitality Management. Jiaying and Ziging are both on their second year and majoring in Hospitality Management. We will be working with Brian Twyman at the City Park Greenhouse. Our group is looking forward to learning new ways to grow food and more about the importance of food waste. This experience will allow us to become better members of this community and contribute to the awareness and solution to food waste.