Love to garden? Love the Living with the Land Ride? Interested in going “green”? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you should consider the “Behind the Seeds” tour at Epcot.
Behind the Seeds is an hour long walking tour – sometimes a little longer depending on the questions people have, for instance the tour I was on took an hour and 15 minutes. The tour takes you through the greenhouses you see during the Living with the Land boat ride in a little more depth.
We started out by talking about how the researchers at Disney are working to create “green” methods of pest control, such as controlling one type of pest with a “good” bug, instead of using chemicals. We were given the opportunity to release some “Lady bugs” as we went along as well.
A stop outside one of the labs where they are growing little mini plants that are sold out in EPCOT was also very interesting.
The tour moves along through the four different green houses, and each method of growing is discussed, with much emphasis on hydroponics. I am not a gardener and I found it all very fascinating. Each plant is labeled, and it is interesting to see how big the plants are after only having been seeded a few months ago. Everything from Flowers, to Vegetables, to cotton is grown in these green houses. You are given a sample of the greenhouse grown cucumbers along the way as well. YUM! 
There are a variety of exotic plants too, from bananas, to star fruit to coffee. Did you know there is a pepper even HOTTER than the Ghost Pepper? The Scorpion pepper, in fact it is twice as hot according to our guide on this tour! Yowza! At one point along the tour there is a “spice challenge” which was lots of fun, you are given spices in jars, and you have to try and figure out what they are. 
The last stop on the tour is the fish house, where you are given the opportunity to feed the fish. The tour has a ton of information and I found it very interesting. There were some children along on our tour and they seemed to find it interesting as well.
All in all I found this tour to be very informative and well worth the price. This tour is less than $20 dollars per person. Behind the Seeds starts at 10:30 and runs about every 45 minutes. You can sign up the day you want to take the tour, at the desk right next to Soarin’. Get there a little early though, the tours were selling out pretty quickly the day I was there. I signed up at 9 am for the 10:30 tour, and by 10 am, they were booking tours for the early afternoon.
Noelle has been a Disney Travel Specialist with Wishing Well Travel since 2012, you can contact her at Noelle at wishingwelltravel.com, find her on facebook or Request a Quote from her online.
