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. Travis Higginbotham Jr. joined Harborside Inc. in 2021 as Vice President of Production, where he spearheads production and product distribution to expand access to Harborside products and better serve customers as demand for high-quality cannabis continues to rise.Higginbotham is a commercial cultivation specialist and business owner within the global horticulture market. He is Founder and Owner of a horticultural consultancy, Due Diligence Horticulture, LLC, where he took on personal clients before working with Harborside.

Most recently, Higginbotham was VP of Sales and Business Development at The Hemp Mine, a vertically integrated producer of hemp genetics and hemp-derived products, out of the South East, U.S.Higginbotham began his career, serving as Director of Research and Development for Battlefield Farms, a 1.8 million sq. ft. greenhouse operation named one of the top 100 growers in the country. While there, Higginbotham managed partnerships with 28 global floricultural breeding companies and advised big-box retailers on crop performance, genetic selection and product development nationwide, gaining a first-hand understanding of complex sales channels and agricultural production. 

Higginbotham later served as Global Technical Support Director (Horticulture Service) for Fluence Bioengineering, a global creator of lighting solutions for controlled environment commercial crop production. In his role, he built a technical support team to work with Fluence’s top customers in all horticultural markets throughout Europe and North America. He graduated from Clemson University with a BS in Environmental Horticulture and received his MS in Environmental Horticulture from Virginia Tech.

Timestamp Notes:

01:30 Travis's horticultural path

06:00 Growing flowers vs cannabis

10:45 Why grow cannabis in a greenhouse?

15:45 Plant stress, acclimation, and hardening

21:00 Scheduling crop cycles and harvest times

25:30 What are the biggest challenges of growing in a greenhouse?

28:00 The cues of a "happy" or stressed plant

31:00 Using LED lights in a greenhouse

34:30 Wet growing vs Dry growing

38:00 The added-value of research

44:00 Defining efficiency

46:45 Manipulating moisture content of final product

51:30 Is it easier to decrease your inputs or increase your outputs?

56:30 COVID and automation

1:02:30 Data and experience

1:06:30 Moving from confidentiality to collaboration to stay competitive

1:10:30 Expanding beyond THC

1:13:00 What do plants crave?

1:14:00 Rapid fire questions