Behind the Seeds Tour

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 are spaces available.

The Behind the Seeds Tour is at the Land, and check-in is at the Soarin desk:

 

 

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 shaped like Mickey:

 

These flowers were beautiful:

 

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