Hands-on learning blossoms in Tea Area’s FFA Greenhouse

Annual Plant Sale set for May 10

As the weather warms,  plants in Tea Area’s FFA greenhouse continue to grow in preparation for the third annual FFA Plant Sale Saturday, May 10.

The combined FFA and Horticulture class event will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tea Area High School, Saturday, May 10. This year’s sale promises a wide variety of native plants, vegetables, flowers, and more.

Clayton Sorum, Tea Area Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor shared that students have all worked together to make another sale a reality. 

“All high school agriculture students help in some way shape or form, but the Horticulture class oversees all the processes and does the bulk of the planting,” he said.

The Horticulture class and FFA Chapter’s world’s collided when the seeds and small plants were being started as each needed to be taken care of to maximize profits at the end of the year. 

“We either start the plants by seed in house or we get plugs donated from Natural Beauty or Southeast Technical University in Sioux Falls, and the groups work together to plant 8,000 plugs to get ready for the sale,” Sorum said.

Sorum notes the excellent assortment of tomato plants that are going to be available among all the other plants and flowers. 

“We will have hanging baskets that are always great to have around this time of year for Mother’s Day or to hang in front of any house they range from $10-$20. There are also six cell packs which are $1 per plant, two-inch pots for $2 and four-inch pots for $4,” he said.

The plants themselves are high quality and just waiting to find ground to be planted in. 

“All the plants we have are ready to be transplanted the day they are brought home. We’ve had some awesome growth this late winter and early spring and we can’t wait to see this batch of flowers and plants flourish at other homes like in years past,” Sorum said.

Priding themselves in being competitively priced, students use the money that is earned through the FFA Plant Sale to provide leadership and community service opportunities to other students. 

“With the proceeds we raised last year, we were able to send six students to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana for little to no cost, fund service projects such as veteran care bags for the VA hospital, tie blankets for project warm up, our egg project that provides eggs to our local food pantry, dog toys for the Humane Society, and so much more,” Sorum said.

Students are soon to see the efforts of their physical labor pay off and learn how their hard work in planning for a sale will pay off. 

“I believe the hands-on experience that we offer the students is the most vital portion of our class. I used to work in greenhouse research in college and the work was very meticulous, we set that same expectation from day one, utilizing what they’ve learned in the classroom and putting it together with the soft skills of treating it like it’s a job or career,” he said.

With just 11 students in the Horticulture class, all students at Tea Area Schools have gotten involved in some way whether planting, watering, or just checking on the progress. “As our plants continue to grow and bloom the students are always so eager and excited to see the fruits of their labor,” Sorum said.

As the day of the FFA Plant Sale nears, Sorum hopes to see all members of the community support their efforts and come to share in all of the excitement of the sale. “The Plant Sale day is always my favorite part of this project, the Tea community has rallied around this program and this project especially, and we always love the opportunity to bring these people together to show what our students have been working on,” Sorum said.