Wow, thanks for posting great photos and intriguing ideas for hydroponics. Makes me want to visit EPCOT and I absolutely hate that type of thing (but your photos are that good).

Denise

I agree Denise, looking at all that white sand on the floor it is obvious that most of our problems are soil born....

Also cool to see they have thrip-eating bugs, I want some of those Tina!

I'll never grow cukes out in the garden again, they do very well in the shade with minimal filtered sun and virtually NO bug problems!

Looks like you and Nick had fun, that's one trip that will go on my bucket list :-)

Tom

Thank you Denise and Tom

The tour is $18 and worth every penny. The mites are developed specifically for greenhouses so I wonder if the uncontrolled heat and humidity outside will do them in....more research required for me but I posted a link for you below, Tom.

Here is a link that might be useful: Amblyseius swirskii

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

Tina,

I'm planning a trip to Epcot in the next couples weeks. I am just starting my research. Is there a particular website that you used to plan your trip (or are you an old hand at Epcot)?

Thanks!
Carol in Jacksonville

Fantastic! thanks for sharing, Tina.....the tub with the veggies in water is similar to a project by a guy in the paper last year- he has the tank but has fish(tilapia) in it, w/a screen for plants and the plant-roots hang down and get their nutrients from the fish-water, he has a facility here in Fla. for production and is shipping the units to poor countries, so people have a meat and vegetable source they can maintain in their home... a 2-for-1 kind of thing...sally

Hi Carol! There is a special tour going on for another 2 weeks called the Gardens of the World tour. It is $60 for 3 hrs I think and happens on Tues Thurs and Friday as part of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. it is for 16 yrs plus. Here is the link because it is hard to find on the EPCOT website. I just use the basic EPCOT website to look around when I go, but if you have NETFLIX they have some shows on the disney parks that are fun to watch and give great info.

Phone:
Call (407) WDW-TOUR or (407) 939-8687

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardens of the World tour

Tina,

Thank you so much for the info! Much appreciated!

Carol

Your "sensitive tree" is a Mimosa tree. They were pretty common in south Mississippi when I was growing up, and I've seen them rarely around here.

http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/29

Thanks, Steve. The seeds look affordable but it's invasive. the plant they had looked more like a bushy fern an not much like the trees I remember growing up. I also don't remember the leaves on the trees moving so that's a twist. However, Google says you are right so it must be! Thanks again!

Carol did you go to the Epcot tour? I was thinking about trying to make it myself.

Tina, the seeds come in pods which look like paper-thin snow pea pods. The flowers are like purplish-pink explosions. They remind me of the "poof" on the top of some African ground bird.

As a kid, I'd torture the poor trees by running my finger along every frond on I could reach, to watch them fold up. :)

I'd like to know what they are feeding those plants(how much of what) to get that kind of production....especially that tomato tree. One plant producing that much!!!

Tina, We did not get to make our trip to Epcot. Disappointing. We're hoping to go in the Fall.

Steve, when me and the neighborhood girls were young, we pretended they were powderpuffs. Aren't they sometimes called Powderpuff trees? Or do I have it mixed up with something else?

Carol in Jax

Yikes, grammar police! I meant to say "when the neighborhood girls and I were young". Geez.