Behind the Seeds Tour

The Behind the Seeds Tour is a guided tour that explores the greenhouses of Epcot’s Living with the Land attraction. These are real working greenhouses where scientists experiment with innovative techniques to grow a wide variety of plants. I would recommend this tour for anyone with an interest in biology or horticulture or any other related science, anyone who loves the Living with the Land attraction, or anyone wanting to try out a behind the scenes tour at Walt Disney World as this is a great tour to start with.

The Behind the Seeds Tour lasts approximately an hour to an hour and a half. The tours overlap by starting every 45 minutes and the first tour begins at 10:30 am and the lasts tour departs at 4:30 pm. The tour costs $25 per adult and $20 per child. There are many different discounts that can be applied to the cost such as Annual Passholder, DVC Member, Disney Visa Cardholder, and Cast Member, but all guests do need to have valid Park admission. Since the tours run so frequently throughout the day, it is possible to book the day of. This can be done at the Behind the Seeds kiosk which is located on the lower level of The Land pavilion by the entrance to Soarin’. Or guests can book ahead of time by calling 407-WDW-TOUR (407-939-8687). The kiosk is also where the tour meets and Disney recommends getting there about 15 minutes before the tour begins. Each member of the group is given a headset to where in order to properly hear the tour guide. I would also recommend having sunglasses handy because it can be quite bright and sunny in the greenhouses.

The tour guides are scientists who work in the greenhouses so it was obvious that our guide really knew his stuff and was not just reading off a script. One question did stump him though but he radioed a colleague and immediately got an answer for us.
The tour began in the Integrated Pest Management lab. Our tour guide was an entomologist so this was his area of expertise. He showed us the experiments they were doing with leafminer flies and how much damage they can do to leaves. They were using parasitoid wasps to eliminate the leafminer flies and therefore an alternative way to controlling pests besides toxic pesticides.

Next, we went into the actual greenhouses. Our tour guide showed us different growing systems such as the vertical gardens, aeroponics, and hydroponics. We were even each given a handout on how to start a hydroponic gro-tank. The greenhouses also have windows into other labs so we could watch scientists at work.
There was only plant that we could actual touch and that was Stanley. Stanley is a Mimosa pudica or what is known as a humble plant, sensitive plant, shameplant, or touch-me-not. All of those common names basically describe what the plant does. When touched, Stanley’s leaves immediately curl up to protect itself.

We were also given cucumbers to eat that were grown in the greenhouse. These cucumbers were not Mickey Mouse shaped, but we did see some molds so that Mickey Mouse shaped cucumbers could be grown. This was also a good example of how they are trying to go zero-waste because anything cucumber-related (toothpicks, bag) that people would normally just throughout, got composted or recycled. Our tour guide also talked about how good for many of Epcot’s restaurants are grown in those greenhouses. The main restaurants that use this food is Garden Grill, Sunshine Seasons, and the restaurants in the France pavilion.

Irrigation was another big topic on the tour. The scientists are experimenting with ways to conserve the water used for irrigation and one method they are working on is the nutrient film technique.

After the greenhouses, we went into the aquaculture, or fish farm, area. Here guests could feed the tilapia is we wanted.

The tour then ended with learning about different spices. Our guide picked out a few spices from a large spice treasure chest. He passed them around and we would try to guess the spice by smelling it. Some were easy like cinnamon. Some I had never even heard of.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Behind the Seeds Tour. It was interesting to learn about the science and research that happens inside a theme park. The tour is not something I would do every trip but I would recommend checking it out if you have not done so before.