Crops and Growing
Crop placement follows the greenhouse microclimates. South is hotter and drier. East is cooler and more humid. West is the flexible shelf wall. That matters more than raw square footage.
Crop profiles keep plant-specific notes separate from the live crop inventory. When a crop has DB-backed target profiles, those generated Target Bands blocks are the control source of truth for temperature, VPD, and DLI. Authored crop notes are agronomic context, not a second setpoint schedule.
Current Planting
- South zone: canna lilies in floor pots, served by wall drip and south misters.
- East zone: 60-position NFT hydroponics for strawberries and leafy greens.
- West zone: shelf starts, herbs, mixed plantings, and flexible production.
- Center zone: hanging Vanda orchids in the airflow/misting corridor.
The structured crop records are still catching up to the grower’s real greenhouse activity. The active crop-control set currently includes the center Vandas, but crop inventory and observation history are still less mature than the climate telemetry.
Zone-Crop Fit
Best fit: peppers, tomatoes, canna, and heat-loving herbs. Avoid lettuce and cilantro in hot periods.
Best fit: lettuce, strawberries, seedlings, and herbs. Avoid crops that need the hottest zone.
Best fit: cucumbers, herbs, starts, and overflow crops. Avoid bolt-prone crops during summer peaks.
Best fit: hanging orchids and plants that need fast wet/dry cycles. Avoid crops that need a stable bench microclimate.
Hydroponics
The east wall has a 60-position recirculating NFT system. It sits in the coolest zone, which makes it the best fit for leafy greens and strawberries.
Full reservoir, nutrient, calibration, and sensor detail lives on Hydroponics. This page only uses the hydroponic system as crop-placement context.
Plant Stress Context
VPD stress hours and zone-level VPD show whether the plant environment is drifting outside useful crop ranges. When VPD gets too high, plants close stomata and growth slows even if temperature looks acceptable.
Profile Status
Verdify separates crop pages into three statuses:
Currently planted in an online growing zone and counted in active climate/VPD control.
Observed, photographed, or useful as a crop reference, but not counted in active control.
Future, prior, or candidate crops with profiles retained for planning.
Source rule: the active-control count comes from active crop records and the crop/zone target functions that feed the dispatcher. Center has no dedicated climate probe, but the Vanda crop record is active and participates in center VPD policy.
For zone context, use Greenhouse Zones. This page owns the shared live crop evidence and crop-profile index.
Active Control
Current count: 5 active-control crop profiles.
| Crop | Zone | System | Control note | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lettuce | East | Hydro | Heat-sensitive active crop; generated target bands are on the crop page. | Profile |
| Strawberry | East | Hydro | Active east-zone fruit crop; generated target status is on the crop page. | Profile |
| Pepper | East | Hydro | Active east-zone warm crop; generated target status is on the crop page. | Profile |
| Canna Lilies | South | Soil | Wide VPD tolerance informs south-zone control. | Profile |
| Vanda Orchids | Center | Hanging/bare-root | Low VPD ceiling participates in center-zone policy. | Profile |
Observed/Reference
| Crop | Current Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Herbs | Mixed reference | Species-level herb guidance; no active herb record in v_position_current. |
Planned/Retired
| Crop | Best Zone | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basil | East/West | Prior planting and future high-value herb candidate; no active planting now. |
| Cucumbers | West | Warm-season, vigorous vining candidate. |
| Tomatoes | South | Future heat-loving floor-pot candidate. |
How Crop Profiles Drive Control
The band function (fn_band_setpoints) reads available crop target profiles for the current hour and computes the composite target: the tightest range that keeps active-control crops comfortable. This band becomes the ESP32’s temp_high, temp_low, vpd_high, vpd_low setpoints, updated every 5 minutes.
Per-zone VPD targets (fn_zone_vpd_targets) take this further: each zone’s mister target comes from the specific crops planted there. The firmware’s stress-score algorithm picks the most stressed zone for each mist pulse.
The generated Target Bands and Crop-Control Status blocks on each crop page show which records currently have source-backed profiles. Band-owned values and planner-writable tactical values are separated in AI Tunables Traceability.
See Zones for the microclimate data behind these recommendations. See Soil Sensors for root-zone moisture, temperature, and EC evidence beneath the visible crop story. See Operations for irrigation and fertigation policy.