has anyone growing food from moon dirt?

Answer 1

I don't think moon dirt has enough nutrients to grow plant life. Sorry to say. You should try it though and tell me what happens.

Answer 2

Actually, this was tried back in the Apollo years. It was found that most plants grow extremely well in Moon dust, as a matter of fact. I remember seeing a picture of a lettuce plant happily growing in Moon dust. Moon dust is actually rich in Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, as well as trace nutrients, which are what plants need, (as well as water and sunlight.)
However, growing crops on the Moon would be very difficult. It has been said that if you desire to use natural sunlight, you will need a greenhouse with glass that is ~10cm or 4 inches thick, to shield from harmful radiation. Furthermore, the daytime temperature on the Moon is ~240 degrees, above zero, and a greenhouse would be way hotter than even this high temperature. Thus you would need major, major airconditioning to keep your plants from frying. And the 14 days of continuous light followed by 14 days of darkness is not survivable by most plants, even if everything else is right. So maybe you will do your farming underground, under artificial light? This is not really practical either.
Actually, the best place to grow food crops for space exploration would be the equatorial regions of Mars, where none of these Moon type problems would exist. It has already been shown that plants will grow just fine in large inflatable greenhouses on Mars, at Martian ambient atmospheric pressures. The amount of sunlight, though less than Earth, would be more than adequate. Northern Hellas would be perfect. And getting the resulting food products to the Moon from Mars would be about 1/10th as expensive as bringing them from Earth.

Answer 3

Basically, he said, “the moon is made of the same stuff we have here on Earth.”

The soil would be a little rocky, so you would need a little organic fertalizer, but plants besically can grow in sunlight and water. in grade school we planed plants in moist newspaper, and plastic pellets.. as long as you dont forget to water and it gets plenty of sun it'll grow.

Answer 4

much of the moon's surface is "Regolith" which is basically pulverized rock. Soil is full of organics, so if you wanted to actually grow something, save up your garbage and mix it in.

Read "Farmer in the Sky" by Heinlein.

and wiki

Answer 5

That's a really good question! I wonder if NASA has even thought of that?

Answer 6

it doesnt have the proper nutrients i dont think.