Ascension : HYDROPONICS HISTORY and CONSERVATION
Submitted by The Islander (Nathan Prince) 26.04.2007 (Article Archived on 10.05.2007)
In 1942, the United States Army was deployed to Ascension Island to construct an airfield to support its role during World War II as the mid-ocean way stop for refueling the warplanes flying between Brazil and Africa.
This was their first victory for the GI’s stationed on Ascension. Their second victory came when they successfully constructed a hydroponics farm which produced vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce and green peppers.
Hydroponics simply means the cultivation of plants in water with the use of dissolved inorganic nutrients. The GI’s enriched the water (water from the desalination plant in which they built) with calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Other nutrients came from the cinders in which they used as the media in the garden beds to hold the plants. The garden had four sections consisting of 25 beds per each section. Each section was terraced in order for the water to drain from one section to the next section, top to bottom. Each section was of different length diminishing in size from one to another. The first bed was 115 feet in length while the last section was 85 feet in length. The beds were made from asphaltic concrete each being 3 feet wide, 8 inches in depth and are spaced 4 feet apart, so as one would look down the length of the garden one would see 25 strips, 400 feet long, separated by cinder paths. This entire area covers 80,000 square-feet. The chemical enriched water was fed into the gardens through a 6-inch pipe from a reservoir that was situated on top of the hill located directly behind the hydroponics farm. The water is then released by valves from one section into the next section and then drained into a sump for recovery and re-use. In order to reduce surface evaporation, burlap was spread over the beds; slits were cut into the burlap to allow the plants to grow through. In order to control the amount of sunlight on the crops, cotton fabric used as curtains was strung lengthwise over the beds.
To provide pollination to the plants, blossoms were cut-off and smeared with a homemade hormone paste using syringes. Later, a bee hive was brought in from Brazil to take care of the pollination for the vegetables.
The GI’s named the garden, “Hydroponics Station No. 1 Laboratory,” because it was considered to be an Army project and one that was very successful. Due to this successful experiment, hydroponics farms were utilized in other areas of the world that had similar environmental characteristics as Ascension during the war.
On a conservation viewpoint, The Hydroponics Farm is considered to be of historical interest. The Conservation Society is looking for volunteers to help out in the removal of the acacia trees that have been taking over the gardens and causing damage to the beds. In order to keep the pristine beauty of this area, the acacia trees need to be cut-down, later removed, and then the site kept up where the acacia is under control. As you can see in the first photo, no acacia trees were to be seen nor found. Now, the area is covered with acacia trees as seen in this photo; present day.
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