Water is injected into the plant pillow, then water is injected into the root mat. The wicks carry the water to the seeds, which are glued in, and the combination of water and light trigger germination. Seeds are oriented so that the plant grows up and the roots grow down into the plant pillow.

What are plant pillows?

Crop plants can be grown in Veggie using plant pillows, small rooting packets that contain substrate, fertilizer, and germination wicks along with attached seeds. The pillows were designed to interface with the Veggie root mat reservoir watering system to provide a capillary water column to growing plants.

What is the veggie NASA project?

The Vegetable Production System, known as Veggie, is a space garden residing on the space station. Veggie’s purpose is to help NASA study plant growth in microgravity, while adding fresh food to the astronauts’ diet and enhancing happiness and well-being on the orbiting laboratory.