Cultivation Chronicles

Tulin Pillay became a graphic designer because, as he tells it, there was no way to work with cannabis directly. When the medical conversation went public in Australia, he decided he did not want to be 80 and wondering whether he could have been part of it.

In S01 E03 of Cultivation Chronicles, Tulin walks through what he did next: the Cann10 course, the hemp expos, lab equipment for Across International, customer service at Hemp Oz, managing Lux Cuttings through the Sydney lockdowns, the east coast for Wholesale Horticultural Group and a year at Accent Hydroponics.

Then the argument. He says we scrutinise cannabis to a different standard, and that this might be the hill he dies on. He makes the case that Australian producers are doing business with one hand tied behind their back, that imported product shifts from batch to batch, and that the prescribing GP is the one left exposed. Plus landraces and over-hybridisation, organic IPM, drying and curing, terpenes, the history of hemp in Australia, and the people who shaped him, including Robert Collier of MA Genetics.

Tulin flew down from Brisbane, Jack flew up from Tasmania, and they met face to face hours before recording, a couple of years after first speaking by phone.

Recorded on the road in Sydney, New South Wales, in November 2025. Laws have changed since then, including Tasmania's rules on prescriptions and driving. Always check your local laws.

Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7O54ZUKZo40

This episode is supported by Treegers Lighting — LED fixtures, grow bulbs and PAR meters, shipping to AU and NZ:
https://www.thegrowguys.com.au/collections/treegers
Cultivation Chronicles is independently editorial. Operating support from The Grow Guys, AU.

Cultivation Chronicles is an editorial documentary series. Nothing in this episode is legal or medical advice, and nothing in it is encouragement to break the law where you live. Listeners are responsible for knowing and following their local laws. Where regulated products are discussed, the discussion is journalistic and is not advertising of therapeutic goods.

Richard "Richie" Harvey left school at 15 with two job interviews: carpet laying, or a garden centre. The garden centre rang back first. By the early '90s he had walked into a back-street Adelaide grow shop, and he has not left the industry since. Today he is co-founder of Treegers Lighting.

In S01 E02 of Cultivation Chronicles, Richie takes us through every layer of Australian hydroponics he has worked: the shop floor, a franchise chain that reached New Zealand, the wholesale side of one of the country's largest alternative gardening distributors, and a lighting brand that took eight months and three trips to China to get right.

We go back to the pre-tent era of Velcro and melted plastic. Richie explains how to tell a good LED from a bad one: hunt for the spec sheet, and if it is hidden, ask why. He walks through the compliance marks that refuse to recognise each other, LED versus HID on safety, and why he is not sold on tunable spectrum yet. Then a plain-English explainer on PAR and PPFD, with the numbers he aims for. Plus Spannabis, Mary Jane Berlin, big money versus grassroots, and a wall of Yellow Pages.

Treegers Lighting sponsors this show. Richie co-founded Treegers. We are telling you that up front.

Recorded in Launceston, Tasmania.

Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DTBaZzBaUxQ

Treegers Lighting, shipping AU and NZ: https://www.thegrowguys.com.au/collections/treegers

Cultivation Chronicles is independently editorial. Operating support from The Grow Guys, AU.

Cultivation Chronicles is an editorial documentary series. Nothing in this episode is legal or medical advice, and nothing in it is encouragement to break the law where you live. Listeners are responsible for knowing and following their local laws. Where regulated products are discussed, the discussion is journalistic and is not advertising of therapeutic goods.

Robert Collier has worked in medicinal cannabis for over 25 years — Amsterdam, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and now a cultivation farm in Western Australia. He sits down with Jack for a special dispatch on the state of the Australian industry.

Australia imports 70% of its medicinal cannabis — 77 tonnes that could have been grown here. Rob and Jack work through how the global market came online, why Oregon produces a seven-year supply every year, what $10 ounces in Detroit mean for everyone else, and why the race to the bottom has already started at home.

Then the real argument: outdoor versus indoor. Rob's position — the best outdoor beats the best indoor, and Australia's sun, soil and regions are the advantage nobody else can copy. Genetics, THC number games, driving laws for patients, labour costs, and what a sustainable Australian model actually looks like.

Recorded on the road. Cultivation Chronicles documents the culture, people and evolution of cannabis cultivation — from Launceston, Tasmania.

This episode contains paid promotion from Treegers Lighting.

This content is documentary and educational. It is not medical advice. Medicinal cannabis is a prescription-only medicine in Australia — speak to your doctor. Cultivation of cannabis without the appropriate licence is illegal in Australia.

cultivationchronicles.com | @cultivationchronicles

Episode 01. Justin — cultivator, founder of Green Planet Nutrients, and the face of Growing Exposed — sat down with Jack in Launceston, Tasmania, in front of a live audience, for the first episode of Cultivation Chronicles.

Twenty-five-plus years in the cannabis industry, told straight: growing at 16 at the birth of BC Bud, building Canada's largest privately owned hydroponic retail chain, founding Green Planet with no investors, and bankrolling the Allard case — the court challenge that opened the door to legal home cultivation in Canada.

The conversation covers how growing has changed — from measuring pH if you were lucky to dialling PPFD, VPD and CO2 — why Canada's billion-dollar corporate rush collapsed, why the first true criminals arrived in suits, what Australia's medical system gets wrong about concentrates, and whether the legacy community still has a seat at the table.

Recorded on the road. Tasmania, Australia. Listen in full.

— Cultivation Chronicles is an editorial documentary series. Content is provided for informational, educational and cultural documentation purposes only. Nothing in this episode is legal, medical or professional advice, and nothing is an encouragement to break the law. Cannabis cultivation and use are subject to law that varies by state and country — viewers are responsible for knowing and complying with the laws where they live. Discussion of regulated products is journalistic in nature and is not advertising of therapeutic goods. —