GB 117 TRANSCRIPT Smart Pots. The Asian Lotus Flower
29:54
SPEAKERS
Jeff Arnold, Warren Roberts, Farmer Fred
Farmer Fred 00:00
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.
Farmer Fred 00:20
Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, well, you've come to the right spot.
Farmer Fred 00:33
Today we find out more details about using a certain fabric plant container for your garden. Well of course, it's Smart Pots, which is no ordinary fabric container. Did you know they come in a wide variety of sizes, and they can stay much cooler in the summer heat versus other plant containers? And we'll find out why Smart Pots are perfect for the organic gardener. The Plant of the Week: It's something a little different today. It's a water plant, the beautiful and fragrant Chinese Lotus. It's all on Episode 117 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery, and we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.
Farmer Fred 01:17
We like to answer your questions here on the garden basics podcast. David sends us an email and Dave has a lot of questions about Smart Pots. He says: "How about a Smart Pot episode? How big of a Smart Pot do I need for tomatoes? For carrots for watermelon? For lettuce for blueberries for flowers? Are bulbs possible? What soil can I put in it? Where do I put the pots? Can I sit them on bark on concrete on dirt on bricks? My raised beds have lots of tree roots. Can I set the Smart Pots on top of these beds? Can I dig them into the beds? Do I use stakes? Do I use cages? Can I puncture them for stakes or cages? What's the best way to water them? Is it too late to start a Smart Pot garden right now? What about fall vegetables? If I put blueberries in a Smart Pot? How long can they stay in the pot? Do I need to repot them each year? Each decade? I just have a couple of thoughts, Dave".
Farmer Fred 02:10
Dave, you may want to switch to decaffeinated coffee. Anybody who's listened to us for any length of time know that we are big fans of Smart Pots. And Smart Pots is a fabric plant container that is superior to all the others. I've been a fan of theirs for going on six years now. I still have my original Smart Pots and still use them. And so, Dave's got a lot of questions that I think I'd rather throw into the lap of the people at Smart Pots. So let's talk with Jeff Arnold from Smart Pots. And Jeff, Dave has a lot of questions. But I would imagine these are questions that you get every day.
Jeff Arnold 02:48
Fred, it's crazy. But yeah, Dave, I thank you for all the questions and we have our info, email address up on our website. And we've received dozens of questions like this daily, if not hourly. We can help you answer all these questions, either here or you can email us or you can call us. The one great thing about Smart Pots, we're a locally owned company. We're here in the US. Everything's manufactured in Oklahoma City. We have a facility which is where I'm located right now, that employs almost 200 people and every single Smart Pot is made right here in the good old USA. So we can help you with all these questions and take care of Dave's issues.
Farmer Fred 03:35
Well, I guess the easy answer would be, if you go to SmartPots.com , you can probably find all the answers you need to those questions on the FAQ page.
Jeff Arnold 03:44
This is correct. And if the answer is not there, there's an email address. There's a phone number, you're welcome to call us. You're welcome to email us and you know we typically are pretty good about it. We'll get back to somebody usually within 24 hours with any questions or answers to any questions, whether it's by phone or by email.
Farmer Fred 04:03
So one of the questions I would like to answer on this missive from Dave, he asks, Is it too late to start a Smart Pod garden right now? Dave, it is never too late to start a garden, my heavens. And actually, in my experience with Smart Pots Jeff, I have found that they're great as emergency pots as the season goes on. For instance, a couple of days ago, I was pruning back a few tomato plants just to clear out the pathways and then I noticed that there was a pepper plant planted between two tomato plants and the tomatoes had gotten so big that the pepper plant wasn't getting enough sunlight. So I immediately dug out that pepper plant and put it into an extra Smart Pot I had with some good potting soil and put it into a full sun location. So, it's always a good idea to keep some Smart Pots around for emergencies just like that. And I am sure that in your experience, Jeff you're finding that people are planying just about everything in Smart Pots.
Jeff Arnold 05:01
You Fred, we hear from them on a daily basis. It's anything from tomato plants, to orchids to bonzai, peppers, trees. You know, the one nice thing about a Smart Pot is you literally can plant anything. And when we were originally founded back in the early 80s, you know, the container was basically only used for trees. And that was its sole purpose. And it's evolved over the years and people do their gardens in them, I grow some bamboo or Japanese maples, I mean, you can do anything. A Smart Pot is designed to help a plant grow healthier, and it gets that root mass, stronger, healthier. So anything that you can grow in a hard-sided container or in the ground, you can grow in a Smart Pot.
Farmer Fred 05:50
I am amazed at the strength of Smart Pots. Now these are fabric containers, so they breathe quite easily. And you would think after being in the garden year after year after year, if I went to move a Smart Pot with the plant and the soil, that it would just fall apart. It doesn't. It stays together. Even these Smart Pots that I've had for six years now, if I need to move it, I do not fear at all lifting that Smart Pot and moving it to wherever I need it. They are very sturdy.
Jeff Arnold 06:20
Extremely sturdy, and it's taken many years. We've been in this business for over 30 years. And the current owner of the company, his father was actually the individual that designed this technology working with a couple of universities here in Oklahoma and and developing the fabric and developing the the product. But over the years, we've obviously learned by our mistake. And you know, we've developed a product that's extremely durable, that's designed to hold up in the elements of everything from the fabric to the thread, put it through some pretty rigorous testing to make sure that it doesn't break down in the UV, it holds up in weather conditions, it's not affected by any environmental issues. So there's a lot of people think of it as just a fabric pot. You don't realize the energy that we put into making sure that that fabric pot is gonna last you for years, we're always looking to making sure our you know, our stitching on our seams is strong, the thread is good, every aspect of it, we double check, triple check and make sure when it leaves this plant that it's of the quality we expect for our products.
Farmer Fred 07:33
Anyone who has listened to the podcast for any length of time knows that I will get on a rant or two about containerized plants in the summertime and how the temperature of the soil on a 90 degree or 100 degree day can reach 140 degrees. And that's almost instant death for a plant in a container unless you're watering it maybe two or three times a day. With the Smart Pots, what's great, is that temperature is a lot less. And you even have a college study to back that up.
Jeff Arnold 08:04
We do. And we're actually in the process of working with a couple more universities in different parts of the country. But we do a lot of work with Florida State we have some professors down there that test our products. And yes, you know we're in the process of of a pretty good study, big study with them. Testing not only the temp, the soil temperatures, but the run offs. And, you know, something I'll kind of I'll tease your listeners with what we have found, and we're trying to do some more research on it and get some more data. When you do water with a Smart Pot, the water that does get expelled, that the plant doesn't use it but over watered or whatever. When the water is expelled, the fabric is actually almost acting as a mini filtration system. So when you're in areas of parts of the country like Florida, where they're really concerned about runoff, fertilizer runoff, and you're actually able to produce a product that will filter some of that fertilizer, the bulk of that fertilizer out when that water runs off. Pretty incredible because it's not going into your watersheds, and it's not, you know, polluting and causing problems in lakes, streams, the ocean. So yeah, one of the many things we do in the r&d side is work with these universities throughout the country and ask them to study the product. And you know, Florida has come up with a lot of information for us on how this test the temperature on these pots in some cases as much as 10 or 15 degrees cooler in the summertime, and it can be 10 to 15 degrees warmer in the spring. So it allows your plant to come to size quicker because it's a warmer temperature in the pot than what's in the ground. And then in the summertime, you're cooling that root structure. And one of my guys on my sales team actually referred us to the inside of the Smart Pot is like an evaporative cooler. You get in that air and light that's going through that part of that fabric and into that soil where the soil is moist, and it creates that cooling effect on the root structure. So there's a lot of technology. Again, it's not just a fabric pot, there's technology built into it to help that plant grow bigger or healthier. And for you, obviously to be more successful as a gardener.
Farmer Fred 10:24
One thing that people I'm sure have noticed when they grow plants in containers that if they set that container with a plant and soil on the ground, sometimes those plant roots will grow through the drain holes. And before you know it, there's water standing in that pot because the drain holes are clogged. How does a fabric planter like a Smart Pot, how does it avoid that problem?
Jeff Arnold 10:48
The fabric that we use is designed to do what they call air burning the plants and the root structure when you plant in a Smart Pot. And I always tell people if you go into the big box stores, they are notorious for stuff that's just overgrown. And they bring it to size quickly. If you pull your plant out of a hard sided container, you have those circling roots, that's not healthy for the plant that can strangle the plant. It causes a lot of issues and it's not going to allow you to have a real successful grow. When you put a plant in a Smart Pot, the roots go to the sidewalls or to the bottom and they will actually the very tip, the microscopic tips of the plants can penetrate that fabric. When the fabric works in connection with the light and the sun and the heat, it'll actually burn that tip and force that tip back inside of that fabric and you're going to create more feeder roots. So rather than one or two dominant circling roots, you're creating as I always like to say, a Santa Claus beard of roots. There's a lot of fine white roots that are going to help the uptake of the plant, help the nutrients, help the water being brought in and makes the plant more efficient. So that's how the fabric really works. It just keeps those roots in there. And it keeps that plant happy and it keeps those plants, those roots producing and then they're getting light, air, water. So it makes a much healthier plant than if you have a hard-sided container. Or they're just looking for an escape route. Those roots are just trying to, like you said, they're trying to find a way out and they will go through the drain holes. We've all seen plants that have an aggressive root structure that can actually split the side of a plastic container. I mean that's very common, and bamboos or things like that but you just don't have that happen with the fabric pot because those that fabric pot actually root prunes those plants and keeps them contained.
Farmer Fred 12:51
But that Santa Claus beard effect of roots along the bottom. That does not impede drainage, though, correct?
Jeff Arnold 12:57
No, absolutely not. The whole container is actually designed to expel water that the plants not going to use. You're never sitting in water, soil is never mushy because the way the fabric is designed to allow that air in to allow the water that the plant doesn't need out and the plant the water can go out the sides can go out the bottom and like I said, you're constantly getting that airflow through there. So it's keeping everything healthy and happy.
Farmer Fred 13:27
And as you mentioned, you can grow just about anything in a Smart Pot. What's the range of sizes of Smart Pots?
Jeff Arnold 13:33
We manufacture everything from one gallon size to thousand gallon sizes and 1000 gallons are like small condos. They're huge. And pretty much everything in between. And we also do fabric raised beds that are rectangular. We just came out with a new product this last year called the urban raised planter, and what those are is they're a planter that you build a PVC frame around and you can actually trellis and do a number of different things with them and those come in three different sizes. The great thing about a Smart Pot, though, Fred, is that if I have a customer that has a specific need, I will custom make anything, any size, as long as it's feasible. As long as we know we can engineer it and build it and create it, so we have customers all over the world that have specific needs for their greenhouses, they have specific needs for their tree farms. Even specific needs for their home gardens. And they call us and say hey can you manufacture something that size? Great thing about us is it doesn't really matter. We can do one if you had a custom size you want us to do, we can do one of them, or we can do 10,000. We're not a factory that puts a restriction on it. The size and the shape are limitless, really, with what you can do with these with these containers.
Farmer Fred 14:56
And we should point out, too, they come in decorator colors.
Jeff Arnold 15:00
We do. We just created and then and introduced last year, part of our line called vivid colors. And we have a bright orange, a bright purple, blue. We also our standard colors and our line or a forest green, a natural, which is kind of a tan beige, it has some black fiber infused in it. And then our, of course, our tried and true, which is the black container. And one thing I do want to tell everybody is every one of our containers are UV protected. So they're going to last in the sun, our thread is UV protected, and it's also a marine type thread that is impervious to salt. And you know, it won't breakdown and then the big thing for me is, you know, we use zero chemicals. Our fabric is all what I call a virgin fabric, we don't use any recycled material in it. So when you're growing organically, there's never a chance of stuff, a heavy metal or a chemical transferring to your plant that would be in the container. So if you're using organic soil, and you're using organic fertilizers and you want to make sure you're having a true organic experience, Smart Pot is going to give you that and we have data to back that claim up. We have MSDS sheets to show we have zero heavy metals and zero chemicals in our product.
Farmer Fred 16:20
And what is the best way to care for a Smart Pot during the offseason? Let's say you grow your summer vegetable garden in Smart Pots and you decide you don't want a fall garden, for whatever bad reason you have for not wanting to fall garden. So you empty the Smart Pot. How do you clean it? How do you care for it? Where do you store it?
Jeff Arnold 16:38
The best thing to do with Smart Pots is have a tub of like some warm water and you can either use vinegar or you can use oxy clean and just rinse them out really well kind of swish them around, give them a hand wash in the tub, and then hang them up and allow them to dry thoroughly. Fold them up and put them on the shelf in your garage and they're ready to go next year. If you do choose to leave them out over the winter, which I'm the guy that does that, I just pull my plants out and I leave it then and I'll revitalize my soil next year, they're fine. They're not going to be affected by the winter, you know, even the coldest of weather is not going to affect the fabric.
Farmer Fred 17:20
Now certainly you can order Smart Pots online from Amazon and other online locations. But also they're available at something like, what, 2000 retailers across the US?
Jeff Arnold 17:32
Yes, actually, it's about 3000 retailers across throughout the world, you can go onto our website and put in your zip code. And we'll tell you what retailers in your area carry our product. We're also have Smartpots dor com that you can go on and there's a portal on there where you can order them. My office overlooks the loading docks, and I've got some containers down there right now that are being loaded and heading to Saudi Arabia of all places where we have a huge presence in Kuwait, Dubai. So yeah, we're all over the world. If we're not in a location, I always tell customers go in and tell them you want to buy Smart Pots. In most cases, retailers will give us a call and see how they can purchase them and bring them in. If we're not in your local garden center, ask them for us and you know, hopefully they'll give us a call.
Farmer Fred 18:22
As well as Ace Hardware and True Value stores.
Jeff Arnold 18:25
Ace Hardware, True Value, also Tractor Supply nationwide. Do It Best. We're well represented out there and most local garden centers and most areas carry our product or have access to our product.
Farmer Fred 18:41
They range from one gallon to 1000 gallons, custom size pots, handles no handles, wall flower pots, compost sacks, transplants, big bag, bed, raised bed gardens and a lot more. It's Smart Pots, visit them online, smartpots.com. I appreciate the fact that they are one of our sponsors here on the Garden Basics podcast. It's a quality product and like I say in the ad, they click all the boxes I look for when searching for advertisers. It's a product I like, it's a product I use, it's a product I would buy again, and Smart Pots fills the bill in all situations like that. Jeff Arnold's with Smart Pots. Jeff, thanks for telling us about Smart Pots.
Jeff Arnold 19:23
Fred, thank you for having me. And as I said earlier, I've enjoyed listening to you for many, many years. So it's a pleasure being on your show.
Farmer Fred 19:32
Are you thinking of growing fruit trees? Well, you probably have a million questions. Like, which fruit trees will grow where I live? What are the tastiest fruits? How do I care for these trees? The answers are nearby. They're just a click away with the informative Fruit Tube video series at DaveWilson.com. That's Dave Wilson nursery, the nation's largest grower of fruit trees for the backyard garden. They've got planting tips, taste test results, links to nurseries in your area that carry Dave Wilson fruit trees. Your harvest to better health begins at DaveWilson.com.
Farmer Fred 20:09
We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast, and we want to hear your voice too. So please leave an audio question. And you can do that without making a phone call. Do it via speakpipe, at speakpipe.com slash garden basics. It's easy, give it a try. You can call and leave a question via the telephone, as well, at 916-292-8964. 916-292-8964. And you can also use that number to text us questions, maybe a picture of the problematic plant. So here's a little incentive to either leave a voice message at speakpipe.com slash gardenbasics, or call and leave a question at 916-292-8964. If we use your audio question on any episode, during the month of July, you will get, courtesy of the great folks at Smart Pots, a free, Smart Pots six foot long raised bed fabric planter, also known as the Smart Pot long bed. It's rectangular in shape. It has built in partitions, 16 inches wide, 16 inches tall, six feet long. It holds over 10 and a half cubic feet of soil. So again, call us with your garden question, 916-292-8964. Or, go to Speakpipe.com slash gardenbasics. That's one word, GardenBasics. And you can record your question there online. And if we use your question during the month of July on the Garden Basics podcast, you're getting a free Smart Pot raised bed planter. By the way, be sure to tell us in your message where you live so we can get a better answer to your garden question. Because, as I'm very fond of saying, all gardening is local. So come on, join the garden fun here on the Garden Basics podcast.
Farmer Fred 21:45
Here on the garden basics podcast, we like to bring in the superintendent emeritus of the UC Davis Arboretum and public garden, Warren Roberts, with the plant of the week. And we've got a real floater for you today. This is a water plant that can grow just about any place in the country. And it's a very special Lotus. And Warren, tell us about it.
Warren Roberts 21:56
Well, this is a plant that looks kind of like a water lily, but it's not related to them at all. And it's called the Lotus. This is the Lotus that is a famous in the Buddhist religion and also has grown widely in in China, Japan, Korea and other places like that. Well, Thailand too. it is in bloom now at least right timed out the end of June, first part of July, and blooms on through this summer. The flowers are about the size of an American softball, they're big, and the petals are beautifully oval shaped in a wonderful composition with a golden stamens in the middle in a very interesting, a very interesting, okay, center of a stigma and the plant, the part that's going to produce the seed is an upside down cone with a sort of flat surface with little dots all over it. And that's where the seeds are produced. The flowers and leaves are held above the water. So unlike a water lily, where the flowers and the leaves are floating on the water, these are held up above the above the water and usually three or four feet above the water. In fact, we have in California a number of ponds where they're they're spectacular right now. Just two days ago I saw them at William Land park in Sacramento. And I visited actually with the person who planted it. Daisy Mah, who is a native of Sacramento County, and she planted the plant in a planter but it escaped and it took over the whole pond. But there were about 100 people there enjoying the Lotus, taking pictures, taking pictures of themselves with the flowers. And I remember that wonderful experience in Thailand of visiting friends, members of the royal family actually, and we went to a ceremony where you hold a lotus blossom in one hand and you make a clockwise to soft clockwise circle rotation of the temple. Then you go inside and hear the monks doing the chanting. But the lotus flower, the idea there is you have this perfection. This was a gorgeous flower and it has its roots in the mud. Out of the mud comes this gorgeous beauty. It dies down in the winter. It comes back the next spring and the seeds can last more than 1000 years in dried mud. In palace gardens that have been abandoned, they found some seed and grew them. I remember that was in the 1950s. I was a kid, and there was an article in Life magazine. Way back when. Another good thing about the plant is the seeds, mature seeds are edible. "Nucifera" means it's something that bears nuts and the seeds are starchy, kind of like chestnuts, I guess. And they're often cooked in soups and spinach for special ceremonies. And then the roots, which are, if you slice them, they have a cross section. They have holes in it kind of like a Swiss cheese of vegetables. And these can be sliced and cooked and then served with usually in a savory condition with soy sauce, toasted sesame sauce, maybe chili pepper, oil, and sesame seeds. That's one of my favorite snacks really, and they're beautiful. They're about two inches across. And circular with these elegantly spaced holes.
Farmer Fred 25:51
My mouth is burning.
Warren Roberts 25:54
Yes, it is really delicious. If a restaurant has it. Often, Japanese restaurants do. It is a real treat. So it's not only beautiful to the eyes, but also pleasing to the palate. And there is an American species, a North American species, Nelumbo Ludia, which is native to the Southeast US, and it's a much smaller plant. And the flowers are a pale yellow, very beautiful. I think there are hybrids between the two now.
Farmer Fred 26:23
Did you mention that this plant is a show for the nose?
Warren Roberts 26:27
It has a nice fragrance too. Yeah, my 80 year old nose, the ability to enjoy and notes fragrances has been compromised. But I did ask my friends the other day if there was a fragrance, and they smelled them. Their eyes opened, brightened, they had smiles and said, yes it has a nice fragrance. And the flowers colors of the Nelumbo nucifera, the Lotus, ranges all the way from almost pure white to almost red, magenta red and in between?
Farmer Fred 27:08
If people don't have a pond, how can they grow this plant?
Warren Roberts 27:12
I think if you could if you're in wine country, or you can get a hold of a wine barrel and bury it and keep it wet or put some, I think, you put some mud in it or soil and then fill it about halfway with water, plant you're Nelumbo. I think it would work out for you. But every I suppose two or three years, you'd have to excavate the whole thing, divide and plant back. Otherwise it would crowd itself out. The leaves are just magnificent. They are kind of like nasturtium leaves, but much bigger. The whole ensemble is really, really stunning and worth it. You'd want to have it in full sun though, I think.
Farmer Fred 27:55
The nelumbo nucifera, also known as the Indian or Chinese Lotus, as you mentioned those leaves and flowers can get, what, three to six feet above the surface of the water?
Warren Roberts 28:07
Yes they can. Oh, another use is the leaves. In China, kind of a burrito or tamale is made with rice and cooked meat or other savory substances and then wrapped and steamed. So there's another use.
Farmer Fred 28:26
There you go. Something that in my Polish heritage, it would be cabbage leaves.
Warren Roberts 28:30
Yes, it would. And you would be able to eat the cabbage leaves. Yes. But nelumbo, the lotus leaves, no, but it is kind of like the corn husks on a tamale.
Farmer Fred 28:40
It's the Lotus. you can grow one. And it's again the botanical name is Nelumbo nucifera, the Indian or Chinese Lotus. So we got a little wet with Warren today. On the Plant of the Week, the Lotus. Warren Roberts of the UC Davis Arboretum and public garden. Find out more about the Arboretum. visit them online at Arboretum.ucdavis.edu. And if you're going to be traveling to California, get on up to Davis and and take a stroll. Warren Roberts, always a pleasure. Thanks for the Plant of the Week.
Warren Roberts 29:23
You're welcome. My pleasure.
Farmer Fred 29:30
Garden Basics comes out every Tuesday and Friday. It's brought to you by Smart Pots. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. And that includes Apple, Iheart, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, Google, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, and Pocket Casts. Thank you for listening, subscribing and leaving comments. We appreciate it.
