University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville second-year medical students Caroline Royals and Olivia Longsworth had been planting seedlings in cups on their small porches for upcoming community health events — where fresh veggies and herbs are shared to promote health and wellness.  

But despite their green thumbs, Royals and Longsworth, of the SOMG Medical Roots Garden student group, couldn’t grow the plants quickly enough and in large enough quantities.  

A new hydroponic garden system installed in September on the School of Medicine Greenville campus now provides a way to grow healthy produce for community events, including the monthly Root Cause community health fair. Root Cause is a community health initiative led by SOMG students, in partnership with SOMG faculty and staff, Prisma Health-Upstate team members, and community partners. Since its inception in 2018, the health initiative has interacted with more than 10,000 community individuals in Greenville.  

“This hydroponic garden project has definitely been a huge relief to be able to have an organized space and system to start the seeds for our garden here to really get things rolling,” said Royals.  

Located in the rotunda at SOMG’s Health Sciences Education building, the hydroponic garden mimics daylight outside and the warmth and light that seeds need to grow, providing an optimal growing environment — even during cold snaps or dry spells.

 The system includes an incubator rack that uses LED lights. After about two to three weeks, seedlings started in the incubator can then be grown within the hydroponic garden or transplanted outside to the community garden at SOMG.  

The hydroponic garden system, installed by Ebony Tree Farms, a mission-driven social enterprise based in Evans, Georgia, at the end of September, supports the medical school’s mission: “Educate. Innovate. Serve. Where Lifestyle is Medicine.” Healthy nutrition is one of the six key pillars of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, connectedness, and avoidance of risky substances.  

When the School of Medicine Greenville opened its campus in 2012, the school made the innovative decision to entwine aspects of nutrition, exercise, sleep and other lifestyle behaviors extensively through its curriculum. The hydroponic system is an extension of the school’s efforts to sprout healthy communities through lifestyle medicine.  

"We are so excited to have this as part of our campus and adding to our lifestyle medicine mission here at SOMG,” said Dean Phyllis MacGilvray of the hydroponics system that was installed in September. “By growing vegetables and herbs, our medical students are growing the school’s commitment to the health of our community."

The school worked with Ebony Tree Farms on acquiring the hydroponics system, a seed starting rack, and the supplies needed for maintenance and upkeep.  

The Medical Roots Garden group will be able to plant fresh vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and herbs. They added lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage to the hydroponic system this month.  

The founders at Ebony Tree Farm are helping along the way, especially as Royals and Longsworth learn to calibrate the hydroponics system, which uses reservoirs of water and artificial light and nutrients to provide an autonomous ecosystem.  

“They’ve been great mentors with everything, giving us ideas on how we can grow herbs for tea and things like that, so we can provide to the community in more creative ways,” said Longsworth.  

Royals and Longsworth hope to have basil grown to start handing that out as soon as the next few upcoming Root Cause events.  

The school already hands out fresh produce from donations with community partners, this garden increases the amount of fresh vegetables and herbs that are available to our community. In addition to community use, the hydroponic garden can be used to provide produce for the culinary medicine curriculum at SOMG.  

The hydroponic garden is entirely run by student volunteers and any students interested in volunteering can reach out to Royals or Longsworth at CROYALS@email.sc.edu and LONGSWOO@email.sc.edu.