Epcot Behind the Seeds Tour Review with Photos From May 25, 2007

Hi everyone!

For years I’ve planned to take the Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot. (I know, what took so long?)  I finally made reservations, a couple of days prior to the tour.   You can sign up the day of, if there is space available.

The Behind the Seeds Tour is at The Land, and check-in is at the Soarin’ desk. The tour is of the greenhouses as part of the Living with the Land boat

The cost of this one-hour tour is normally $14.00.  With an Annual Pass, DVC, or I believe AAA as well, it’s currently 15% off (I paid $11.90).  Disney Visa holders receive 20% off.  

We had a really great tour guide, Kate – who only has a month left, as of May 24th.  She isn’t just a tour guide, but an intern with a major in horticulture.

We first stopped in a Biological Control room, where we learned about good bugs and bad bugs – and watched a video on the leafminer fly.  The leafminer fly is tiny, and damages leaves by burrowing through them.  Some of us were given ladybugs in a tube to release later.

We then went outside the Biotechnology lab, which is co-sponsored by the USDA . One of the other things they do here is to create snippings of plants (like a Venus Flytrap) that are for sale in The Land.

 

This was the COOLEST moment for me.  I haven’t seen one of these plants since I was 5 or 6, we used to have them in the yard of our first home in New Jersey.  If you touch it lightly, the leaves fold.  I’ve seen online where heat also does this.  The plant is called a Sensitive Plant, or Mimosa.

There are a variety of plants:

Some are shaped like Mickey:

These flowers were beautiful:

We received a paper on how to create a Hydroponic Gro-Tank like this one:

 

I am not an expert on hydroponics or gardening at all (I have a black thumb, not a green one!)  So I won’t be going into as much of what she talked about (I’d mix things up), you can find that out on the tour.  But hydroponics is growing plants without soil – something you can also learn about on The Land boat tour.

These pumpkins grow VERY fast, were told it only takes a few weeks to fill out one of these molds.  I believe she said that the glass was very strong airline type glass, to keep the pumpkin in.

We had a sample of cucumbers (very tasty!) grown there:

The lettuce looked really good. We let out our ladybugs onto the lettuce (after watching this boat go by):

 

 

The Land once had the largest tomato plant ever, verified by the Guiness Book of World Records.  I saw it last year.  It is no longer there, but there is a new plant:

 

This says “Epcot”

Beans: 

 

Eggplants – white and black:

 

More boat views, and large pumpkins (about 200 pounds):

Winter melons:

This is actually my favorite spot during the boat ride (and it was on the tour as well):

The shrimp was hiding during our walk past the first time, but came out later.  He is very large, but doesn’t look like he’ll feed too many people. :): 

Alligators and fish:

A few other photos before we are done with the tour:

 

If you enjoy The Land boat ride, you should definitely try the tour!  I’ll definitely do it again.