This episode is part of our “What Plants Crave” series, where Dr. Sabeh speaks with growers, researchers, and other experts in other engineers, growers, and manufacturers who work in controlled environment agriculture, to get their insights about the direction of the industry, and of course, what exactly it is that plants crave.

This week’s episode features Jeremy Shechter. Jeremy is a Senior Partner at Bickel Consulting, focusing on design/ build and management for cannabis facilities across the country. He studied Agricultural Engineering at The Ohio State University and has spent his career working in controlled environment agriculture with an emphasis on aquaponic food production in greenhouses and hydroponic cannabis production in indoor facilities. Before launching his skill set nationally, he was a leader in the Ohio medical marijuana industry as VP of Operations for one of the state’s most successful grows: Buckeye Relief.

Bickel Consulting about cultivating medicinal cannabis in Ohio. He shares his experience growing high-quality product under LED lights in a double-tier system, the importance of tracking data, and the need and challenge of finding talented staff with a diverse set of skills and strengths. As former Director of Cultivation at Buckeye Relief, he learned the importance of fostering a sense of community and shared goals and that “no matter how good you are, stuff is going to break.” Stick around to the end to find out: Does tilapia prefer cannabis or pizza?

Timestamp Notes

1:45 From wastewater to aquaculture to cannabis

5:00 Growing indoors: better control, but stuff breaks

10:15 The need and challenge of finding skilled and qualified talent

16:10 What data is important to monitor

18:45 The coolest metric to measure: Carbon dioxide

24:00 How frequently should growers spot-check gauges and sensors?

28:30 Tracking the plant from clone through lab test

31:00 The balance of plant pruning and yield

38:30 The most important efficiency metric

43:00 Double-stack LED cannabis grows

47:30 Creating a culture of clean

52:45 Do aquaponic cannabis farms exist?

01:00:00 The value of specialized staff and knowing how to use Excel

01:04:30 “There are no secrets in cannabis. Only egos.”

01:08:20 The future of cannabis: consolidation, federal deregulation, and automation

01:13:00 What do plants crave?

01:13:40 Rapid fire questions