The Growing Revolution - Smart PotCast

10 Episodes
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By: Smart Pot®

We will be featuring the people that we've met over the years to share their stories, grower knowledge and passion for growing plants. Also, we want to feature our Smart Pot retail dealers and wholesale distributors, who we've partnered with over the years. Episodes will be entertaining, informative and motivational. We want you to always grow your best plant possible. Listening to our "PotCast", you will hear from the leaders of the lawn and garden, as well as the cannabis industries, as they make up our largest customer segments. Our company origins are actually in the tree farming industry, and...

Episode 66: Ryan Cook- Heavenly Hills Homestead, Giant Veggie Grower, Homesteader
#66
Today at 4:00 PM

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...


Episode 65: Michael Fiore- Co Owner, Smith's Gardentown in Wichita Falls, Texas
#65
03/21/2024

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...


Episode 64: Trevor Johnson- Lead Nursery Grower, Alldredge Gardens of Midland, Texas
#64
03/14/2024

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...


Episode 63: Alex Luscombe- Lukas Nursery & Butterfly Encounter, Oviedo Florida
#63
08/10/2023

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...


Episode 62: Charles Malki- Founder of IV Organic, Author, Biologist, Attorney
#62
07/27/2023

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...


Episode 61: Paul Meehan- Tree Nursery Owner, Natchez Tree Co.
#61
07/20/2023

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...


Episode 60: Michael Melendrez- Soil Secrets, Trees That Please- Soil Health Expert, Part 2 of 2
#60
07/13/2023

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...


Episode 59: Michael Melendrez- Soil Secrets, Trees That Please- Soil Health Expert, Part 1 of 2
#59
07/10/2023

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...


Episode 58: Alex Burnett- Canna Innovations, inventor and cannabis industry efficiency consultant
#58
06/29/2023

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...


Episode 57: David Larsen- Circo Innovations PVC Fitting Manufacturer
#57
06/22/2023

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...