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Sunlight-powered/solar power water sprinkler system 

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Sunlight-powered/solar power water sprinkler system 

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There has been an attempt to create and use a sunlight-powered water sprinkler system so there wouldn’t be a manpower need to turn on irrigation system (Attempt at automated irrigation system).  However, the current problem is that there’s not enough pressure to water with solar power.

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They make their own shovels using leftover PVC pipes to save the environment!

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A conical tool with a handle was created to poke a hole in the bags of soil. The hole created is the exact size needed to transplant the seedling and its root system.

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Removing Seedlings from the Seed Starter Tray

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Removing Seedlings from the Seed Starter Tray

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To transfer the seedlings, the soil and root systems of the shoots must be removed from the seed starter tray.  To do this, a tool which resembles a large pin board was created. It is made with an acrylic board for the base and nuts and bolts for the pins. The arrangement of the bolts line up with the bottom of the seed starter tray. The worker line up and presses the seed starter tray onto the bolts, pushing up and separating all the seedlings from the tray, with the root system intact.

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The seed starter trays are filled up with soil, and holes are poked in each module in order to plant the seeds. To quicken the process of poking holes in every module, a comb was created out of wood, to create holes in several modules at once, at a specific depth.

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After much experience and innovation, the workers at Changi Airport nursery have created various tools to aid in sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings.

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Group photo. Left to right: Borong, Isaac, Michelle, Ragavi.

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The Changi Airport Nursery grows all the sunflowers from seeds for the Sunflower Garden in Terminal 2. Each sunflower takes 55 days to grow and flower and grow up to 130 cm tall. However, the flowers only last 7 to 10 days on display indoors, and cannot be rejuvenated. The nursery grows sunflowers continuously to ensure a constant supply of blooming sunflower plants for the garden.

Fifteen varieties of sunflowers are used, and seeds are sourced from all over the world, from Taiwan, Thailand, Amsterdam, USA and UK. The sunflower plants are watered twice a day, and the soil mix used is made of one part each of topsoil, compost, coco peat and washed sand. The compost provides nutrients to the plants, while the sand allows for water to drain through the soil quickly to prevent it from getting waterlogged.

The seeds are planted in seed starter trays along with a slow-release fertiliser. After one week, the seedlings are transplanted to the large bags of soil, and are grown until they flower at 55 days old. The sunflower plants are watered twice a day.

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #1: Bird Strike & Wildlife Control

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #1: Bird Strike & Wildlife Control

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Birds nesting in the trees might prove a hazard for the planes landing and taking off at Changi Airport, and other unpleasant wildlife (pests such as rodents) might take up residence in the plants, so it is important to consider how to mitigate the effect of such choices by the animals.

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #2: Roadways & Airside Considerations

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #2: Roadways & Airside Considerations

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There are planes taking off and landing, so it is important that the plants themselves do not prove to be a hazard that interferes with important commands that would direct the planes (by not blocking vision, for example).

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #3: Integrating With Surroundings

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Considerations for Outdoor Plants #3: Integrating With Surroundings

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The plants should be suited to the conditions outdoors, as well, and not require too much additional care. The plants also shouldn’t look out of place, and it is always best to introduce new plants that could add to the general feeling of the pre-existing plants. Themes are also chosen for the plants at certain places (along some roads leading to/from each terminal, for example) and the plants should be able to fit in with that.

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #1: Growth Factors

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #1: Growth Factors

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For example, requirements for light is calibrated to be suitable for plant growth, and depending on the plant, irrigation method might be different; some might be grown in soil while others are more suited for hydroculture.

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #2: Sustainability

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #2: Sustainability

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The amount of time the plants can live indoors is to be taken into considerations when choosing them for indoor displays.

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #3: Thematic Considerations

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Considerations for Indoor Plants #3: Thematic Considerations

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There are also themed gardens and walls within the airport, and the plants should be able to fit in with them.

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The amount of time taken to grow plants for display is important when planning for displays, as first it decides how early planning needs to start (in order to grow plants that would be ready in time) and next it decides whether the plant is suitable for this particular display, or whether it would be better used in the next one.

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The amount of time taken to rejuvenate plants from after display back to display conditions. This is important as some plants need to be reused for certain displays (such as willows for Chinese New Year displays).

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There are themed displays for the various holidays, such as Christmas and Chinese New Year; the most recent Hari Raya display was themed ‘home’, and a ‘kampung house’ display was set up indoors. Other than the temporary holiday-themed displays, there are also various displays for collaborations with other events, or for school holidays, or simply for photo-taking in order to keep a memory of the airport. There are themed gardens as well (for example, the sunflower garden and the butterfly garden), and those are maintained with special care.

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Most display plants do not grow indefinitely, or do not remain at display quality over time. The Nursery takes these plants back, and rejuvenates them if possible. Some of these display plants however, cannot be rejuvenated, and the Nursery must therefore propagate these plants to obtain fresh samples to display. The Nursery employs three main methods for propagation of these plants.

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The trees outside each terminal has a coloured theme, there are Sunflower gardens, Cactus gardens, Other indoor gardens, Seasonal Displays, Photo booths with plants, T4 vertical garden wall and various other displays!

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For the flowering plants supplied by the Nursery, seed propagation is the primary way for new plants to be grown. The Nursery obtains these seeds from various suppliers overseas. These seeds are coloured by the suppliers to differentiate between the various breeds of the same plant species. Seeds are seeded into soil pots to germinate and grow to display quality  These soil pots are made of one part topsoil, one part compost, one part sand, and one part coconut husk. This soil composition is a standard composition utilised by the Nursery, found to be effective by trial and error. The bottom of the pot also contains a layer of slow-releasing fertilizer, able to release the nutrients contained within at a manageable rate, to prevent damage from fertilizer burn, while saving the effort of manual fertilization. Seed germination and seedling growth is only done in soil medium, and not water medium, due to seeds only being able to germinate in soil, as well as soil being the better medium to encourage the growth of saplings. Water mediums are better for keeping the plants alive with minimal maintenance.

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Another method for propagation that the Nursery utilises is vegetative propagation. One method of doing this is leaf-bud cuttings. A parent plant has leaves cut from it, with nodes attached. The leaves are then potted in a separate pot of soil, with the node buried under the soil. The node becomes a site for roots to develop, and the cut pieces grow and develop into a duplicate of the parent. This occurs due to the nodes containing undifferentiated cells, which when exposed to the soil, differentiate into root tissue and allow for the cut portions to develop into their own individual plants. The Nursery utilises this method for propagating nonflowering plants, and is a necessary method to grow the plants as quickly as possible, as the Nursery requires a constant supply of these plants to replace those in the Airport. For this purpose,  parent plants may also be grown in the ground, to allow it to grow well and to obtain many healthy cuttings from them.

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Another form of vegetative propagation that the Nursery employs is root division. The parent plant is removed from its pot, along with the soil and the root system contained. The parent plant consists of several suckers, and the suckers are separated and transplanted to new pots.

In this picture, the plants are divided, as well as converted from soil medium to hydroculture.

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Hydroculture is also used, as it is more aesthetic and cleaner than using soil. LECA beads, short for Light Expanded Clay Aggregate beads, are used in place of soil to hold the plant upright. These beads are little spheres with the diameter of about 1-2 cm, and water easily flows through the spaces between the beads. The pots used to hold the LECA beads and the plant are specially designed, with large holes at the sides and the bottom to allow water to flow in the pot easily. In a soil to hydroculture conversion, the roots of the plants are washed in ample water, and planted in LECA. The pots are then put in a water trough.

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In 2015, a horticulturist at Changi Airport found a strange looking Bougainvillea plant. Its pink leaves were much narrower than in the original Bougainvillea plants grown. The new plant also had different types of leaves, different branches of leaves were narrow, variegated or wrinkled, and with irregular edges.
After research, it was later confirmed to be a new variety of Bougainvillea, and was named Bougainvillea “Changi Airport”. The plant has since been propagated by plant cuttings in the Changi Airport Nursery.

Strange foliage of Bougainvillea “Changi Airport”

More common Bougainvillea, its leaves are wide, rounded and with smooth edges.

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Why is Changi Airport Nursery so different?

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Why is Changi Airport Nursery so different?

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Changi airport nursery grows specific plants only for airport (e.g. decorations, indoor exhibits, etc.), normal nursery grow everything for everyone

Changi nursery also grows plants specifically for indoors, and acclimatize the plants by growing them in low light before displaying them in the airport itself! Normal nurseries do not have to grow plants specifically for indoors and need not acclimatize plants.

Changi nursery has a seasonal plant rotation and rejuvenates plants that have been on indoor display, instead of throwing away old plants.  Normal nurseries do not do this as they sell new plants to customers.

Team of horticulturists in changi nursery plan landscape and plants used in displays, which isn’t found in a conventional nursery!

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Rows of sunflowers in their developing stages. These are between 1 week and 4 weeks old. The flowers are carefully taken care of by the horticulturists at the Nursery, with regular waterings and monitorings to ensure they do not get overheated.

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Aww look at this little guy, he’ll be a beautiful flower in bloom really soon!!

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Lakshmanan holding a plant that is to be propagated by division, as well as converted from soil medium to hydroculture. During the trip, we were able to try out the propagation techniques employed by the Nursery, utilising root division, splitting the plant’s roots into three segments, and replanting them in another pot.

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http://www.changiairport.com/corporate/media-centre/resources/publication/changi-journeys/issue-6/changis-bougainvillea-variety.html

http://nowboarding.changiairport.com/discover-changi/fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about-the-gardens-at-changi-air.html

http://apnursery.com/blog/types-of-plants-in-a-nursery/

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/fertilizer-burn-in-gardens.htm

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We never realised the amount of effort the Changi Airport Nursery puts into the decorations for the airport, and that so many things needed to be considered when growing plants for display purposes. It is amazing how much work is done to simply maintain and upkeep the displays, not to mention the thematic and seasonal displays that needs to be planned and put together for every holiday season and every new concept.

We also thought nurseries were only for growing new plants, but at the Changi Airport Nursery, plants are taken out if they're not healthy and nurtured back to display conditions as well. Furthermore, there are grown and mature plants kept ready (especially the trees) as well as new plants being grown such that the displays can be done and plants of correct height can be chosen.

All of this does its job though - the airport is so beautifully done up it's able to leave both a good first impression and an amazing last impression on the people who visit the airport, be it those taking flights to/from Singapore or those that are merely stopping by, or even people who just visit the airport for reasons other than travelling.