Epcot Center is Walt Disney's vision of
"Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow".
It was completed after Mr. Walt Disney passed away(16 years later).
There are two groups of attractions: "Future World" and
"World Showcase".
The "Future World" consists of 9 themes.
This group is located close to the front entrance
(bottom left corner in the map above)
and circled by the monorail.
Building #8 is called
"The Land" (bottom right
corner in the map above.)
There are 2 different attractions build with plants,
hydroponics and aquaculture:
(1)
"Living with the Land" is a boat ride.
(2)
"Behind the seeds" is a guided tour in small groups of
15 people.
Here is the satellite image from Google. The front gate is
at the North end of the theme park. As we enter the front gate
we are walking south. The green houses are on the west side of
the "Future World". The rectangular green houses are used for
hydroponics culture of annual plants. The tropical trees are in
the round dome. The dark building south of the round dome is for
fishes and alligators.
The dragon fruit plants in Epcot are propagated by
tissue culture.
Tissue culture produces a cleaner plant. The dragon fruit is directly
attached to the vine. It is difficult to harvest the fruit without
leaving a small piece of vine attached. When you buy a fruit from the
market, even the smallest piece of green tissue attached to the fruit
can be propagated into a complete plant using tissue culture.
Serious bio-technology is done on site.
The displays inside the
greenhouse are clean and well managed.
The hydroponics display are in top conditions all the time.
The greenhouse demonstrates
high yield in small space with the use of bio-technology.
Record amount of tomato was harvested on a single plant.
The dragon fruit (pitahaya) plant is trained in the traditional Vietnamese tree shape 6 feet tall.
There are no bees or butterflies inside the green house. Plants that need pollen
to bear fruits are done by paint brushes. The Vietnamese white flesh dragon fruit
can bear fruit because the style is short and the stigma is below the anther.
The dragon fruit grows and fruits well in pots inside the greenhouse.
When I visit Epcot with
David Chow, the plants are grown in the ground.
In Florida the dragon fruit can have over ten flushes of flowers every year.
