The Doctor Is In

By Dr. Greenhouse, Inc.

Dr. Nadia Sabeh is President and Founder of Dr. Greenhouse, Inc., an agricultural and mechanical engineering firm that specializes in the design of HVAC systems for indoor plant environments.
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FAQs about The Doctor Is In:

How many episodes does The Doctor Is In have?

The podcast currently has 108 episodes available.

The Doctor Is In episodes:

March 01, 2022 18. What Plants Crave feat. Nick Denney: Steering for Cannabis Empowerment
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 we’re speaking to Nick Denney of Holistic Industries.
Nick is the Director of Cultivation for Holistic Industries, a multi-state cannabis operator based in Washington DC. Nick began his career growing leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables in South FL where he managed a hydroponic greenhouse and started a small farm that sold specialty produce to the area's top chefs.
During that time, he also earned his M.S. in Agronomy from the University of Florida, focusing on crop physiology and sustainable agricultural practices. He made the transition to cannabis in early 2018 when he joined Holistic Industries and currently oversees all Holistic cultivation operations, which has now expanded to 7 states (DC, MD, MA, PA, MI, MO, WV). His main duties include supporting the Cultivation Managers in each state to maximize efficiency and output, overseeing the company's genetics program, and leading the cultivation design and equipment selections for renovations or new construction.
He currently resides in Maryland, just outside of Washington DC, with his wife Vanessa and 2 beagles, Chili and Pachita.
1:30 Operating Holistic Industries across different states
4:50 Quitting law and growing plants
9:30 Aquaponics and black soldier fly larvae
11:00 Learning to grow leafies, tomatoes, and berries in a hydroponic greenhouse
13:00 Were you able to grow in a greenhouse year-round in Florida?
15:00 Have you ever eaten a cucumber blossom?
15:30 How did you get to cannabis?
20:00 Are the benefits of growing indoors the same across all states?
21:00 Biggest learning curve going from greenhouse to indoor: Learning how all the different variables interact with each other
23:30 Biggest learning curve going from tomatoes to cannabis: Growing indeterminate vs determinate plant, postharvest, and growing a diecious plant
25:45 What is a diecious plant?
27:00 Are there similarities between the vegetative stage of cannabis and vegetative crops like lettuce?
30:10 Choosing the cultivar based on season
32:20 What does it mean to steer a plant?
37:15 Having so much variety in cannabis is one of the most exciting parts of the industry
40:45 Which environmental cues can you adjust to steer multiple types of plants in the same space?
44:00 What are irrigation cues you can use to steer the plant?
48:00 The importance of crop registration to steer the plant
49:00 Is there such thing as Indica and Sativa varieties?
51:30 Dial back foxtailing with more generative cues
53:30 Has serendipity ever struck?
56:00 What goes into registering a crop?
58:30 Data can never replace a grower’s intuition
59:30 The sales-production feedback loop and the perpetual dominance of potency
1:03:30 Who reviews environmental data?
1:04:30 What has been your experience switching from HPS to LED?
1:10:30 Less canopy = more control, more canopy = less control
1:11:20 What does efficiency mean to you?
1:12:40 The importance of growers sharing information with each other
1:16:00 Do not ignore the legacy growers
1:17:00 The Hydro Store as Cooperative Extension
1:20:20 How do you see the cannabis industry evolving over the next 5-10 years?
1:21:50 What do plants crave?
1:23:00 Rapid fire questions
1:26:00 Nick’s favorite plant to garden
...more
1h 34min
February 22, 2022 17. What Plants Crave feat. Mallory Quinn
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 we're speaking to Mallory Quinn, Director of Cultivation for Medmen.
...more
1h 7min
February 15, 2022 16. What Plants Crave feat. Michelle Hackett pt. 2: Creating a Viable Cannabis Industry
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.
Born and raised in Salinas in a family of entrepreneurs and having a degree from Saint Mary's CA in Business, Sales and Marketing as well as extensive knowledge of Agriculture, it is no wonder she is a true Leader and a success story. Michelle is the President of the largest female minority owned cannabis company in the world that is fully vertically integrated, with 75% of company’s workforce being minority women.
Riverview Farms was established in 2016 and is the first Cannabis operation in the Salinas Valley to get the exemption to grow within Monterey county, Michelle was first exposed to Agriculture in college and continued her path by interning and working for various companies, until she joined her father Mike, the founder of RVF to run the sales division and eventually taking over the company’s full operation.
Michelle has been able to make connections with some of the largest brands, distributors, and retail outlets in the state, and have made them both clients and friends. Her “take no prisoners” attitude and drive has earned her a real name in the Cannabis industry. She has broken many barriers and continues to challenge the county to help improve it's rules and regulations and adapt new ways of doing business. Michelle enjoys the cannabis industry due to the fact that she is able to learn something new everyday, and being at the starting point to the industry makes her able to influence it and set trends and be apart of the evolution of this fast passed growing market. She credits her family and RVF team, the most amazing staff of hardworking and dedicated people that treat her and her family like their own for all the success that she has been able to accomplish thus far. Michelle is also a current board member of MCCIA.
In Part 2 of my conversation with Michelle Hackett, we talk about efficiency and how investing in more automation and technology doesn’t necessarily translate to lower costs of production. We take a deep dive into the current challenges faced by California cannabis cultivators in today’s market and why local stakeholder meetings and collaboration with like-minded individuals will be the saving grace for this new farming industry. Plus, find out which lettuce gets a shout out!

Part 2 - Timestamp
03:30 Investing in automation and people
06:00 Efficiency = The best cannabis for the lowest cost inputs
10:20 Cross-training employees to improve collaboration
16:15 Challenges of the California cannabis market
23:00 Taxes!
28:30 Finding a voice in government
30:45 Locally communicative, but widely cut-throat
35:00 Collaborating with like-minded individuals
38:30 The future of cannabis
40:50 Reaching for the sun!
44:00 Rapid fire questions
...more
51min
February 08, 2022 15. What Plants Crave feat. Michelle Hackett pt. 1: Cultivating Cannabis in Salinas
Join me as I talk to Michelle Hackett, President of Riverview Farms, a family-owned and vertically-integrated cannabis business in Monterey County. In Part 1, we talk about her experience of starting and operating a cannabis greenhouse operation in Salinas, California, the Salad Bowl of the nation, and how best practices learned from commodity field agriculture can be applied to cannabis.
02:00 Family Matters: Building a family-owned and operated cannabis business
06:30 Sisters!
10:00 Finding purpose in retrofitting old existing, wood-framed greenhouses
13:00 Controlling the greenhouse environment in a climate that is essentially perfect
16:45 Fake tits.
19:30 Consumer demand and education
23:45 Cultivating cannabis in country’s “salad bowl”
28:30 Regulatory double standards
32:30 Agricultural jobs 365 days a year
37:30 Applying skills and technology from field agriculture
...more
44min
February 01, 2022 14. What Plants Crave feat. Travis Higginbotham: From Ornamentals to Cannabis Flower
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
...more
1h 18min
January 25, 2022 13. What Plants Crave feat. Jeremy Shechter: Cultivating Culture in Cannabis
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
...more
1h 20min
January 18, 2022 12. What Plants Crave feat. Tyler Baras: Less Is More
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 guest is Tyler Baras, the chief science officer and co-founder of Area 2 Farms in Arlington, Virginia. Tyler has a range of urban agricultural experience from homesteading to commercial hydroponics. While completing his B.S. in Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida, he traveled overseas to study Organic Agriculture in Spain and Protected Agriculture (greenhouse production) in China. After graduation, he worked as a grower for 3 Boys Farm Inc., one of the first certified organic hydroponic farms in the United States. In 2013, Tyler moved to Denver, Colorado where he worked as the hydroponic farm manager at The GrowHaus. He managed a profitable urban farm while creating a successful hydroponic internship program with a 90% job placement rate for graduates.
While at The GrowHaus, Tyler started creating educational videos and blog posts about farm tech which are available on his website FarmerTyler.com. In 2015, Tyler moved to Dallas, Texas where he managed the Dallas Grown hydroponic greenhouse and worked as Special Projects Manager for Hort Americas, a commercial hydroponic equipment distributor.
While in Dallas, Tyler wrote one of the best-selling hobby hydroponic books, DIY Hydroponic Gardens: How to Design and Build an Inexpensive System for Growing Plants in Water. In 2017, Tyler wrote Roadmap to Growing Leafy Greens and Herbs, an educational book for new growers and investors interested in commercial hydroponic production of leafy greens in greenhouses and indoor farms. In 2018, Tyler moved to San Francisco, California where he worked as the New Product Development Senior Grower at the indoor vertical farming company Plenty. In 2021, Tyler wrote Home Hydroponics: Small-space DIY growing systems for the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, and bath. For more on Tyler Baras please visit FarmerTyler.com.
03:00 From student to urban farmer
08:20 Becoming Farmer Tyler
12:30 The problem with large-scale indoor farms
15:00 Working in an indoor farm
20:00 Why go monoculture indoors?
21:45 What is the value proposition of indoor ag?
24:30 Collaboration through grower networks
27:00 Growing plants indoors vs. outdoors
33:30 Breeding vs screening for indoor conditions
37:30 The intricacies and efficiencies of horticultural lighting
45:00 Academic guidelines vs. boundaries
46:30 Growing under consistent indoor conditions vs. variable greenhouse conditions
50:50 Killing lettuce plants in 2 hours
53:20 Which is Tyler’s favorite and least favorite plant to grow?
58:40 What is the biggest difference of home-grown vs. commercial hydroponics?
1:00:00 Improving efficiency by reducing waste
1:02:20 Will automation replace human growers?
1:05:20 The role of education and connection to the success of indoor farming
1:10:00 How will the industry evolve in the near future?
1:12:00 Supply chain in farming and horticulture and why indoor lettuce farmers aren’t vertically integrated
1:17:00 Connoisseurs of lettuce and tomato
1:18:00 What do plants crave?
...more
1h 23min
January 11, 2022 11. What Plants Crave feat. Jason Sanders
The farmer wears many hats. As a farmer we need to be just as concerned about the 50% of the plant below the ground as we do the 50% above ground.

This podcast is full of pro tips and horticultural insights from a grower who knows his stuff! Learn why he has a love/hate relationship with root aphids and how in-house experiments and research can increase efficiency and production. Join me as we discuss the production of cannabis oil in the great oil state of Texas.

“Everything I learned as a farmer, I learned from someone else or I learned from experience.”
Jason Sanders, CCTX

02:30 Cannabis: gateway horticultural crop
05:20 Why grow cannabis indoors and year-round, rather than outdoors and seasonally?
10:30 Growing media, soil biology, and the lessons learned from root aphids
15:30 Medicinal, recreational, and hemp, what’s the difference?
19:50 Can you graft cannabis?
24:15 Root aphids are evil! Or are they?
31:25 Breeding for genetics that work with the environment
35:00 In-house research: LEDs, VPD, and air temperature
41:30 Efficiency, water, carbon footprint and APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients)
47:45 The collaborative, competitive, and compassionate nature of CEA and cannabis
51:15 Looking into the crystal ball future of the cannabis industry
54:30 Tractors?!
55:40 What do plants crave?
...more
1h
December 21, 2021 10. What Plants Crave feat. Michelle Keller: Listening to Lettuce
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.
On today’s episode we’re speaking to Michelle Keller, Head Grower at Living Greens Farm. Michelle Keller knows and loves lettuce. Listen in as we discuss her journey from hydroponic greenhouse grower to aeroponic vertical farmer. Learn how she’s using aeroponics to simulate field agriculture and produce sweet, crunchy romaine year-round and using a fraction of the water.
Michelle grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and was active in FFA (Future Farmers of America) in middle school through college. After Michelle graduated with a Plant Biology degree from UW, she also completed all course work in the Plant Pathology program from the University of Minnesota. From 2003 to 2013, Michelle was the owner and operator of LaBore Farms Hydroponic Lettuce. In 2013, Michelle started full time at Living Greens Farm as Head Grower with accountability for research and development of production systems. This includes recipe development, system development, and production parameters for baby greens, herbs, teen lettuce and full size lettuce . Thank you for listening.
02:00 working in hydronponics and aeroponics before they were cool
04:15 The birth and uniqueness of Living Greens
07:30 Going from greenhouse to indoor production
11:00 Winter heating and venting the greenhouse
14:00 Experimenting with different crops
16:30 Aeroponics: Putting roots to work
23:30 Loving and listening to lettuce to learn what they want
28:00 Building the better mousetrap through in-house experimenting
30:45 Tracking energy and water use to improve COGS
38:15 Growing from a niche market to industry-changing entities
41:30 Being local in multiple locations
47:20 The Leafy Green Future: “We the Industry”
51:30 Growing 20,000 plants on 800 gallons of water!
55:10 HVAC: The biggest challenge of growing lettuce indoors
58:15 Should we manage the environment to VPD?
1:02:00 Yield and quality can respond positively together
1:04:30 What do plants crave?
...more
1h 10min
December 14, 2021 9. What Plants Crave feat. Steve Squaglia: Guinea Pig Farms
This episode is part of our “What Plants Crave” series, where Dr. Sabeh speaks with growers, researchers, and other experts 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 Nadia spoke with Steve Squaglia of Amplified Farms and Cultivated California. Steve Squaglia puts his 20 years of cannabis industry experience to use as the Co-founder of Amplified Farms, Cultivated California and most recently Friendo Flower. His daily tasks involve designing, building and generating operations for cultivation facilities and harvesting relationships with industry specialists. He has utilized his background as a general contractor to work with SMUD, a local utility company, on designing new facilities with LED lighting, embarking on the forefront of a revolutionary idea that will undoubtably change the future of cultivation.
Timestamp notes:
00:04:00 The history of cannabis licensing in Sacramento, CA
00:06:15 Boutique growing compared to commercial growing
00:08:45 The standard of cannabis is growing all the time
00:10:15 More collaboration of growers can help increase business success and have greater impact on the economic development and sustainability.
00:15:40 The importance and difficulty of managing the indoor plant environment, including HVAC tips and strategies
00:24:40 Gas Pedal Growing: The philosophy of 75%, 100% of the time.
00:29:30 “Guinea Pig Farms”: The value of experimentation in the farm.
00:36:20 Observations of growing under LED lights
00:37:20 Why grow cannabis indoors?
00:41:30 Why purchase legal cannabis, when it’s so much cheaper on the black market?
00:47:40 What is exciting about the future of the cannabis industry?
00:51:20 How can regional growers emulate Sacramento’s close cannabis grower network ?
00:55:10 What do you love about cannabis?
01:03:30 Feeling it: the value of failure
01:05:00 The challenge finding good and talented team members
01:07:00 Measuring success as a cannabis cultivator
01:13:40 What do plants crave?
...more
1h 18min

FAQs about The Doctor Is In:

How many episodes does The Doctor Is In have?

The podcast currently has 108 episodes available.

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