What is required to survive a Martian dust storm? No excess generation allowed.

[Robotbeat]

Forgive me for being an emotional wreck over the last few months.  I've known the end was coming for my most faithful friend, the kitty cat, Ruckus.  I tried, and failed, to create an emotional escape for myself in the form of this thread.  Similarly I failed to ensure Ruckus lived to a mere 15 years by an unacceptable margin.

Keep on failing to discuss the topic I tried to broach as I failed to ensure Ruckus din't take a premature dirt nap.  This thread is merely a conversation.  It no longer matters to me that the results will be even more deadly.  "LMT" it up to your hearts desires if that is your wish.  I've lost the drive to avoid that kind of obvious failure.

Life stinks, and to put it politely, then you die.  I was a fool to think anything else was possible.

Sorry to hear that. Really sucks.

Things get better even if it doesn’t always feel like that.

[Twark_Main]

Forgive me for being an emotional wreck over the last few months.  I've known the end was coming for my most faithful friend, the kitty cat, Ruckus.  I tried, and failed, to create an emotional escape for myself in the form of this thread.  Similarly I failed to ensure Ruckus lived to a mere 15 years by an unacceptable margin.

Keep on failing to discuss the topic I tried to broach as I failed to ensure Ruckus din't take a premature dirt nap.  This thread is merely a conversation.  It no longer matters to me that the results will be even more deadly.  "LMT" it up to your hearts desires if that is your wish.  I've lost the drive to avoid that kind of obvious failure.

Life stinks, and to put it politely, then you die.  I was a fool to think anything else was possible.

So sorry to hear about your beloved friend. I would be a wreck in that same situation. 

[Twark_Main]

I honestly think that to save your plantation on Mars you need to let it go.  That's what we do in winter, keeping the seeds for the future spring and further harvest, limiting our energy usage (after all, in winter we are no longer using the fields around our cities, even though they are still receiving significant power from the sun).  And therefore overproducing during the summer.

I'd suggest that it's not quite necessary.

Annual plants? Sure, harvest them. No reason not to.

Perennial plants? These should be able to survive an "overwintering" cycle: colder temperatures and lower light. These plants benefit from having multiple years to develop. So for fruit trees etc you'd be better off avoiding harvest.

[lamontagne]

I honestly think that to save your plantation on Mars you need to let it go.  That's what we do in winter, keeping the seeds for the future spring and further harvest, limiting our energy usage (after all, in winter we are no longer using the fields around our cities, even though they are still receiving significant power from the sun).  And therefore overproducing during the summer.

I'd suggest that it's not quite necessary.

Annual plants? Sure, harvest them. No reason not to.

Perennial plants? These should be able to survive an "overwintering" cycle: colder temperatures and lower light. These plants benefit from having multiple years to develop. So for fruit trees etc you'd be better off avoiding harvest.

Well, that might be the lowest limit that Joseph is looking for.  What is the lowest temperature for perennial plants, and how much power is required to keep them alive over a few months of cold.  As storms tend to be warmer than other times, perhaps the heat required is not be too exaggerated compared to the available supply.
Might make sense to have some of your your perennials inside the human habitat, rather than in greenhouses, anyway?

BTW, in these days on Monsanto seeds and designer plants that farmer's aren't even allowed to reseed, what is the area required to produce all the seeds for a harvest? What is the multiplication factor?  Aren't carrot, for example, largely clones that are reproduced in labs anyway, these days?  where does Monsanto get its seeds?

[Twark_Main]

I honestly think that to save your plantation on Mars you need to let it go.  That's what we do in winter, keeping the seeds for the future spring and further harvest, limiting our energy usage (after all, in winter we are no longer using the fields around our cities, even though they are still receiving significant power from the sun).  And therefore overproducing during the summer.

I'd suggest that it's not quite necessary.

Annual plants? Sure, harvest them. No reason not to.

Perennial plants? These should be able to survive an "overwintering" cycle: colder temperatures and lower light. These plants benefit from having multiple years to develop. So for fruit trees etc you'd be better off avoiding harvest.

Well, that might be the lowest limit that Joseph is looking for.  What is the lowest temperature for perennial plants,

Short answer? It depends on the plant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone

[Joseph Peterson]

The perennial plant conversation is definitely more along the lines of what I'm interested in. 

Fruits like apples and blueberries are winter tolerant.  Assuming we can train these plants to adopt to a 687 day year my hope is that we could plan their winter to match up with storm season.  In this case we'd only need enough heat to keep from killing the plants.

Tropical plants like coconut are most likely more difficult to keep healthy.  It won't surprise me if keeping tropical plants is too costly.  I am interested in finding out for certain though.

[Twark_Main]

Over-wintering behaviors in plants are primarily controlled by day length and color temperature (and temperature, of course).

Seems like in a controlled-environment indoor growing system, you could feed in the correct environment to induce over-wintering as dust storm season approaches.



Full-cycle perennial agriculture systems can create their own fertility, without relying on a separate pesticide & fertilizer industrial base. Seems like a good idea to make room for a few such systems, even if only for the sake of redundancy.

Think a more dense version of this:

[daedalus1]

The only issue plants will have on Mars is 1/3 gravity.
Light and temperature can be provided artificially. This is increasingly done on earth in enclosed containers.

[Barley]

Annual plants? Sure, harvest them. No reason not to.

Perennial plants? These should be able to survive an "overwintering" cycle: colder temperatures and lower light. These plants benefit from having multiple years to develop. So for fruit trees etc you'd be better off avoiding harvest.

Some plants are tropical perennials that are grown as annuals.  (E.g. tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, some varieties of kale, sweet potatoes, ... ).   Plant them and keep harvesting as long as it's convenient.  If you run low on power or the aphids take over the grow house kill them off and restart when you're ready.  They will also handle a 12 or 18 month growing season without difficulty.

To put it another way: We grow tropical crops in Iowa.  No reason we can't grow them on Mars using the same general pattern.

[Dalhousie]

The only issue plants will have on Mars is 1/3 gravity.
Light and temperature can be provided artificially. This is increasingly done on earth in enclosed containers.

How do you know it will be an issue?

[daedalus1]

The only issue plants will have on Mars is 1/3 gravity.
Light and temperature can be provided artificially. This is increasingly done on earth in enclosed containers.

How do you know it will be an issue?

Yes I missed the word 'potenial'.
I suspect it wont be an issue.

[Joseph Peterson]

The only issue plants will have on Mars is 1/3 gravity.
Light and temperature can be provided artificially. This is increasingly done on earth in enclosed containers.

How do you know it will be an issue?

Yes I missed the word 'potenial'.
I suspect it wont be an issue.

This concern is a large part of why I went with an agricultural research lab instead of a greenhouse in my OP.