Episoder
-
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.
-
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.
-
Mangler du episoder?
-
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!
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
This week, we spoke with Bart Eller, founder of Paonia Soil Company. They have been making growing mediums and soil amendments since 2012 in Paonia, CO, which is on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Bart is a serial entrepreneur, but hopefully Paonia Soil Co is the last company that Bart starts up. In this interview he speaks about his background prior to Paonia Soil and the family upbringing that brought him to try and save the world, one farm at a time. They have a unique process of creating their "super soil" which makes it have an abundance of biodiversity of beneficial bacteria and fungi. Their process is especially beneficial for preserving beneficial fungi that otherwise dies off in other production processes.
Bart is also a large fan of Smart Pot containers and raised beds, and has had many custom Smart Pot raised beds designed for his own, and his customer's needs. Besides being sensitive to the needs of Mother Earth, Bart is a fun laid back guy and tries to inject humor into his company, and their products at all times.
This was a really fun interview to do, and Bart is exactly the type of person that we love to interview. If more people had his outlook on business, agriculture and life in general, this world would be a much better place. We greatly appreciate his support over the years and his sparing of time to join us for the podcast interview.
-
This week on The Growing Revolution, we interviewed Maygan Clark. She is based in the Cincinatti Ohio area, and is a passionate gardener, beekeeper and small business advocate. Her main job is in advising businesses on workplace safety training but when she isn't doing that, she is in her own garden, consulting with others on building and maintaining their own gardens and apiaries (bee house) and building The Growmunity, which is a local networking group for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
For being in her 20's, she's done more than some people do in a lifetime. We've loved seeing her gardening posts over the last few years, as she is a huge fan of Cali Kim, and Smart Pots, and it was really enjoyable to get to know her more and learn how she's building up the karma points for herself and those who she's networking with. We greatly appreciate Maygan taking some time from her busy schedule to speak with us.
More great interviews are coming! Please subscribe to our podcast and share with your friends who love hearing inspiring stories.
-
This week on The Growing Revolution Smart PotCast, we spoke with Jahasiel Torres, Manager of Orange County Farm Supply, in Orange CA. They have been serving the City of Orange and the surrounding communities for 75 years, and JT has been the manager for the last 10. They are currently owned by the Roy family and it is truly a family business with many of them occupying various positions in the company over the years.
The focus of their garden center has always been on customer service and being knowledgeable about the products that they sell, so their customers have great success and come back for more. They also have occasional events where they will bring in some of the vendors that they carry to further educate their customers. Jahasiel had an interesting path to becoming store manager, and it's inspiring to hear that hard work, ultimately pays off. His wife, Cindy, is with their three daughters pretty much full time, but she has also become a huge gardener, and Smart Pot fan. She's done a great job at incorporating her kids into gardening, passing on the knowledge and cultivating their passion for plants.
Please like this episode and share with your friends. We've got more passionate gardening guests coming in future interviews. Stay tuned!
-
This week on The Growing Revolution we spoke with Valin Bodie of Environmental Soil Solutions. He is a trained Soil Scientist with a degree from Oral Roberts University. His passion for agriculture comes from his family upbringing in the Bahamas where he was taught the importance of regenerative gardening.
He talks about his educational and professional journeys in the world of soccer, where he played against national teams from USA, Brazil and more. His professional journey in agriculture had him starting out working for someone else until they got mad at him for doing research and trying to come up with a better soil product. This was the push that he needed to start up his own company, Environmental Soil Solutions where he will do testing, analysis and sourcing of amendments and soil mediums for customers in Oklahoma and beyond.
Valin is a very down to earth guy, and we need more folks with his mindset in the agricultural industry. Please like this episode and subscribe to our podcast for more great interviews.
-
In this week's installment of The Growing Revolution, we got to sit down with Kris Whitten, AKA, Horti Kris. He is a longtime veteran of the hydroponic industry since it's early inception.
His road began shortly after leaving Virginia, where he landed in Huntington Beach, California, and thus began his journey with growing cannabis. Besides being a grower, Kris is an inventor having come up with the first FlipBox on the market for running multiple rooms off of the same ballasts. Later, he solved the problem of dust and contaminants from air-cooled lighting systems with the DustShroom. His story of how those two products came about is entertaining and inspirational.
He also talks about how the Heavy T Grow Show came about, his role on the show and some great stories from the glory days of the hydroponics industry.
This was a very entertaining episode to record, so we hope that you all enjoy watching.
-
In this week's episode of The Growing Revolution, we welcome back gardening influencer, author, and Smart Pot super fan, CaliKim. We talked about her recommendations on how to easily set up a super productive backyard garden, even for folks who don't have huge yards. CaliKim's yard seems much larger than it actually is, because she has maximized space, especially growing vertically.
We cover topics such as garden placement, what to plant, when to plant, and more!
We always appreciate Kim's gardening knowledge and for her making the time to join us again on the podcast.
Please like this episode and subscribe to our channel for more great podcasts.
-
This week our guest is Brandon Rust, who is a cannabis agronomist and consultant, as well as owner of Bokashi Earthworks. He sells organic biostimulants and microbial inoculants to improve soil health and quality.
We talked about his background growing up in the San Diego area, his move to Oklahoma, his passion for organic chemistry and so much more.
Brandon also touches on the recent adult use initiative for Oklahoma, why it failed, and why that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
We have worked quite a bit with him lately in supplying his customers with Smart Pot raised beds and sleeves (bottomless pots).
Please like this episode, and subscribe to our channel for more great interviews.
- Se mer
