We are announcing another gripping edition of our AMA with Peter Louw from P&L Grow Systems for this Wednesday, September 12th at 11 AM PST. Peter will be joining us here at Growers Network to have a conversation about growing in 2018, integrating the latest software design with automation in our grows to create the most exceptional cannabis on today’s market.
Hello! Thank you for hosting this. I am a fan of automation and appreciate its great potential in the cannabis sector. I am curious to know what percentage of users are utilizing that information to make right, informed decisions?
Hi, thanks for getting this started with the 1st question.
What has been interesting to watch develop over the past couple of years with our clients is how their understanding of the data they are viewing has started to influence their growing habits. So far I would say 100% of them use the data for making decisions, as they become more familiar with the data the decisions they are making become more informed/correct.
When clients are suddenly able to see what is going in their environment at 30 second intervals it does show up some interesting correlations normally missed. It still takes someone with experience to be able to make sense of the data and therefore the correct decision off the back of it.
Our initial client base are relatively basic users of the information, but we’ve seen them offering advice to others based on what they have been able to observe in their own grow environments as a result of using our sensor units.
Not yet, but it is on the list. I am specifically interested in using real-time data for the proper utilization of CO2. I am not happy with our current practice and I think many do not utilize CO2 at its full potential in bloom.
CO2 sensors are on our product roadmap, our initial product range is aiming to cover the essential basics with an affordable solution everyone can take advantage of. We are now getting more and more requests for CO2 sensors and they are moving up the priority list.
If you are not currently using real time sensors for environment monitoring we’d be very happy to have a further discussion with you on what we are able to provide. We are looking to work with more growers in North America to further fine tune our services.
One of our goals is to be able to bring together data from multiple sources through our platform. Not just environment data but also to include market information, genotype and phenotype data to name just a few.
We currently have a controller unit in the works with a number of early adopters using it over here in the UK. This is a product aimed at the home user through to the smaller greenhouse grower, the technology is able to scale to support larger operations and so a client is able to continue using our products as their business and requirements grow.
The controller follows our philosophy of making something that is affordable for the home and hobby grower but has the functionality of a much more expensive solution. The controller is able to control the following at present (depending on what is connected to it of course):
Lights scheduling
Pump scheduling
Humidity management (humidifier / dehumidifier)
Temperature management (AC / Extraction Fans / Heating)
VPD management ( using a combination of the above)
The controller is designed to allow customers to plug in their existing equipment and make it “smart” by having it controlled by our platform and sensor data being gathered.
Happy Wednesday, GNET! Just made my way over to check on this thread and hey, just as I expected another GNET AMA is of and to a strong running start! Fantastic!
Pete, thanks for taking time out of your evening (big time difference between the UK and AZ) to answer our questions today!
Thanks Nick, I’ve got my business partner Lee (the L in P&L) also online with me here so we should be able to answer all of the questions regarding what we do and can wax lyrical on a far broader range of topics too.
We are looking to setup partnerships with the companies that are collecting this information around the genetics and then being able to supplement that data with observed environment readings and additional information derived from the data. This can then start to build up a better picture of what can be expected from a genetic line in terms of yield when run in certain conditions. Of course this will take time to build up and as more and more data is collected the system will become better at its ability to estimate/predict the outcome.
Key is having a platform that allows for the easy collection of the data, ideally automated and cost effective which is why we keep our sensor prices low. We want lots of people using the system and submitting data that is anonymised and analysed over time, machine learning requires masses amounts of data to be any good.
