Growing a Greener World Episode 813 – New Ways of Growing Our Favorite Vegetables

For as long as tomatoes have been grown, the techniques to do so haven’t changed all that much. But leave it to horticultural and tomato growing expert, Brie Arthur to turn conventional wisdom upside down. Never one to be satisfied with old-school thinking, Brie is exploring new ways of growing an old favorite. While dealing with her own challenges of inhospitable soil, and advancements in growing technology, Brie is charting new ground to see if she can create the latest, best way to grow America’s favorite vegetable while opening new opportunities to potential gardeners that may now finally have a way to grow them too. In this episode, we track Brie’s progress as she works through the season and numerous challenges of trialing these techniques for the very first time.

Read the full show notes for additional information from this episode at: https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode-813-new-ways-of-growing-americas-favorite-vegetable/

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I’m Joe lample when I created Growing a Greener World I had one goal to tell stories of Everyday People innovators entrepreneurs Forward Thinking leaders who are all in ways both big and small dedicated to organic gardening and farming lightening our footprint conserving vital resources protecting natural habitats making a tangible difference for us all they’re real they’re passionate they’re all around us they’re the game changers who are literally Growing a Greener World and inspiring the rest of us to do the same Growing a Greener World it’s more than a movement it’s our mission [Music] when it comes to gardening there are certain aspects of it for many of us that are basically non-negotiable for example you take some good seeds you put it in soil you add water and sunlight and before you know it you got great plants but even some of those basic elements today are being examined and minimized and in some cases even eliminated as gardeners on The Cutting Edge are looking for new ways to grow more and grow better and as these exciting and Innovative techniques are being perfected more and more every day it may be for gardeners in the not too distant future that pling in the dirt doesn’t even require dirt regular viewers may know Bri Arthur is our foodscaping and design correspondent with the Infectious laugh and the bubbly personality but the truth is she’s pretty much a rocket scientist when it comes to gardening after studying landscape design and horiculture at Purdue University she immersed herself in the science of propagating plants having single-handedly added a million plants to Gardens across the country she’s also a recognized leader of the national Suburban foodscape movement helping gardeners incorporate Edibles into their Landscapes to make backyards and front foundations more beautiful and more productive when it comes to the food we eat and she’s always experimenting on ways to make growing that food easier and more accessible for any home gardener so Bri it was a year ago that we were here to join you on your journey of growing all these Edibles in sort of unconventional ways at least as far as the home Garden goes right I know I can’t believe it’s been a year so tell me about what you had in mind at the time the things that you tried and why you picked them and what you were hoping to get from those okay so Hydroponics is probably what everybody is most familiar with and um this is a very simple process of using either an air or water pump and then either a series of buckets or a large contraption that will hold water and then you grow the plants in that by adding um specific nutrient solutions to help make it so the plant will grow vegetatively ultimately flower and then set an abundant fruit okay so there’s a lot of different systems there’s actually six different forms of Hydroponics and aeroponics is a fcet within those six distinctions the main difference between Hydroponics and aeroponics is that in Hydroponics the roots are always in contact with water so they grow exponentially and in aeroponics you have a timer that actually flushes the water every 15 minutes and then you have a 15 minute rest period and that time allows air to naturally prune the root system is very effective in making it so you can grow a lot of plants in a small space and then you have the aquaponic so what’s the difference to that one and aquaponics is instead of having to add nutrient solution the theory is that you will use the water from fish to be able to act as the nutrient solution but most of the time these systems are taking place in a closed or an indoor environment so you’re kind of breaking some rules here breaking some rules testing the limits figuring out what works and what doesn’t work and really understanding the seasonality of it um so it’s very different it’s very different from traditional growing in the ground but I’m completely hooked and I love seeing chemistry in action I think this is a wonderful way for people to really understand and appreciate kind of the science behind how plants grow [Music] right and so Bree set out for an entire season of experimental gardening to find out what works what doesn’t what’s practical for the home Gardener and what’s too much hassle to be realistic and ultimately which of these out of the-box ideas might be the next big thing in gardening and ultimately the answer to Growing a Greener World here’s how it all started on day one so I’m so excited you’re here I get to share this big experiment with you well I’m glad I’m here too because I want to see how it comes out just be here on the first day is awesome it is it really is great timing last year when I started with Hydroponics I really did not have any expectation that it was going to be successful yes I thought that the water was going to get too hot from being in the North Carolina sun and that the roots were going to burn and it would have been nothing so I only invested in one system and that one system was so much more fruitful it outdid 50 plants in the ground that is crazy now my goal is to see how many how much I can grow in these systems to fulfill my nutritional needs in the use of tomatoes and maybe I won’t have have to grow 150 to fulfill what we need for our yearly consumption maybe it will be done in 25 plans yeah it’s so much more efficient method one Hydroponics growing plants in water it’s perhaps the best known of the alternative techniques Breeze trying you’ve likely seen hydroponically grown lettuce in the produce section of your grocery store or on the menu of a growing number of restaurants and we’ve shown you how growing without soil opens up new gardening possibilities for people in unconventional environments like high-rise apartments and urban warehouses even converted storage pods are being turned into working Farms thanks to the science behind Hydroponics which allows you to grow plants anywhere you can place a bucket and I think this is a great thing it’s a submergence system so you have a lot of water to begin with and then as the plants develop you’ll end up really only keeping a few inches of water in it of course with Hydroponics you’re really getting your nutrient from a synthetic nutrient feed that you mix up in a watering can and then apply you know every couple of days to make sure that all the nutrients are available to make the plant as effective and fruitful as possible as for the plants there’s nothing special about the plants you can grow hydroponically just what you would normally buy at your favorite Nursery in Bree’s case she’s using heirloom tomato seedlings from our friend and Bree’s local gardening buddy Craig la and what I’m doing is just bar rooting them from the traditional media that you would sew the seed in and the key with Hydroponics is that you don’t want to have that media on the roots because uh it’ll clog your system you’re using all these small uh pipes and tubings and my preferred media is called hydrocorn and it’s really just terracotta balls um it basically stabilizes the plant so that it doesn’t flop over but the roots grow right through it it’s an extraordinary product and you can reuse it season after season what hydroponic plants don’t get is the benefit of nutrients that are normally supplied by the soil they’re planted in that has to be added in the form of a synthetic mix or there’s another option it’s aquaponics it’s just using the biology that fish create to be able to use uh fish as my nutrient supplier so instead of fertilizing the plant I just feed the fish and then the fish’s biology feeds my tomatoes long term and I’m using Gamby or also known as mosquito fish uh they’re small we’re not trying to harvest the fish to eat ourselves they are just going to be Garden companions that also keep a terrible pest at Bay all we’re doing is taking that basket that would be ordinarily in a hydroponic system and we’re going to sink it into a fish pond that also has an air pump so we are going to use the chemistry and biology of a natural system the only input I have to do is feed the fish it’s going to be a pleasure cuz I’m in love with the fish right all right so we’re going to find out how that works this is your special Innovation just to modify that system to that system that’s really cool it’s exciting to be able to take a technology that’s been traditionally used in green houses and indoors and start applying it to the actual landscape the outside space finally Bri wanted to include aeroponics in her experiment and as the name suggest it’s a way of growing in an air environment or more specifically a combination of air and water now if that sounds space aged it is because NASA’s been using this technology to find out what sort of plants can grow in space or even on other planets now for us earthlings probably the most popular system today for an aeroponics environment is this it’s the tower garden and you can buy a system like this complete with all the bills whistles online all the pieces that make up a tower garden are seen here the assembly is simple and the instructions are easy to follow you start by connecting the pump that recirculates the solution throughout the tower next you slide down sections of the tower through two stur support rods each Tower section Nest into the one beneath it the shower cap tops it off to contain the solution within okay so the tower garden comes with some options in fact you can kind of buy it fully loaded and that’s what I did I got some extensions to the tower so I can get more plants here and then I love this feature right here it’s a rolling stand so I can put my garden onto the stand and then I can fill it and move it around depending on where I like it in the room but it’s just a nice option to have and so I’m excited about that one next insert net pots that will contain the growing medium and plants into the planting pore then it’s time to fill the nutrient Reservoir it holds about 20 gallons all the more reason it’s nice to have an easy way to move it once it’s full a mineral blend solution is then added to the water to give it the perfect nutrient balance next it’s time to adjust the pH having the proper pH is especially important in an aeroponic system like this the kit provides everything you need to easily adjust your water’s pH to the target range and a handy color guide lets you know when you’re there finally it was time to add the optional light kit the lights are easy to install and allows you to grow plants to full maturity anywhere even in rooms without windows and that’s it really now all I have to do is add the seed pods in here and then periodically check the water level and the pH but the result is supposed to be faster growth higher yields and zero weeds plus this system only uses 2% of the water that you would normally use to grow similar plants plants outside plus the footprint on this system only 3 Square ft so it’s perfect for the space strap Gardener or anybody that doesn’t want to get their hands in the dirt but how does the tower system stack up to the other experiments well we got the beginning of our answers when we went back to Breeze to check on all three tests about 6 weeks after planting first up we checked in on the tomatoes being grown in large large galvanized tubs this is a DIY hydroponic system just plants in water that breed peace meal together with materials that a home Gardener can easily get from big box [Music] stores so when we left off we had placed little seedlings into the floater that’s right and you know overall developmentally wise these plants look decently sized but clearly there’s a some nutrient issues going on here it’s like a textbook organic chem class coming to life in my backyard so there’s a couple things happening of course it’s an open system so when it does rain or when I water the garden new water is introduced it what’s amazing about these these Water Systems is how quickly the plants react to the chemistry changes both positive and negative so I suspect in just a few days these will green back up things will go back to looking a little bit healthier and I have learned that I just have to add way more nutrient solution than I would ordinarily feel comfortable using but that’s not a knock on hydroponics because other Tomatoes being grown that way on authentic Hydroponics equipment were a totally different story here each plant is in its own submersion bucket and all the buckets are connected to a central controller that automatically regulates water nutrients now these tomatoes look the best of all and that’s your submersion system back there right that’s right this is the system that I will expand next year cuz the pump that we have will actually facilitate 36 buckets I only have eight hooked up here wow so I can really grow a huge number of tomatoes with very little effort see how healthy they are yeah so we have no soil that has the inborn diseases to contend with it’s a straight hydroponic system lots of room to expand and I would take it there’s very little maintenance involved in this very little maintenance I I mean other than adding nutrient solution again maybe once a week or every 10 days I don’t do anything other than come out and stare at them there are times when they were growing you know 14 or 15 inches a week um now they’re kind of getting at a stage where they’re getting to flower and we’ll begin to really see a lot of fruit set well it looks fantastic this is very encouraging yeah this is this is my success story next up the aquaponic Pond Bri put heirloom tomato plants in hydroponic containers placed the containers in what was essentially a small water feature in her front yard and stocked the pond with fish so when we left off I was helping you or you were loading I was handing you the containers and you were setting them into here with those tiny little dwarf tomato plants from Craig’s place and now you’ve got Bonafide tomatoes growing here they’re growing and it’s something I’m really excited about because I want to see more people use their Foundation landscapes for useful things that are also pretty and I haven’t I don’t feel like I’ve broken the code on this like this is still lacking in Vigor a little bit I don’t think that it’s ugly I I I certainly not offensive looking but it’s important that we try as all so many of these systems again haven’t been applied to the landscape and that’s my goal to empower people through these common everyday Landscapes that we are kind of greenwashed by yeah and so you think people might have a koi pond in their front yard how do we figure out how they can also grow a BLT from it but a second aquaponics tank again using large metal feed tubs and less specialized equipment wasn’t fairing as well this is the perfect example of what not to do and my best advice is to buy all of the elements for an alternative growing system at a hydrop IC shop you can’t peace me it from Tractor Supply and Home Depot and Lowe’s the equipment isn’t UV protected you get a lot of algae build up it makes the water not flow correctly the most important thing I learned is that you absolutely cannot use these feed tanks to grow fish they release way too much zinc and then the fish die of zinc poisoning you don’t actually need that much water volume either it’s hard to keep the chemistry balanced and keep the nutrient solution in the ratio that’s necessary so we have turned this back into a fountain moved all the fish into a sunken plastic liner yeah and now we just have four tomato plants in an aquaculture now this is looking really good so this is your clo system the tower garden yes the tower garden I’m completely smitten with this if you want to grow food in a small square footage this is the system that you should invest in okay tell me why it’s so effective we’ve literally just planted it only had to add water one time since the end of April and I add nutrient solution about every 10 days and it’s just done everything that it promises and more we’ve already harvested cucumbers there’s a whole bunch of uh jalapenos coming the tomatoes are just doing great the chemistry has been perfectly balanced and it’s partly because it’s a closed system so it’s not impacted by rain so I’m completely in love with this I can’t wait to play with more I I just think every patio should have this on it but as every Gardener knows things can change dramatically over the course of a growing season and what was going gang busters 6 weeks after planting may not go on to be a true success by the time the experimental season was over and everything was harvested Bri had her answers on What alternative methods work best in the home Garden and as always she learned the most from her biggest mistakes I think I had two big failures first was using the feed tanks that you know are really inexpensive and you can access them at a lot of the box stores but they release way too much zinc they basically poison the plants and I haven’t been able to use those for growing tomatoes at all my second failure was citing the system out by my fire pit in full blazing Carolina sun and I think the main problem there was that the water temperature got too high and that really impacted the plants ability to absorb nutrients so I now know in the future that I need to use the north side of my house and some of the shady areas that I have from my house and from my garage and maybe from trees to actually grow these tomatoes in Hydroponic and aquaponic systems with more shade than sun and that’s not something I would have ever known until I actually experienced it so there’s a lot to learn when you’re using a system that’s traditionally used in a controlled environment and you’re applying it to the outside world of a garden landscape so with the advantage of a look back let’s assess how those systems went start with the Hydroponics and what worked what didn’t work and why and would you do it again okay I will definitely do it again I will probably never not grow in a hydroponic system but the systems that you buy from the store that are UV rated plastic those systems work a lot better than when we tried to peace meal the projects together so I definitely am all about the submersion buckets whether they’re three gallon or five gallon really the more water they can hold the better because In the Heat of the summer these enormous heirloom tomatoes use every single drop that they have so then you tried aquaponics what were you doing with that and what were you hoping to achieve there yeah the aquaponics is the same basically as Hydroponics except you’re growing fish to be able to supply your nutrients that’s the nutrient Source the byproduct of the fish precisely okay and so that adds a different element because you first have to understand how to cultivate the fish yes and did it work out it did it worked out great I think I managed to get around 50 lbs of tomatoes from one tank with just growing the gambizzi so those are little mosquito fish and I love growing the fish they grew all winter I was so excited because I thought this year I would definitely have these system set up ready for the tomatoes to go in already having you know a lot of nutrients active and then a bullfrog moved in and he ate all the fish and so now I’m trying frog aonics and I’ll see how it goes with aquaponics you shouldn’t have to add nutrient solution but I’m not finding that the fish I grew perhaps didn’t create enough waste to feed the tomatoes and I have no idea what a bullfrog produces and I haven’t been able to find any literature about frog aonic but that’s what I’m calling it this year fair enough and I take that as a compliment because when you have frogs that means you have a healthy balanced ecosystem so I’m just gonna go with it and and see maybe this is the solution for growing plants with animals in the suburbs now you did the aeroponics too and I know you’re loving that one I can’t say enough good things about the tower garden honestly I have never invested money in horiculture in a more gratifying way the the the results of growing in that Tower are unmatched by anything else I keep it in the same place it’s now been operation for exactly one year and we’ve been able to harvest from it nearly every single day no kidding so I have a feeling that’s the winner of the three that you’ve tried so far hands down if someone was to ask me I’m a beginner what should I start with though it might be the biggest upfront investment it’s 100% worth every cent every scent and I I just think that everyone would have great success using it it’s the least amount of Maintenance and the most amount of yield and it’s completely transformed how I now look at being able to use technology in my landscape you know one of the things I love most about gardening is even though humans have been doing it for thousands of years we still don’t totally have it all figured out yet there’s always more to learn ways to improve new techniques to try and if you’d like to learn more about the techniques Bri is working on in her experiments we’ll have that information under the show notes for this episode on our website that address it’s the same as our show name it’s growingagreenerworld.com but even if you’re not ready to dig into aquaponics or Hydroponics or aeroponics I hope you will at least be willing to try something new and experiment because who knows maybe you’ll discover something that we’ll all be using someday thanks for joining joining us everybody I’m Joe lample and we’ll see you back here next time for more Growing a Greener World [Music] I [Music]