Growers have come out of the closets (literally for some of us) and now, much to the great chagrin of my elementary school DARE officer, possess a highly-sought after skill-set. Our tools have evolved with the times and growers now have more grow gear at our disposal than ever before. Since we have entered the age where data is king and the internet of things handles the functionality of many devices in our homes, vehicles and even our grows, we have come to rely on technology more than ever beforeā¦but there is so much more to come!!
What new tech, software, or data integration would our friendly @memberdirectory like to see developed?
I came from a tech background, so it blows me away how much valuable data isnāt collected at many large cannabis operations, or gets collected on handwritten forms that are filed and forgotten.
Also complex business communications happening entirely on text/messenger using devices that can show about 1/8th of a normal page of text
In my (cloning/veg department) Iām using several Google Sheets, some Google Docs, and maybe half a dozen spiral notebooks to collect data about plant performance, pest trends, etc. The information I collected since last growing season is proving to be pure gold, and the Google apps make it easy for me to share data with other employees in a form they can understand.
Yet I still feel like itās half-assed since Iām usually busy making potting soil or taking cuts or staring at bugs through a microscope or something.
A lot of those farms not gathering the data are still doing fine, but everything that makes them work is locked up in a few people with years of experience in their particular specialty. If they donāt treat those people well and they take another job, a link is broken and the train wreck begins.
In quality assurance training they sometimes call it āThe Bob System.ā Itās all bonuses and dividends at ACME Widgets for years and years. Then one day mid-level supervisor Bob comes down with a serious and sudden illness and misses his first two weeks of work in a decade. Bobās been there for a longer than most, and has solved a thousand problems. Only Bob knows how to get that air conditioner to work when it acts weird. Bobās cellphone held the only complete list of vendor contacts. Nobody ever considered what it would be like if you couldnāt Ask Bob, because you always could. Until you couldnāt.
Iād like to bring a Metabolomics approach to the strain development niche. The initial investment is high if you want your own LCMS or GCMS, but I think there would be dividends in knowing WHY this strain is different from that one. There are some sample analysis companies, so even if you didnāt want to invest in a machine that resultant upkeep, you can still have the data.
I could also be a consultant for businesses on the proper usage of laboratory notebooks to retain valuable knowledge.
Iām with TreesGalore. I am interested in some of the data you have aquired. I bet you have collected some killer water information, and reactions with the plants.
From a tech background myself. I remember well when first getting into water filtration and this industry I couldnāt help but think of how to apply those skills, to help those āunder-techedā growers of course!
Then I became acquainted with a very long-time cultivator, a real Master Grower who taught me how to pay attention to the plant and discern what it needs by its various manifestations, which was very cool for me because my first real intellectual interest in plants came through reading the book: The Secret Life of Plants.
After awhile, the need for tech was greatly diminished. Not only that, I learned to see certain similarities between plant and man, and how studying one could lead to a deeper understanding of the other.
I noticed we seem to have reduced interest lately in that Master Grower model but apprenticeship is how things have been transmitted through millennia. Great solution to the Bob problem!
That said, I would love to see a real-time NIR-spectroscopy nutrient monitor to aid in my research in understanding the plant at a deeper level.
@drhemp it sounds like youāre doing a great job recording many useful data points. My company Trym helps to automate a lot of the data collection you mentioned. We also provide insightful analytics to help you make data-driven decisions. Let me know if youād like to learn more!
Probably my most useful spreadsheet is keyed by strain, and contains observations like growth rate, flowering time, ease of cloning, and other characteristics, along with yield and cannabinoid/terpene test results. It informs both plant care and business decisions, and itās indispensable because we have dozens of strains going at once
I keep another one with IPM observations and actions, which not only helps track what worked and what didnāt, it helps me predict what insects are likely to show up outdoors at what time of the year.
I use others to track/plan/predict clone production rates and manage other information, but those are the ones I open daily
In an ideal world, Iād normalize these into several tables each and build a front end, but Google Sheets is so much faster and easier, and Iām a bit burned out on coding after 20+ years
