On March 7th we went out to the farm to install our data loggers. We are using two HOBO loggers that will be measuring the temperature of the air and the soil ever 5 minutes throughout our experiment. The one pictured below is measuring the air and soil temperatures inside the hoop house.

The HOBO data logger, inside the hoop house. Photo credit: Jenny

The temperature data collected by these loggers will tell us what the temperature difference is between the hoop house and the outdoors. Assuming that temperature is an important factor in plant growth, we expect the brassica green cultivars inside the hoop house will germinate and develop more rapidly than the ones out side the hoop house.

The HOBO data loggers, all hooked up and ready to go. Photo credit: Liheng

The data loggers were quite easy to set up. We hammered in a metal pole, attached the data logger to it, and zip tied everything up nicely to make sure it all stayed put. These loggers have two senors, one for soil temperature and one for the air. The air temperature is measured inside the white circular housing seen in the upper left of the above photo. The soil sensor was placed inside one of the cells in the tray of plants, just below seed depth.

A data logger in action. Photo credit: Jenny