Local Appetite Growers: Just Add Water

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 translates 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 specializes in hydroponic lettuce and other leafy greens, including Swiss chard, pak choi, kale, arugula and mizuna.

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.”

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.”

Will Mastin (Co-owner) was first introduced to hydroponics as a kid, at Epcot. He made his own system similar to this next to his house, then he began to expand.

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 wrong, such as a busted pipe or a grow channel overturned, it can leak a lot of your water out quickly and then you can lose a lot of plants easily if you don’t have a system in place. Nutrient imbalances can also happen, and the grower has to be able to recognize this and make adjustments swiftly.”

Local Appetite Growers is located in Fairhope, Alabama, on 3.5 acres with an acre of green houses.

Local Appetite Growers utilize the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) to grow their lettuce. This is a water culture-type system. The plant roots grow primarily in water with dissolved nutrients. “The ‘film’ is the thin sheet of water that flows over the roots of the plants to nourish them,” Mastin explained. “This method has been around since the 1960s or 1970s but is gaining popularity today because of its simplicity and productivity. Seeds are planted in a small cube of foam-like material, and once the roots emerge from the foam, we put the seedlings into the NFT grow channels. The channels are irrigated with a recirculating nutrient solution, and the plant roots grow in the channels in the thin 'film' of water and nutrients.”

Hydroponics is a very hands-on farming technique. “Most everything we do is by hand,” Mastin said. “Everything is done standing up, there is no stooping and squatting to harvest lettuce heads, which is much easier on everyone. We also work on a weekly schedule of planting and harvest small areas of the greenhouse.”

Local Appetite Growers is offering farm tours to teach the public about hydroponics.

Local Appetite Growers harvest three times a week. “We have two guys that harvest most of the lettuce, and we pack them and get them into the walk-in cooler as quickly as possible to maintain freshness,” Mastin added. “There are also the chores of washing our growing channels, re-planting lettuce transplants and sowing more seeds for the next week’s planting.”

The biggest efficiency in this system is the speed of growth and the ability to replant quickly. “We are able to harvest a plant from its growing space, wash the channels and re-plant lettuce in the same spot in that same day,” Mastin said. “This allows us to get seven to eight crops out of each growing space each year.”

Local Appetite Growers have plans to continue growing the greenhouse footprint and expanding into the agritourism market. “We are currently converting an old tomato greenhouse into another lettuce growing house,” Mastin said. “We are also offering farm tours, growing a small area of u-pick flowers, and we have a barn facility that we will be offering as a venue and hosting some events of our own in the future.”

For Mastin, he loves hydroponic farming because of the productivity, the cleanliness and the high quality of the products that are grown. “It’s satisfying to see a healthy crop of lettuce or greens at its peak about to go out for our community to enjoy,” he said. “This system grows some of the healthiest and happiest plants that you will ever see. Our hydroponic system just gives us the advantage to grow exceedingly beautiful and healthy plants, and watching a really great crop of lettuce and other greens develop is what is our real love.”

For more information on Local Appetite Growers, visit localappetitegrowers.com.