Walt Disney World’s EPCOT is divided into four major sections, one of which is called The Land. This is a huge building that houses a restaurant, and at least three rides: Soarin’ (the real name should be Soarin’ Over California, which is where it goes and which is the name of the same ride at California Adventure), Circle of Life, and Living with the Land.
This last one consists of a boat ride through some different simulated climate zones with accompanying narration and lighting. Then we are taken into EPCOT’s greenhouses which hold quite a number of plants of different varieties. It is a fascinating ride through agronomy’s world. Towards the end of the ride, the Behind the Seeds Tour is mentioned as a closer look into what goes on in the greenhouses.
For an extra $11 or so, a small group of people (there were seven in our group) is shown around the greenhouse by a guide. Our guide was Matt, a friendly and knowledgeable student who was very enthusiastic about his job and eating the food that is grown there.
The tour starts off with the Center’s work on organic pest removal (infesting leaf-destroying insects with a wasp egg that eats the leaf-eating insects; and raising ladybugs). Then they move on to how they raise plants from seeds (no sunlight is needed because they add a form of sugar to the plants diet.
The first two greenhouses hold the plants grown by hydroponics.
All the plants here are grown without the use of soils—-just water and nutrients. There are flowers and lettuce and others that can benefit from such techniques. We all got a sample of a cucumber grown this way, and it was sweet and delicious!
The next greenhouse uses soil like one would expect, but there was a twist with some of the plants. Some of the plants are actually vines but grown as trees. Here you can see a tomato vine that has been propped up with trellises and works like a tomato tree.
Another version of this “tomato tree” holds the Guinness record for number (more than 32,000!) and weight of the crop (more than 522kg.!)
When we were back in the pest control room, three members of the tour were given vials of cold ladybugs. When we got to the section with the tomatoes and eggplants, those members were asked to deploy their ladybugs.
The critters had plenty of time to warm up, but they were not necessarily ready to get out. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get some out of there.
As we were taking the tour through the greenhouses, the ride was taking people past us. The ride provides some perspective on how big some of the crops are.
Were we told some of the crops are used for the effect they have on the attraction. This is true of the pumpkins shown here. This variety is often used for entering into contests.
The next section is where aquatic life is raised.
There are tilapia, sturgeon, shrimp, alligators, and a few others. Sorry about the lighting; there must be a UV light used to cut down on the bacteria. I didn’t notice until I uploaded the photos in my computer, so I couldn’t ask about it.
The last section of the tour went through the tropical section of the greenhouse.
There are a bunch of different fruits and spices grown in this section. How many can you identify?
You are probably wondering (as I was) what the purpose of such a place is at a Disney park. We learned there are three (in this order):
show (remember that it’s a ride/attraction)
food (yep, they serve a lot of the food in the restaurants at EPCOT)
research (there’s a team working on improving their techniques)
The tour was well over an hour and worth every cent. Highly recommended.
