Local Appetite Growers: JUSTWATERADD

BY JESSIE SHOOK

When you think of farming, what two ingredients do you think would make a plant thrive? Soil and water. For Will Mastin and Karl Brantley, owners of Local Appetite Growers, they just add water.

On 3.5 acres of land, with only an acre under greenhouse plastic, Local Appetite Growers is able to harvest 2,000-2,300 heads of lettuce per week through hydroponic farming. “Hydroponics trans- lates simply to water working – plants are grown without traditional soil,” said Will Mastin, co-owner of Local Appetite Growers. “This can mean growing in just water with dissolved nutrients, called water culture, or in a soil-like media, such as coco fiber or perlite, called media culture.”

Local Appetite Growers is located in Fairhope, Alabama, and they specialize in hydroponic lettuce and other leafy greens, including Swiss chard, pak choi, kale, arugula and mizuna. “We began our business selling almost exclusively to restaurants and at farmers markets,” Mastin said. “We now sell to grocery stores, school systems, farm stands and through a local delivery system on our website.”

Local Appetite Growers has approximately 12,000 lettuce heads growing in their system right now, and are currently retrofitting another greenhouse to an NFT lettuce system to add about another 30% to that.

Mastin started experimenting with hydroponic farming on a small scale next to his house. He built a small table with a water culture system for growing lettuce and herbs. “I had seen this type of system at Epcot as a child, and the growing method was gaining popularity with lettuce growers in Florida and around the country,” Mastin said. “The plants did really well, and I just kept expanding my system.”

One of the main benefits to hydroponic farming is the quality of the plants and seed production. “The plants are delivered consistent moisture and nutrients. This helps them deal with heat and cold stresses better,” Mastin added. “Also, the plants are removed from many soil-borne pests such as nematodes and larval stages of many beetles and caterpillars.”

On the other hand, what tends to drive people away from this growing method is the large amount of upfront cost for the growing equipment. Hydroponic systems require greenhouse or tunnel structures to protect the plants, pumps, growing infrastructure, growing media, fertilizers, and the plumbing and power systems. “Our water culture system also requires some babysitting,” Mastin said. “If something goes