hydroflora – The Concordian

The 13th floor: a little hidden gem of paradise.

Did you know that Concordia University has its very own greenhouse? It was opened in 1966 when the Hall Building was built.

This hidden gem located at the downtown campus is a little hard to find at first. But once you start seeing the painted plants on the walls of the stairwell leading you up to the 13th floor, you’ll know you are going in the right direction

Dominique Smith, the outreach and communications coordinator of the Greenhouse, gave The Concordian all the ins and outs of this space.

“I became the outreach coordinator a couple of months ago. The Greenhouse is a collection of different working groups that make up the community. Essentially, we are the people who create the agriculture community through workshops, volunteer hours and the staff that upkeeps the space,” Smith said.

He explained that his job at the Greenhouse is to work with all the different working groups that occupy the space, those groups being HydroFlora, Co-Op CultivAction, City Farm School and more.

Smith is also working on creating a vlog to explain the projects of those working groups, almost like a farmer’s almanac.

Smith emphasized that The Greenhouse as a whole is a collective space.

The staff at the Greenhouse, in partnership with HydroFlora, have brought back the Greenhouse to its pre-pandemic state.

“We came together to revamp the atrium spaces. So you have the front atrium which has always been available for students to rent or study in. Now we have a pond room that students are able to rent or study in as well,” Smith explained.

Smith explained how the layout of the Greenhouse is organized.

If one walks to the back of the Greenhouse, they can see all the sections where the different working groups such as CultivAction grow food for the HIVE cafes at Concordia University.

HydroFlora is the working group that helps maintain the house plants in the Greenhouse. They also give classes and provide students with job opportunities.

Not only is the Greenhouse a collective space for the working groups, it’s also a space to give workshops and classes.

“All these different working groups try to give students here at Concordia an entrance into the agricultural world. Sometimes it’s hard being high up and technically kind of far away from the ground floor,” Smith said.

Although the Greenhouse is a great initiative at Concordia, Smith stressed that the space is very finite and can’t accommodate a lot of people at once.

So if you are at the downtown campus, feel free to give the Greenhouse a visit but make sure not to take too many friends with you or else you won’t be able to get a seat.

Photographs by Thomas Vaillancourt/THE CONCORDIAN

HydroFlora teaches the how-tos of hydroponics at Concordia Greenhouse

“Creating nature in a small container, that’s what [hydroponics] is all about,” said Dominique Smith, the founder of HydroFlora, to sum up a Hydroponics 101 workshop he gave on Jan. 10. HydroFlora is a Concordia group devoted to developing sustainable alternatives to large, intensive farming practices. The group offers a whole hydroponics curriculum to students in the form of workshops offered throughout the semester.

HydroFlora’s interns also meet on a weekly basis to plan these educational workshops and develop hydroponic techniques, which they practice in the Concordia Greenhouse. The greenhouse, where HydroFlora’s first workshop of the year took place, was filled with students eager to learn about the basics of hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil. The air was filled with a mixture of scents, like lavender, and students stood among various plants, including banana and grapefruit trees.

According to Melissa Donnelly, an intern at HydroFlora and a Concordia anthropology major, the self-funded group sells succulents and cacti at the Hall building market every Wednesday. Donnelly takes part in growing these increasingly popular plants by molding their cement pots.“Hydroponics is a way of going back to your grassroots, literally,” Smith said during the workshop. He explained that just placing flowers in a vase full of water is essentially hydroponic; there is no need for any nutrient solution.

Dominique Smith, the founder of HydroFlora, began the workshop by explaining the fundamentals of how to grow plants without soil. Photos by Kirubel Mehari

Smith began the workshop by introducing the Kratky method of hydroponics. This method works best with leafy greens, such as lettuce or a spider plant. In any type of container, a leaf or the base of the plant is stabilized in water using foam or by cutting a hole in the lid, if the container has one. This way, the plant receives all of the ingredients it needs: water, oxygen and light. Smith added that one shouldn’t forget about the essential ingredients “love and patience” when growing plants.

After a few days, depending on the plant, the roots will begin to grow. “You leave it there and it does its thing,” Smith said. He explained that stabilizing the plant allows its roots to grow naturally, and the container can just be left by a window. “It’s simple and clean,” he added. The roots can tell you a lot about the plant itself, Smith explained. If they are white and hairy-looking, it means the plant is receiving enough water and oxygen. If multiple plants were placed in the same container and their roots have a yellow tint to them, however, it most likely indicates the plants are competing for nutrients.

Following the workshop, Smith gave a tour of the greenhouse’s more elaborate hydroponic set-up. Water circulates through a pipe system for irrigation, and the plants are grown in Smith’s homemade compost, which replaces typical soil. The compost is made out of coffee grinds which contain nitrates, banana peels which secrete potassium, and ground up eggshells which provide calcium—all important nutrients for plant growth, Smith explained. Although this method of hydroponics is more elaborate, the main idea is there—you can grow plants without soil.

For more information on HydroFlora and their work at Concordia visit: https://www.hydrofloraconcordia.com.