East Zone

Evidence homeGrowing Zones · Climate

East-specific layout and crop-placement notes stay here; shared zone climate panels and whole-house climate evidence live on the zone overview and climate pages.

The cool corridor. Coolest zone by 5-9°F during peak heat. Home to the hydroponic system (60 positions), seedling shelves, and the patio door — the single most important climate variable in the building.

Active Control Zone

Counts toward current climate control with 3 active-control crop profiles.

Current Control Crops

Lettuce, pepper, and strawberry records are occupied in v_position_current.

Control Role

East has the tightest VPD/temperature comfort envelope and drives humidity stress scoring.

Hydroponic NFT channels with lettuce and herb starts in net cups

Seedling flats on wire shelving near the hydro system

Climate Profile

Metric	Value	Context
Peak temperature (hot day)	~91°F	When south hits 100°F, east is at 91°F
Temperature delta vs avg	-5 to -9°F	Consistently the coolest active zone
Humidity	Higher than other zones	Hydro evaporation adds local RH
VPD	Lowest in greenhouse	Cool + humid = most plant-comfortable

Why It’s Coolest

Three factors stack to create the east zone’s microclimate:

Tree shade — A large tree on the east side blocks morning solar until ~10:18 AM. The shadow shifts west through the day, but the east wall gets the least total solar radiation. Light transmission at the east wall sensor position: 6.9% (vs 57% spec).
Patio door — The glass/screen combo at the NE corner provides cross-ventilation in summer. When open or screened, outdoor air enters here directly.
Blocked morning solar — The combination of tree shade and the house to the northwest means the east zone misses the strongest morning heating period.

Seasonal Door Management

Season	Patio Door Config	Effect
Winter	Glass insert in	Insulation. Minimal heat loss.
Spring/Fall	Glass insert, sometimes screen	Partial ventilation on warm days
Summer	Glass removed, screen or fully open	Major vent opening; cross-ventilation drops east zone temps significantly.
The patio door is the primary manual climate lever. Open it for cooling but lose humidity. Close it for fog retention but temperatures climb. On a 90°F/16% RH day, there is no configuration that achieves both comfortable temperature and comfortable VPD simultaneously.

Physical Layout

Hydroponic System (~half of east wall)

Component	Spec
Rails	4” PVC, 3 rails (A, B, C)
Rows	2 per rail (top + bottom)
Positions	60 total (1-30 top row, 31-60 bottom row)
Media	Grodan rockwool to net cups to clay pellets
Nutrients	General Hydroponics Flora/Bloom/Grow
Type	Recirculating pump system
Grow lights	14× Barrina 2FT LED (7 per row, 12” OC, 336W total)

Hydro Water Quality Monitoring

East owns the physical NFT rack, but live reservoir chemistry belongs on Hydroponics. That page uses corrected Home Assistant entities and documents the calibration cutoff for the YINMIK probe. Raw vendor-scaled pH, EC, TDS, and ORP values are calibration evidence, not operator readings.

Wall Shelving (~half of east wall, south of patio door)

Position	Contents	Notes
EAST-SHELF-T1	Seedlings (unknown) on heat mat	Heat mat for germination
EAST-SHELF-T2, T3	Available	Grow lights: 5× Barrina 2FT
EAST-SHELF-B1, B2, B3	Available	Partially blocked by hydro tank below

Shelves

East Hydro

Kind: nft; Tier: —; Position scheme: EAST-HYDRO-{1..60}

East Shelf (Bottom)

Kind: shelf; Tier: 0; Position scheme: EAST-SHELF-{T|B}{1..3}

East Shelf (Top)

Kind: shelf; Tier: 1; Position scheme: EAST-SHELF-{T|B}{1..3}

Equipment

No equipment

No equipment assigned to this zone.

Water Systems

No water systems

No water systems are assigned to East Greenhouse Zone.

The hydro recirculating pump is not on ESP32 control. Wall drip is shared across south + west + east zones (ONE physical circuit). South misters reach into the east zone’s southern edge.

Sensors

camera.east

Kind: camera; Protocol: frigate; Model: camera model withheld; Addr: —

climate.east

Kind: climate_probe; Protocol: modbus_rtu; Model: Tzone RS485 (SHT3X); Addr: configured

hydro.quality

Kind: hydro_quality; Protocol: WiFi via HA; Model: YINMIK; Addr: —

In addition to the DB-managed sensors above, the YINMIK probe sends hydroponic pH, EC, TDS, ORP, water temperature, and battery data through LocalTuya, Home Assistant, and the ingestor. East has the broadest instrumentation of any zone: climate probe, hydro chemistry, and a soil probe.

Current Plantings

EAST-HYDRO-41pepper · stage review needed

Planted 2026-04-01; 93 days in place. Stage review needed: the database stage value is stale for this planting age.

East has a VPD sensor but no dedicated east mister. When east crops are stressed, the controller can only influence them indirectly through whole-house climate posture and nearby mist-capable zones. Current crop target coverage is shown on Crop Profiles, and planner-writable wetting tactics are listed in AI Tunables Traceability. With the patio door open, east also gets direct outdoor air exchange, which helps cooling but hurts humidity on dry days.

Also suitable: basil, herbs, seedlings on shelving.

Hydro Position Planning

60 positions is significant real estate. This is a planning sketch, not the current occupancy record:

Positions	Count	Crop	Duration
1-20	20	Lettuce (rotating, 2-week succession)	45-60 days per batch
21-26	6	Peppers (shishito, semi-permanent)	90-120 days
27-34	8	Strawberries (Albion, semi-permanent)	Perennial
35-42	8	Basil (rotating)	30-45 days per batch
43-50	8	Mixed herbs (cilantro, parsley)	30-50 days
51-60	10	Experimental / overflow	Variable

See Crop Profiles for detailed growing conditions and All Zones for the zone index.

Zone Profile

East Greenhouse Zone

Slug east; status active.

Most shaded, coolest

Sensor Modbus addr 5.

91.0°F

Recorded/known peak temperature.

Active crop records. Position scheme: EAST-SHELF-{T|B}{1..3}, EAST-SHELF-{T|B}{1..3}, EAST-HYDRO-{1..60}.

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