Sarracino students cut fresh leafy greens from plants grown in a hydroponics system during an agricultural science class Monday morning. The varieties of kale, lettuce, collard greens and arugula will end up in the cafeteria salad bar.
Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain photos

The sound of running water was constant standing next to the professional hydroponic unit being tenderly tended to by Sarracino Middle School’s agricultural science students.

At the beginning of second period, kale, lettuce, arugula and broad collard green leaves were spilling over the edge of the two-tiered hydroponic unit. By the end of the class, students had harvested the plants, cutting the large outer leaves for the cafeteria salad bar and leaving enough small leaves that the plants will flourish again, brimming with a broad-leaved bounty next week.

Peggy Mitchusson has taught high school science and math classes for most of her career, but last year she came to Sarracino Middle School to teach classes on garden design, agricultural science and agricultural exploration—and she’s never had more fun teaching. Her students are learning about agricultural careers and how to work on gardening and landscape design.

Grant funding allowed her to purchase a professional hydroponics unit, in which students grow a bevy of leafy green plants.

“This actual unit is the exact same unit being used in commercial greenhouses,” Mitchusson said.

She also got a set of 19 smaller hydroponics units. Two of the small units are used by her sixth graders to grow and harvest herbs. Spaced in a few neat rows are parsley, basil, cilantro, oregano and spearmint.

Two students wash freshly cut greens, then place the greens in a labeled bag that will be delivered to the school’s cafeteria.

Mitchusson takes home the harvested herbs and uses her dehydrator to dry them out. At the end of the semester, each of the students will get take home dried herbs that they grew.

Other small hydroponics units have been distributed to different teachers in the middle school, who can connect the plant growing process with lessons in science on the process of evaporation or in history on ancient agricultural practices.

The large unit was delivered in November and set up before winter break, but planting didn’t begin until January. The students in Mitchusson’s classes learn how hydroponics work, how to prepare nutrient systems and monitor water levels, and how to harvest what they grow.

Dylan Gonzales, Mario Rank, Luis Gamez and Manuel Jaquez worked together to rinse and dry leafy greens during Monday’s class. Learning how to grow plants has been pretty fun, several of them agreed.

Gamez was surprised to learn there were different kinds of roses, not just red roses, while Rank expected the growing process to be easier.

Eighth grader Kadence Aldrich took the agricultural science class because she likes working with plants and knowing what they do. Seeing plants that they grew in class served on the cafeteria salad bar is a little weird, she said.

Joseph Davis likes that the class is hands-on. He spent the class period cutting leaves off of rows of lettuce and collard greens. He noticed that one of the lettuce plants was trying to form a head. Most of the lettuce has not grown into heads, because the classroom is too humid and warm.

Davis’s favorite part of the growing process is waiting to see if seeds germinate.

“Because if it doesn’t, we get to replant it,” he said.

The rows of plants have been growing for a long time, said Davis. One of the arugulas even matured enough to grow a flower.

Outside of the hydroponics units, students are also growing in outdoor garden beds and in pans. Every one of Mitchusson’s students is growing petunias from seeds, and they’ll each get to take their petunias home at the end of the school year.

The students will have a plant sale and the hydroponics on display during Career Night at Sarracino Middle School, Wednesday, April 26, 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain Editor