Ag Tech News

Paulding Ag Education program introduced new technology

The Paulding Agriculture Education program has 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.

The tower garden growing system uses an aeroponics system. Aeroponics is when the roots are suspended in the air while a nutrient water solution 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 been growing kale and lettuce, but various plants and vegetables can also be grown.

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 solution has to be tested to ensure that the pH level will be able to help the plants grow since different plants need different pH levels. The tower garden sprays the plants every 45 minutes with the nutrient solution.

Since the tower garden is inside the school, it came with grow lights. The grow lights act as a sun for the plants. The grow lights stay on for 15 minutes and then go off for 15 minutes. It follows this cycle continuously.

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 excited 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. Source: https://progressnewspaper.org/