Boys & Girls Club harvests the opportunity to get involved in hydroponics

The Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line is expanding its gardening program by offering a hydroponic system for their children.

"It's a really cool new program and we are always looking for new stuff for the kids to do," club Director Tim Brurud said. "Opportunities and expectations are a big part, so we try to give the kids as many opportunities to do things that they wouldn't have a chance to do anywhere else. Hydroponics is one more thing that gets kids interested in plant science and moves them in that direction. That's cool; that's what we are here for."

The Juice Plus+ Co. purchased the hydroponic system, a three-and-a-half foot plastic tower with a 20 gallon basin, for the Boys & Girls Club, Brurud said. It also supplied the club with everything it needed to get started gardening, such as seeds, chemicals and materials. The program is part of a nationwide outreach Juice Plus+ is doing with every Boys & Girls Club, he added.

Brurud said he is excited to see where the project goes, with the program opening up new opportunities for the club. With the hydroponic system they will be able to garden year round increasing their partnership with the Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club. The system also opens new opportunities such as participating with Montana State University-Northern's agriculture program, which also covers hydroponics.

The hydroponics will also help grow Boys & Girls Cub's science, technology, engineering and mathematics program, he added.

The club's Youth Development Assistant Ann Armstrong said the STEM program has had a large push for the past decade, encouraging more children to get "hands on" with their development. She said the hydroponic system will get more children involved and excited about engineering and science.

"This has so many new possibilities," she said.

She said the plants will be started outside of the hydroponic system for the germination process. After they have sprouted, the plants will be moved the system where they will be watered with a special formula. She added that the hydroponic system is a no-dirt system.

The system has 25 spots for plants, however, the tower can be added to to allow more plants to grow, she said. The only thing they can't grow in the system are rooted plants, such as potatoes and carrots.

The biggest benefit for the children is gaining hands-on experience with growing plants year round. Armstrong said the system will also allow children to work with and understand pH balances, with the special formula for the plants relying on the pH balance testing anywhere between 5 and 6.5.

Brurud said that all of the crops grown from the hydroponic system will be used in the Boys & Girls Club kitchen.

He said Juice Plus+ paid for all the initial costs and the Boys & Girls Club may have to fundraise to continue fundraising the program. One idea he said he had is having the crops grown at the club be available at local farmers markets.

Armstrong said the addition of the system is a great improvement to the STEM program.

"It is something that we are definitely going to continue to invest in," Brurud added.

He said the club has previously attempted to have an indoor garden, but the system they used was not hydroponics and it didn't work out. About five years ago, the club filled a portable swimming pool with dirt, but the plants didn't get enough light and the pool cracked and made a large mess. These are issues the hydroponic system will not have to face. The majority of the work is checking the pH balance and harvest the crops.

"I'm pretty excited that we are going to be able to make that go," he said.

Armstrong said it is exciting to see the children already becoming interested in the system and wanting to be involved.

"In a lot of their eyes, it's something new and exciting," she said.

She said she has been talking about a hydroponic system for the club for some time before they were contacted by Juice Plus+. She said she talked to a couple of other people at the club and wanted to figure out how they would be able to get everything worked out.

She added that they should have the hydroponic system up and running within the next couple of months.