Datagronomist
I’m Rosario — plant biologist, agronomist, and founder of Anthea. I write about agriculture, data, open science, and what it means to do research that matters beyond the lab. Learning in public, at the edge of soil and code.
Frostwächter: a free inversion frost predictor for Halle (Saale) — and the science behind it
Spring in Halle is a negotiation. The city warms up fast — Saxony-Anhalt sits in one of Germany’s most continental climate pockets, and by April the days can feel genuinely summery. Then a clear night arrives, the wind drops, and by 4 am your tomato seedlings are dead. The weather app said +3 °C. This happened to me last year. And to my neighbour. And, I suspect, to most people growing anything in this city. ...
Seeds, Code, and What We Pass Down
My son will be born in a few weeks. In the meantime, I’ve been spending evenings in the cellar, setting up a small automated growing system. A Raspberry Pi running Mycodo, a BME688 sensor tracking temperature, humidity, pressure and air quality, a handful of Tasmota smart plugs controlling the lights, a heater, and a humidifier. I’m starting this year’s garden seedlings from down there, in the dark, before spring arrives. It’s a modest setup. But building it has felt significant in a way I didn’t fully expect. ...