Pictured here left to R: Greenhouse class students Kylie Lane, Shannon Hale, Ashley Bulka, Kaylie Tressler and Excectuive Direct of Paulding Area Foundation Lisa McClure with the Tower Garden.
The Paulding Agriculture Education Program had introduced a new technology to its program. The past month the Paulding greenhouse class has been learning about different growing methods besides traditional soil growing media. The Tower Garden growing system uses aeroponics growing system. Aeroponics is when the roots are suspended in air with a nutrient water solution that showers the roots. Aeroponics is a good way for cities that do not have much outdoor space to grow plants. The greenhouse has been assembling, planting, and harvesting vegetables from their Tower Garden. The Paulding FFA has grown kale and lettuce in their tower garden, but various plants and vegetables can be grown in the Tower Garden. At the bottom of the Tower Garden is reservoir that contains a nutrient solution. This solution contains all of the nutrients that a plant would need to thrive. The nutrient solution in the reservoir has to be tested to ensure that the pH level of the solution will be able to help the plants that are being grown since different plants need different pH levels. The tower garden sprays the plants every 45 minutes. Since the Tower Garden is inside, it came with grow lights. The grow lights act as a “sun” for the plants. The grow lights have a constant pattern of being on for 15 minutes and being off for 15 minutes. The Tower Garden was donated to the Paulding FFA Greenhouse class through a grant from the Paulding County Area Foundation. To show how thankful the greenhouse class was for the donation, they made a formal presentation to the executive director Lisa McClure. After the presentation, the greenhouse class was able to try their produce for the first time by having a healthy salad during class. The Paulding FFA greenhouse class is ecstatic to choose what will be grown next in their Tower Garden. This project is a great way to give students a hands-on learning experience using technology in the class room. Thank you again Paulding Area Foundation.
