The Growing Revolution - Smart PotCast Smart Pot®

In our latest installment of The Growing Revolution, we got to speak with Elizabeth Beak, founder of Joy To The Earth Tree Farm, outside of Atlanta, Georgia. She founded this organization in 2022 after hearing of a similar company overseas doing Christmas Tree rentals to local residents. She thought that if they could do it there, she could start one here in the USA.
Her journey started by doing research into what kinds of trees would do well in the Atlanta area, as her goal was not only to have Christmas trees that avoid filling up landfills, but to also have trees that can be planted in the wild once the reach "retirement age." This was not as easy as she had originally thought because upon consulting with local forestry officials, she learned that trees that are grown in containers for many years often will have poor root development due to the circling of the roots that containerized trees produce.

This problem led her to Davis Dunbar of Redbone Nurseries, who is growing many trees that are used by Trees Atlanta, an organization dedicated to increasing the tree canopy coverage of the metro area. Davis grows both above and below ground in our Smart Pots and Root Control Bags (our below ground version). The fabric of a Smart Pot will catch the root tips as they hit, and prevents them from circling the container endlessly, making them perfect for transplanting into the ground when it's time.

Elizabeth then needed space to grow her trees, which lead her to the Love is Love Cooperative Farm, just outside of Atlanta. The story of how that cooperative farm came to be is pretty cool as well, and could be a model for other large cities to help eliminate food deserts. We discuss this further in the interview.

After getting everything up and running, she needed to rent these Christmas Trees, and Elizabeth got to work spreading the word through some creative methods. Her work ethic and dedication to learning how to "wear many hats" is inspiring to all entrepreneurs, regardless of what your business is selling.

If you want to learn more, or reserve your tree for the next Christmas season, go to https://www.joytoearthtrees.com/

To learn more about Trees Atlanta go to https://www.treesatlanta.org/

Lastly, to learn about Redbone Nurseries go to http://www.redbonenurseries.com/

We really appreciate Elizabeth and her time in joining us on the podcast.

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For more information on Smart Pots and our parent company, High Caliper Growing: https://smartpots.com/ and https://treebag.com/

In this latest interview for The Growing Revolution- Smart PotCast, we got to speak again with Ben Owens, who is a cannabis home growing coach and advocate based in Colorado. We spoke with him back in season one, where he was the guest for episode 14, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/no7k6yy75WY
We wanted to get Ben back on to talk about such home growing topics like, how to keep your cannabis garden clean and pest and disease free, how to select genetics, how to avoid bottlenecks in the growing process, and much more. Ben also recently co-authored another book, Clean Growing, which is all about... Clean Growing :)

You can learn more about Ben and the Growhort, which is where he is personally coaching growers week by week from seed to harvest, here: https://www.startahobbygrow.com/

You can follow Ben on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cannabenoid

Thank you for watching this video. As a bonus, if you go to smartpots.com and enter the code, "hobbygrower" at checkout, you'll get a 10% discount off of your order.

Thank you to Ben for his time, and for being a great advocate for cannabis and home growers everywhere.

Be sure to like this episode and subscribe to our channel for more great interviews.
To watch the full video, click this link: https://youtu.be/TH_QR-sYAn8

In this week's installment of The Growing Revolution, we got to speak with Chris Blase of Blase Family Farms. Chris and his wife, Jill, started the blueberry farm in 2011 after coming home from a vacation in East Texas, where the family had a great time at a blueberry farm, picking berries. He thought that it would be a great idea to start one close to the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area so that folks didn't have to drive so far to pick fresh blueberries. The rest is history.
Chris started growing in ground, moved to raised beds, before finally growing his blueberry bushes in Smart Pot containers in 2018. He noticed a large difference in overall plant health and production since the switch and has reduced his watering needs by about 30%!

Besides blueberries in the Spring/ early Summer, they also have a pumpkin patch in the Fall, and also sell handmade items like popsicles, soaps, fudge and more. It's a great destination, situated on 26 wooded acres, where folks can get a break from the city, without having to drive for hours.

Chris actually has a full time job as a Dairy Scientist (cheesemaker) for a large local company, and in his free time tends to the plants and does general farm maintenance. It's his respite from the daily grind, and if you see the pics of his property, you'll see why. It's a slice of heaven in Rockwall, Texas.

To learn more about what Chris and his family are doing, go to www.blasefamilyfarm.com
To learn more about Smart Pots, head over to www.smartpots.com

We greatly appreciate Chris as a customer, and for giving his time in allowing us to learn more about his awesome blueberry farm.

Please "like" the episode and follow our account for more great episodes to come!

Welcome back to episode 70 of The Growing Revolution where this week we got to speak with Kyle Durr, Nursery Manager for Casey Trees. He oversees the general production on their farm in Virginia, outside of the Washington DC metro area. Casey Tree was started by Betty Brown Casey, longtime DC resident in 2002. Betty was concerned with the steady decline in the tree canopy coverage in our nation's capital.
By 2001, the canopy level was down to just 35%, so Casey Trees' mission is to increase that to 40% by 2035, and after planting 30K trees since inception, they are well on their way to hitting that goal. Casey Trees used to employ the ball and burlap technique for harvesting trees, but about a decade ago, they decided to try the Root Control Bag, fabric in-ground planters, and haven't looked back since. Their root ball is 1/3rd of a conventional root ball, much lighter and easier to transplant or install, and the tree is healthier leading to almost 100% viability for their installed trees.
If you want to learn more about Casey Trees, go to caseytrees.org
If you'd like to learn more about the Root Control Bag, go to treebag.com or smartpots.com
Please subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss one of our great interviews, dropping weekly. The video podcast is also available at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-jP48BpQp3yvF4uiortfxLYpkDNrVylk&si=tghCorZvBiahtd6p

This week on The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Rick Jones who invented the Square Farmer saucer. His innovation solves two problems; its square design allows for less wasted space when multiple plants are in a given space such as a grow tent, and it raises the plant's container (hopefully a Smart Pot) out of any standing water from irrigation runoff.
Rick came from the world of selling solutions for making self-insured health insurance plans more affordable for businesses. In 2016 he had an "ah ha" moment when he saw that there were no other products in the marketplace similar to the concept that he had for the Square Farmer.

He didn't have any experience in manufacturing, wholesale sales, retail sales and distribution, but that didn't stop him from diving in headfirst, and learning as he went. As with most entrepreneurs, Rick did a few things then, that he would do differently now, which he touches on in this episode. If you are an entrepreneur, or thinking of becoming one, this is a great episode to watch regardless of what industry you are in.

If you want to try the Square Farmer trays for 10% off, use discount code "smartpot" at squarefarmer.com. We greatly appreciate Rick's time for joining us and for extending this discount to our viewers.

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In episode 68 of The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Kayla, who goes by Prosperous Living on social media. She is a stay at home mother of 5 kids in the Homosassa area of Florida (north of Tampa). She hasn't been gardening for a very long time, but since she's been at it, she's been very aggressive with expanding her garden and for working as an influencer with Smart Pot, and other gardening related companies.
Living in USDA growing zone 9 has a lot of advantages, and Kayla is basically growing a ton of produce, year round! Her soil is pretty sandy and although she does grow in-ground a bit, she loves growing in containers and raised beds. Her favorite containers are Smart Pots, as they allow great drainage which is especially important for gardening in Florida, where it can rain buckets at a time.
We've got more great interviews scheduled for uploading this season. Please like this episode and subscribe to our podcast so that you do not miss an episode.