The Growing Revolution - Smart PotCast

Milan Turner's passion for gardening was sparked by the covid lockdowns, and the unavailability of fresh produce forced him to look at how he procured his food. It started with one plant, and then a little bit of success snowballed to where now he has a new large backyard, loaded with plants. We also chat about what a "food desert" is, and what the city of Atlanta has been doing to rectify that is...

We always love seeing Devon Langford, who is one of the Distributor Reps for Hawthorne Gardening Co, and we were honored to have him on episode 25 of The Growing Revolution. Devon got his start in the hydro world as a worker at Growers Choice Hydroponics, then worked as a rep for General Hydroponics. Before that, he was working as a trained chef for various establishments in the CA Bay Area. His t...

Episode 24 of The Growing Revolution was an entertaining one! We spoke with Jeff, who goes by @sfcgrown on Instagram. He's been a home grower for 15 years and has also worked his way up working in the legal cannabis industry. He passion for the plant is obvious. It's his full time job, then he goes home to tend to his personal plants. He has won, or placed in multiple categories in The Grow Off co...

Episode 23 of The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Kristin and Mike Weeks of Fifth Season Gardening in Asheville, North Carolina. Ryan Blankenship manages their Greensboro location and has his own YouTube channel, Growing With The Beard. Fifth Season has been around for over 20 years, and besides indoor gardening supplies (including Smart Pot products), they also sell other "urban DIY supplies" a...

Nicolas Boucher, @project.compendium.du.piment on Instagram, is a hot pepper grower who's been putting out beautiful macro and micro shots of his hot peppers as well as fun videos. He's a fan of growing in Smart Pot planters (especially the new Vivid Color collection) so we wanted to get him on to talk about his journey from first getting into hot peppers as a child, to growing his own, indoors an...

In the conclusion of our conversation with Bill Graham, we discuss the dreaded hop latent viroid, tissue culture in Columbia, Bill's interactions with Smart Pot President, Kurt Reiger and much more. If you haven't listened to the first part of our interview with Bill, you really should go back and listen to it. This interview was so good, and went so long that we had to break it into a 2 part feat...

This week on The Growing Revolution, we chatted with Bill Graham, who is the President of Microclone, where he sells products for growers of any scale to do tissue culture propagation. There are many benefits to this method versus mother plants, though not for everyone, pretty much anyone CAN do it, as Bill explains. Bill grew up in Florida and was a fan of growing plants at any early age. His tal...

We are very excited for this week's episode of The Growing Revolution, where we spoke with Dale and Carrie Spoonemore, who started chronicling their journey to health and wellbeing through starting a massive backyard garden from scratch about 6 years ago. Dale had been a longtime suffer from anxiety and depression, but Carrie helped to actually diagnose the condition. They read a book that advocat...

Harley Smith is a hydroponics industry veteran based in Lansing, Michigan. He is currently the Chief Science Officer at Total Health Cultivation/ Light Sky Farms. Prior to that he was with Hydro Dynamics International where he helped to formulate their Mother Plant nutrient product. He also was with NPK-Industries where he helped to educate users on the basics of plant science and how to "spoon fe...

In this week's episode, we speak with Rick Stone, of ourstoneyacres.com Rick is a passionate gardener who has been at it for over 25 years. He has participated in the Master Gardener program through Utah State University, and has been teaching his own gardening classes online for years. He is almost up to 100K YouTube subscribers on his, "Our Stoney Acres" channel, where he has a TON of videos on...

We are very excited for this episode of The Growing Revolution, where we are joined by Nate Lipton, founder of GrowersHouse, which is a Tucson based hydroponics dealer with a huge online presence. After founding GH, he started Growers Network, which is a website dedicated to cannabis grower education and networking. Together with Nick Morin, he is the host of Cannacribs, the best series on YouTube...

In this week's episode, we interview Gerrik Latta, who's been deep into the cannabis growing scene in Oregon since 1992, through today. He's seen a lot in 30 years with the plant and we had a great conversation. We talked about plant disease (hop latent viroid) and other challenges that growers face. We also discussed how his parents have gotten involved in his business and helped to be advocates...

We chatted this week with Ben Owens, who is the founder of Cannaventure, which hosts events, hikes and campouts for cannabis consumers. He is also a published author with two books under his belt with a third on the way. His story is pretty compelling and it shows how, if you want to be in the cannabis industry, just dive in and see where the plant takes you. Don't forget to subscribe for more con...

In this week's episode, we speak with CaliKim, of CaliKim Garden & Home. Kim has been making gardening tutorial videos for 10 years now on YouTube and has a very large following on Instagram and Facebook as well. Growing up, she learned the basics of gardening as one of ten siblings. She was recruited to help with garden work, especially at harvest time. Fast forward to today, and her video tu...

This week, we interviewed Author, and Branding Expert, David Paleschuck. He is the author of Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis. His knowledge of branding and marketing is great for newbies to cannabis, and veteran growers as well. As cannabis goes from black market, to a commodity, how do companies position their products for the most success? The main answer: grow good flowers, and...

This week, we got to speak with Misilla dela Llana, who is the host of Learn To Grow, primarily on Instagram and YouTube. She is originally from the Philippines but has been living in the States since she was 10. Her passions are gardening/ homesteading and crafting, besides having a full time job as a homeschooling mother. Her videos and tutorials help to make things simple for growers, but she a...

We spoke recently with Alzainah about her journey in becoming a huge gardening/ cooking influencer in Kuwait, and the Middle East in general. For Alzainah, gardening didn't become a passion until she was in college, but that's common for many people. Before Alzainah began her advocacy for gardening, it was not looked upon as a viable hobby in the Middle East. Most folks there assumed that gardenin...

In episode 9, we get to meet Mike Jernigan, who owns Peninsula Hydroponics along with his wife, April. They are based in Hampton Virginia, which is on the coast. Virginia recently went from 0 to 60 with their cannabis laws. Residents over 21 are able to grow 4 plants on their property and commercial dispensaries are not allowed initially. This will give smaller growers a chance to dip their toes i...

We've known Dustin "Dusty" Fraser for a long time. He was the first person to use and then market Smart Pot planters into the cannabis industry. Dustin started his growing career in Covelo, California where he was running an organic farm, selling Smart Pots, Green Cleaner and his own seeds via High Country Genetics. He has been growing cannabis for almost 30 years, and is a wealth of knowledge abo...

In our latest episode, we get to chat with The Naked Grower, who is a cannabis industry consultant based in Oklahoma (our home state). We talk about her background, and the route that she took to get into the industry. She came onto our radar via Instagram (@thenakedgrower) where she takes beautifully staged photos featuring Smart Pots. We quickly became a fan and had to meet her. She is a great r...

In episode 7, we get to meet Christian Klinger who is a prime example of how one can have a "traditional career" while being in the cannabis industry. 10 years ago, most Americans growing cannabis, depending on what state you resided in, were in the gray area of the law. While it is still prohibited federally, many states have a recreational or medical cannabis program. Christian is a graduate of...

In Episode 5, we get to meet Jassem Bastaki, who is by day, a head and neck pathologist and a diagnostician. In his free time he loves to garden, and grow his own food. His frustration of not having high quality gardening products (like Smart Pot planters) led him to start his own distribution company, Sustainable Organic Q8. Jassem is a very humble guy, given how smart and successful he is. He is...

In this episode, we interview Ed Rosenthal, The Guru of Ganja. He is one of the more prominent individuals who are responsible for promoting the decriminalization of cannabis. Also, he has been writing books on cannabis cultivation for years, as well as his longstanding, "Ask Ed" column in High Times Magazine. Among other accomplishments, Ed also helped to found the Marijuana and Hash Museum in Am...

In Episode 3, we interviewed the founder of Dr. Earth Organics, Milo Shammas. Milo has been a lifelong organic gardener who began one of the first, and largest, organically based companies in the lawn & garden industry. Milo details the beginning of his progression into the world of organics, product development and starting a fertilizer company from scratch. The story of Milo's struggles and...

In the conclusion of our interview with Smar Pot President Kurt Reiger, we discuss the employees and the manufacturing process that makes Smart Pot the best container for growing any plant variety. Kurt speaks about the long term process of refining the product, and ultimately how he decided to manufacture these grow bags himself. One of the most interesting parts of the interview is when Kurt tal...