The Benefits of Automation in Cannabis Greenhouses
Gram Garby, who manages Harvest TOC’s greenhouse in Florida, has been relying more heavily on automation, especially fertigation. Photo: Harvest TOC
While the world continues to search for the new normal, businesses adapt and innovate. The recreational and medical cannabis industry is no different. To see how the crisis is impacting how cannabis is grown in a greenhouse, let’s peel back the lid on this often-misunderstood segment of the industry.
Green Rhino, the supplier for their dispensary of the same name, is just one example of how one small, independent cannabis business has dealt with the COVID-19 crisis.
“There were issues with the supply chain that we didn’t really anticipate. Necessities like nutrients, pots, and soil were delayed,” says Andy Brody, Owner of Green Rhino. “We’ve altered our purchasing a lot, and we now buy in bulk, which has helped us tremendously because we’ve gotten better discounts.”
When it comes to the future, Green Rhino is making other plans.
“The bigger thing is the refined production schedule,” Brody says. “We realized through this how to maximize our time to become extremely efficient in the grow rooms. We’ll also be focused on investing in equipment that will improve that efficiency, while increasing maintenance programs to keep more parts on hand to avoid shortages.”
The team at Harvest HOC, which operates growing facilities in nine states, has also adopted new strategies to deal with the ongoing crisis. For Gram Garby, who manages Harvest TOC’s greenhouse in Florida, that means relying more heavily on automation, specifically fertigation.
“We started utilizing fertigation tracking to get the monitoring dialed in because we were trying to limit staffing,” says Garby, who also notes his facility is increasing sanitation efforts as well.
Ted Tanner, CEO of Growlink (which develops automation for cannabis growers), says data-driven automation platforms help give growers remote access to their indoor farms.
“Our system provides real-time data for anything they monitor on their farm,” Tanner says.
In the future, Tanner believes we’ll see more people using and expanding automation and making sure that whatever platform they choose gives them remote visibility into their farm.
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