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Nichole, who goes by PurpleLungz on TikTok and Instagram, was our guest for Episode 76 of The Growing Revolution. She's in the now, legal home growing state of Virginia, where he's been chronicling her cannabis growing journey online, and garnering a lot of views in the process. She has been growing in Smart Pot containers for almost the whole time and noticed a big difference after starting her journey using plastic pots from Walmart.
We talked about where she learned her growing knowledge from and her some of her secrets of success as to how to do well on social media. She's not full time as a content creator, but she's getting close to the point where she could be if she wanted to.
This was a very fun interview to conduct and it's not hard to believe that she has so many followers online because she has a great personality. We've always enjoyed viewing her posts, and we greatly appreciate her being a Smart Pot grower.
For more great episodes, please subscribe.
For more information on Smart Pots, head to smartpots.com
To follow PurpleLungz, click this link: PurpleLungz (@purplelungz2) | TikTok
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For Episode 75 of The Growing Revolution Smart PotCast, we got to speak with Danny Murr-Sloat, co-founder of AlpinStash, a Colorado based genetics provider, and consultancy service for the cannabis industry.
Danny's career in cannabis started as a major turnaround point in his life, which up until that point was stuck in an upside down world of using opiates to try and manage the chronic stomach pain that he started experiencing after High School. Doctors couldn't really understand the problem and instead of treating the issue, they just masked the symptoms by prescribing ever increasing amounts of opiate pain killers. At one point, Danny explains that he was taking 3X the lethal dose of fentanyl, but his tolerance to that drug left him feeling like he was a productive member of society.
In 2009 his Dad suggested that he obtain a medical marijuana recommendation as a treatment option to deal with his condition. He was reluctant to try, but after the urging by a friend, he purchased some flower from a local dispensary and immediately felt relief.
This started him down the path of learning about the cultivation of cannabis where he worked for a local hydroponic equipment retailer, working for a cannabis cultivation operation, then taking that knowledge and launching AlpinStash in 2014, growing flower for the newly recreational market.
Eventually, Danny pivoted and took his knowledge and started providing consulting and genetics services. Through this, he was hired by SNDL, a large cannabis licenses producer in Canada, first as a consultant, and eventually as their Director of Production where he was in charge of a 400K sq ft growing operation. It was a large upshift from what he was used to, but he quickly learned the ropes there and increased their yields significantly, while implementing an IPM program that drastically cut their losses to disease and pests.
Danny has been a long-time user of Smart Pot containers and loves how they keep the roots from spiraling, where he notes in our conversation that Smart Pots help to produce more root "tips," which is where most of the nutrient uptake happens.
Danny, and his wife Kristen have a great relationship and have built a great legacy in cannabis.
For more information on Danny and obtaining his services, please go to alpinstash.com and for more information on Smart Pots, head to smartpots.com.
Please like and subscribe to our podcast for more great interviews coming up!
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In our latest installment of The Growing Revolution Smart PotCast, we spoke with Rebecca who goes by @happyheartgardens on social media. She is an enthusiastic backyard gardener who grew up on a dairy farm in northern Pennsylvania, but for the recent past has lived in Southern Alabama.
She's been gardening hard for the last 15 years or so and had to overcome a slight learning curve after moving down south with her husband. The heat, humidity and pressure from pests and disease presented a challenge but Rebecca learned how to adapt and overcome.
We discuss what she learned from having such a large change in gardening climate, and what kept her going, not giving up. One of her suggestions is to choose the right plant for your climate. Not all plants can do well in the South, and there isn't much point in growing them. Or, if you do, grow a variety that can handle the heat.
Rebecca has been a longtime user of Smart Pot containers and loves how easy they are to move, which helps to extend her growing season when frost threatens her sensitive plants. She is one of our influencers, and to get a 10% discount at http://smartpots.com/shop, enter the discount code "happyheartgardens" at checkout.
To learn more about Rebecca, check her out on Instagram: Rebecca 💚 Your New Garden Friend (@happyheartgardens) • Instagram photos and videos
Please subscribe to our channel, and like this episode. We've got more great interviews coming this season!
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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.
Please LIKE and SHARE this podcast, and subscribe for more great interviews coming in the near future!
For more information on Smart Pots and our parent company, High Caliper Growing: https://smartpots.com/ and https://treebag.com/
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
Please LIKE and share this episode with your friends, and subscribe to our podcast for more great episodes.
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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.
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In this episode of The Growing Revolution, we recorded live from the MANTS (Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show) expo in Baltimore, Maryland. We got to speak with Andy Mallory, VP of Vendor Operations for the Master Nursery Garden Center Group. Master Nursery is a buying co-op organization that links up their member retail store with manufacturers like Smart Pot, offering them exclusive products and manufacturer rebates for purchases made within the network. We have been with Master Nursery for over 4 years, and it has been a great way to introduce our products to their member dealers, increasing our sales and netting discounts for the members. We greatly appreciate the hard work of Andy and everyone with Master Nursery, and for him taking time out of the show to do a quick recording with us.
Please subscribe to our podcast for more great interviews with industry leaders like Andy. More episodes are coming weekly!
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This latest episode of The Growing Revolution, was a real treat to record. Our guest, Ryan Cook is a former Army Serviceman who enlisted at 17, served in 2 stints in Iraq before being medically discharged. He is born and raised in the mountains of West Virginia which is also where he currently resides.
Seeking a new passion after his service in the Army, he turned to homesteading, and especially gardening. His quest, was to become a state record holder in as many categories as possible. On his first season, he smashed a world record but then because of technicalities was not awarded his Guiness World Record Title.
This didn't deter the self described "Grumpy Old Vet", but only made his passion stronger. He has been forging partnerships with garden product companies like Smart Pot and others to make this dream a reality, and we support him 100%. His passion for God, Family and Country are pretty obvious and hopefully that rubs off on some of y'all who listen to this episode. His own channel can be found on YouTube by searching "Heavenly Hills Homestead" Definitely give him a follow.
We greatly appreciate Ryan for his service to his country, and now to the gardening community. This was a fun episode to record, and we hope that you enjoy listening!
More great episodes are coming weekly. Please subscribe so that you don't miss out.
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In the latest installment of The Growing Revolution, we sat down with Michael Fiore of Smith's Gardentown, which is the premier independent garden center of Wichita Falls, Texas.
Smith's Gardentown is a multi-generational family business and the torch is currently being passed from Michael's Mother to him. They focus a ton on classes and education, workshops and other ways to get potential customers in the door. Michael has been very prolific on social media platforms and if you aren't following them, you should. He's putting out new content continually, but if you are into plants, you will find yourself watching every one. He's super knowledgeable about plants, but he admitted to us that he does have a dedicated social media manager that helps him to plan, film and stay on schedule.
It's refreshing to see the next generation of garden center owners take the reigns and put their mark on their family businesses. After hearing this interview, you'll agree that Smith's Gardentown will be around for generations to come.
The video version of this interview can be found on the Smart Pots YouTube account. Please subscribe for more great interviews coming soon!
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We are back with Season 3 of The Growing Revolution and our guest is a huge fan of Smart Pot growing containers, Trevor Johnson, of Alldredge Gardens in Midland, Texas. Trevor is the lead grower for this nursery, which is an oasis of green, in West Texas.
Trevor has been with Alldredge Gardens for a while, but for a short stint, he was an employee of High Caliper Growing (Smart Pot) where he was working with tree nursery customers. He's a self described, "nurseryman at heart" and he got the itch to move out of sales and back into growing. Since returning to Alldredge, Trevor has incorporated using Smart Pot containers into growing a number of ornamental flowers, tropical plants and trees.
Alldredge Gardens is a family owned, Independent Garden Center, and a well known business in town. They have had a restaurant which has now transitioned into a cafe, events and such where local artisans and crafters sell their wares. Midland isn't a place that most people go to visit, unless you are in the oil industry, but if you are in the area, and love plants, check them out!
We appreciate Trevor's time, and support of Smart Pot products. We are looking forward to many more interviews with our friends of the industry. Please give us a follow and subscribe to be notified of new content.
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In this latest installment of The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Alex Luscombe who is one of the managers at Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter in Oviedo, Florida. Their nursery is one of the top 100 independent garden centers in the USA based on total sales, and it takes a small army of around 40 people to get the job done.
Alex explains how the town of Oviedo itself, was founded by Paul Lukas and his family in the early 1900's as Slovakian immigrants. Later, Lukas Nursery was started by the Lukas family members with Paul Jr as President. They have had steady growth as Oviedo has grown as a suburb of Orlando. In the 2000's, they added a 4000 sq ft butterfly encounter where they have many species of butterfly and the plants that they love to eat and reproduce on. After being inspired by their visit, guests can purchase the same plants and even starter butterfly cocoons to start their own pollinator space.
Besides being a destination for school groups and families for tours, Lukas Nursery also has a Fall Festival event where they bring in food trucks, vendors, activities and games for all. Come Christmas time, tree sales profits are donated to local charities, so the Lukas family knows all about spreading karma, and giving back to the community. Alex explains that one of the benefits of working at Lukas Nursery is the family atmosphere. Everyone feels like they are an extended part of the Lukas family, which is still family run to this day.
Oviedo is North East of Orlando and Lukas Nursery is happy to see everyone, and familys can visit anytime before 3:30pm to see the butterflies. Groups are required to book in advance and we recommend calling early. Their wait can be up to 6 months!
We greatly appreciate Alex for making the time to speak with us. Please subscribe to our podcast, as we have more great episodes coming in the future.
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In the latest installment of The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Charles Malki who is the founder of IV Organic, based in Southern California. He came onto our radar as we were browsing on Instagram and came across his page for IV Organic where he has a ton of information on trees, organic gardening and much more.
Like many of us, Charles had a love for plants from a young age, cultured by his mother and grandfather. His lifepath was leading him into medicine where he had an early interest in cardiology. He then decided to get his law degree and became a practicing attorney in Florida for around a decade. It was when he decided to move back to Southern California that he started IV Organic, and it's first product, the 3 in 1 Plant Guard, which is an organic substitute to the whitewashing that many tree growers will use to protect their trunks from disease, sunscald and pests.
Charles also is an author, and writes about how backyard gardening can save the world. His book provides easy to understand lessons on how to be more productive in the garden and live a healthier lifestyle.
IV Organic also has a couple of all purpose fertilizer products that focus on the six major macro elements needed for optimal plant health. Traditional ag fertilizers will only focus on NPK.
We greatly appreciate Charles joining us on the podcast, and for being a great advocate for the organic commercial grower, and homegrower.
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In this week's episode of The Growing Revolution- Smart PotCast, we got to speak with Paul Meehan of Natchez Tree Company of Lamar, Mississippi. Paul has become a great customer of our Root Control Bags for his tree farm, and we wanted to learn about his history, how he got into the business in the first place, and how he's using our products.
Paul's nursery has only been running for 4 years, but he's already been selling through his inventory, which is a great accomplishment for a first generation tree farmer. He originally went to school for marketing, but after a few years of being successful doing sales in NYC, he had a longing to start a tree farm (who doesn't?) and thus started a long road of research. Paul called upon dozens of tree farmers to pick their brain about how to set up a tree farm and if he should even bother in the first place. The general answer was yes, you can do it, but you have to be smart.
One of Paul's biggest mentors is Eric Hall, who was a previous guest on our podcast. Eric got him onto the Monarch Auger system, which works hand-in-glove with our Root Control Bags. With Eric's consulting knowledge, the Natchez Tree Co was started and it's been an adventure in farming trees ever since. Within the last year or so, Paul's trees have reached a harvesting size so now he gets to add selling trees to his daily chores besides keeping them growing and planting up new ones.
If you are considering the tree nursery business, listen to this podcast, and feel free to reach out to Paul, and us at High Caliper Growing/ Smart Pot.
Please Subscribe to our podcast for more great interviews to come!
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This is the conclusion of our interview with Michael Melendrez of Soil Secrets in Los Lunas New Mexico.
We discuss humic and fulvic acids, labeling laws and practices, comparing mycorrhizal products on the market, his nursery Trees That Please, and much more. It is pretty obvious from this interview that not only does Michael know what he's talking about, but that he is passionate about it, and he really cares about healing our Earth, and healing our bodies from the foods that we generally eat.
Our world needs more people like Michael who knows what is wrong with how we are doing things and is actively working to make a change. His interview was very informative and entertaining to conduct, so we hope that you enjoy listening to it.
Please like this podcast, and follow us for more great interviews to come.
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This week on The Growing Revolution- Smart PotCast, we speak with Michael Martin Melendrez, founder of Trees That Please, and Soil Secrets based in Los Lunas, NM. Michael is passionate about people, plants and especially, soil health. He grew up the son of a farmer, and his father taught him at an early age about the importance of soil health. His passion for plants and soil won him a state title through the 4H Organization for judging soil composition, defeating people much older than him. Seemingly always the underdog in athletics and academics, Michael still excelled through sheer determination. The stories about his academic career, and it being guided AWAY from agriculture, by his Horticulture professor, must be heard to be believed. His initial venture into business was to improve health and wellness, which then lead him to nutrition, and the vitamins and minerals (or lack thereof) that composed the average American’s diet. This shocking conclusion then redirected him back to soil health, microbiology, soil amendments and bio stimulants, starting his own tree nursery, founding an international oak tree organization, and so much more. This conversation with Michael actually went almost 2 hours, so this will be part one, of a two part episode. Part 2 is just as entertaining and informative. If you aren’t inspired to change how you look at fertilizers after this podcast, you weren’t listening. Please like this episode and subscribe for more great content coming in the future, including part 2 of Michael’s interview.
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On the latest episode of The Growing Revolution Smart PotCast, we spoke with Alex Burnett, founder of Canna Innovations. He is a manufacturing industry consultant who has been focusing lately on cannabis manufacturing and distribution. He has taken the skills that he learned as an Engineer and later through attaining his MBA from large Fortune 500 companies like Texas Instruments, to starting his own ventures.
With Canna Innovations, Alex has developed a few products for the industry. Cannoogle, is a resource for people to find the right cannabis growers, dispensaries in Oklahoma to either buy or sell products. He has also developed a harvest station and his latest product is the Trellis Trap, which is a patented product similar in size to a 5 gal bucket, but with features that allow cultivators to stuff around 200-250 feet of 4 or 5 foot trellis netting into. This keeps the grow room clean, makes harvesting easier and safer, and ultimately pays for itself if you deal with trellis at harvest time.
Alex has lots of good advice for cultivators and can be found at canna-innovations.com. It was a pleasure meeting with Alex again after initially meeting him last year at the MJBiz conference in Las Vegas. Please subscribe to our podcast and share with your gardening friends. We've got more great podcast interviews lined up in the near future!
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In our latest episode of The Growing Revolution Smart PotCast, we interviewed David Larsen with Circo Innovations. They developed the snap clamp for attaching plastic sheeting around pvc piping for tile cutters to work indoors. Shortly afterwards, many industries, especially the gardening and greenhouse industries realized the potential of the snap clamp, and eventually all of the other products that they've introduced over the years.
They are a small, family-run business based in Northern California, east of Sacramento. David talks about the many benefits of working in the family business and some of the potential issues to be navigated. Free childcare from Grandma is a major work benefit.
We also spoke about the other pvc related products that they've rolled out over the years, including some of their parts being used on a greenhouse kit designed for growing food on Mars! It was a pleasure learning more about how Circo's products are helping gardeners around the world. Please like and share our podcast, and subscribe for more episodes coming in the future.
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