Growing a Greener World

- [Announcer] "Growing A Greener World" is made possible in part by ... - [Subaru Announcer] The Subaru Crosstrek.

Designed with adventure in mind.

Built in a zero-landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of "Growing A Greener World."

- [Announcer] And the following ...

Rain Bird, Corona Tools, and Milorganite.

(inspirational music) - I'm Joe Lamp'l.

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.

(inspirational music) "Growing A Greener World."

It's more than a movement.

It's our mission.

(inspirational music) (soft music) When it comes to gardening, there are certain aspects of it for many of us that are basically non-negotiable.

For example, it takes some good seeds.

You put it in soil, you add water and sunlight and before you know it, you've 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 playing in the dirt doesn't even require dirt.

Regular viewers may know Brie Arthur as 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 horticulture 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 Brie, 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 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 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.

An aeroponics is a facet 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.

It is very effective in making it so you can grow a lot of plants in a small space.

- And then you have the aquaponics.

So what's the difference to that one?

- [Brie] An 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.

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.

- Right.

(soft music) And so Brie 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.

- [Joe] Well, I'm glad I'm here too, because I want to see how it comes out and 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.

- [Brie] 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.

- [Joe] That's crazy.

- Now my goal is to see how much I can grow in these systems to fulfill my nutritional needs in the use of tomatoes and maybe I won't have to grow 150 to fulfill what we need for our yearly consumption.

Maybe it will be done in 25 plants.

It's so much more efficient.

(soft music) - [Joe] Method one, hydroponics, growing plants in water.

It's perhaps the best known of the alternative techniques Brie's 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 nutrients from a synthetic nutrient feed that you mix up in a watering can and then apply every couple of days to make sure that all the nutrients are available to make the plant as effective and fruitful as possible.

- [Joe] 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 Brie's case, she's using heirloom tomato seedlings from our friend, and Brie's local gardening buddy, Craig LeHoullier.

- And what I'm doing is just bare rooting them from the traditional media that you'd sow the seed in.

And the key with hydroponics is that you don't want to have that media on the roots because it'll cog your system.

You're using all these small pipes and tubings.

My preferred media is called hydrocorn and it's really just terracotta balls.

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.

- [Joe] 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 fish as my nutrients supplier.

So instead of fertilizing the plants, I just feed the fish and then the fish's biology feeds my tomatoes long-term.

And I'm using gambezi, or also known as mosquito fish.

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 and the only input I have to do is feed the fish.

- Nice.

- [Brie] Which is going to be a pleasure because 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.

- [Brie] It's exciting to be able to take a technology that's been traditionally used in greenhouses and indoors and start applying it to the actual landscape, to the outside space.

- Finally, Brie wanted to include aeroponics in her experiment.

And as the name suggests, 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 has 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 bells and 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-story support rods.

Each tower section nests 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, so I'm excited about that one.

Next, insert net pots that will contain the growing medium and plants into the planting ports.

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 the 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 outside.

Plus, the footprint on this system, only three square feet, so it's perfect for the space-strapped 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 answer when we went back to Brie's to check on all three tests about six weeks after planting.

(gentle music) First up, we checked in on the tomatoes being grown in large galvanized tubs.

This is a DIY hydroponic system, just plants in water that Brie piecemealed together with materials that a home gardener could easily get from big box stores.

So when we left off, we had placed little seedlings into the floater.

- [Brie] That's right.

- And overall, developmentally wise, these plants look decently sized, but clearly there's some nutrient issues going on here.

- It's like a textbook organic chemistry class coming to life in my backyard.

So there's a couple of things happening.

Of course it's an open system, so when it does rain or when I water the garden, new water is introduced.

What's amazing about 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.

- [Joe] 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 because 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 and it's a straight hydroponic system, lots of room to expand, and I would take it there's very little maintenance involved.

- Very little maintenance.

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 14 or 15 inches a week.

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 fruits at.

- Well, it looks fantastic.

This is very encouraging.

- Yeah, this is my success story.

(laughs) (laughing) - Next up, the aquaponics pond.

Brie 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, were 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, certainly not offensive looking, but it's important that we try.

It was 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.

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?

- [Joe] 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 hydroponic shop.

You can't piecemeal it from Tractor Supply and Home Depot and Lowe's 'cause the equipment isn't UV-protected.

You get a lot of algae buildup.

It makes the water not flow correctly.

But 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 and now we just have four tomato plants in an aquaculture.

- [Joe] Now this is looking really good.

So this is your closed 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.

- [Joe] Okay, tell my why.

- [Brie] It's so effective.

We've literally just planted it.

I've 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.

I've already harvested cucumbers.

There's a whole bunch of 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 just think every patio should have this on it.

- [Joe ] But as every gardener knows, things can change dramatically over the course of a growing season and what was going gangbuster six weeks after planting may not go on to be a true success.

By the time the experimental season was over and everything was harvested, Brie had her answers on what alternative methods worked 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 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 siting 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 plant's 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 piecemeal 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?

- [Brie] Yeah, the aquaponics is the same basically as hydroponics, except you're growing fish to be able to supply your nutrients.

- [Joe] That's the nutrient source.

- Yes.

- It's the by-product 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 pounds of tomatoes from one tank with just growing the gambezi, so those are the little mosquito fish, and I loved growing the fish.

They grew all winter.

I was so excited because I thought this year I would definitely have these systems set up, ready for the tomatoes to go in, already having a lot of nutrients active and then a bull frog moved in and he ate all the fish.

And so now I'm trying frogaponics 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 ways to feed the tomatoes and I have no idea what a bull frog produces and I haven't been able to find any literature about frogaponics, 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 going to go with it and see.

Maybe this is the solution for growing plants with animals in the suburbs.

- [Joe] 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 horticulture in a more gratifying way.

The results of growing in that tower are unmatched by anything else.

I keep it in the same place.

It's now been in 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 cent and I just think that everyone would have great success using it.

It's 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.

(soft upbeat music) - 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 Brie is working on and 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 us, everybody.

I'm Joe Lamp'l and we'll see you back here next time for more "Growing A Greener World."

(soft upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Growing A Greener World" is made possible in part by ... - [Subaru Announcer] The Subaru Crosstrek.

Designed with adventure in mind.

Built in a zero-landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of "Growing A Greener World."

- [Announcer] And the following.

Rain Bird, Corona Tools and Milorganite.

(soft instrumental music) - [Narrator] Continue the garden learning from "Growing A Greener World."

Joe Lamp'l's Online Gardening Academy offers classes designed to teach gardeners of all levels.

From the fundamentals to master skills.

You can take each class on your own schedule from anywhere.

Plus, opportunities to ask Joe questions about your specific garden in real time.

Courses are available online.

To enroll, go to growingagreenerworld.com/learn.

(dubstep music) (instrumental music)