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’s episode is extra special, because we interviewed a few attendees of our Spring workshop at the Clunie Center in Sacramento. The workshop is an HVAC Intensive lecture series that Dr. Sabeh has been perfecting for growers and engineers working in all kinds of indoor grows.

A little bit about them, in their order of appearance:

Joe Saito is Regional Sales Manager for Anden, which provides environmental control for indoor grows.

Nick Demello is a mechanical engineer, and Thad Humphrey is the engineering manager, both with Biotherm Solutions, which provides environmental control for indoor grows.

Kelley Nicholson is the Sales Manager for Autogrow America, which provides monitoring and controls systems for indoor farms.

Ashley Pursglove is the director of engineering for Red Sea Farms. He came to our workshop all the way from Saudi Arabia, where Red Sea Farms grows organic produce, and consults on agriculture solutions for harsh climates and limited resources.

Ian Baker is the greenhouse manager for JoynBio, supporting plant science research, and heading their controlled environment platform in nearby Woodland, CA.

The Dr. Greenhouse team wants to give a special thanks to our guest speakers Dr. Alex Guenther and Dr. Hope Jones, whose sessions added invaluable insights to the material, to Anden who sponsored our workshop lunches, and of course to our attendees, who we love to do all of this for. Join us next week to get back to what plants crave! Thank you for listening!

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.

Starting in 2018, our CEO Wayne Bishop worked with a talented local grower, the City of Woodlake, and mutual contacts to find a space and build a team that would later become the 7 Points we know today. The concept of starting a fully legal cannabis cultivation business was inspired by the passing of a close family member who had used cannabis found on the black market to treat his ailments caused by paraplegia. Bishop took it upon himself, with the help of others, to use his knowledge and experience in other fields to venture into a new world of agriculture that would help give people in need the help they deserve.

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 we’re speaking to Dr. Mark Lefsrud of McGill University.

Timestamp Notes:

2:00 The Salad Machine and NASA

8:00 The awareness of plants

12:15 Instantaneous vs longterm plant responses

20:00 Do plants have a brain?

22:30 Growing food indoors in extreme cold

26:30 Why do greenhouses work well in Canada?

31:00 Heating the greenhouse

34:30 Canadian support of horticulture production

39:00 Cannabis research in Canada

43:30 Red light, blue light, and amber light

47:45 Widening the PAR spectrum

58:00 Energy saving tip: Measure and track the variables

1:09:00 Everything isn't all a trade secret and more sharing would help operators save millions of dollars and solve common challenges more quickly.

1:15:00 The resurgence of agriculture and the future of CEA

1:19:45 What do plants crave?

1:21:00 Rapid fire questions

A short and sweet interview with Merle Jensen, a forefather of the CEA industry and project leader in the design and development of the agricultural systems for ‘The Land’ EPCOT, Walt Disney World. ‘The Land’ was a $52 million project which has had over 200 million visitors since opening in 1982.

Merle Jensen helped make the University of Arizona's CEAC a reality, and is Professor Emeritus of Plant Science there now. Learn more about Merle on our website.

Timestamp Notes:

2:10 The path to Arizona

5:30 The industry's 60-year evolution

6:45 Lessons VF growers can learn from greenhouse

8:10 Were there naysayers early in the greenhouse industry?

9:05 What inspired CEAC at University of Arizona?

10:05 Insights into the future of CEA

13:15 Advice for the industry

Recently Dr. Greenhouse attended the University of Arizona’s CEAC Short Course, and got the chance to catch up with a few of the students and speakers about their work in Controlled Environment Agriculture. This week we’re sharing her conversation with Calder Bethke, a Biosystems Engineering Masters student. Unfortunately we did lose a part of Calder’s interview to the wind, but it’s all the reason more to have him return as a guest someday and tell us more about his research and work in cost efficient greenhouses for arid climates.

Thank you for listening.

Recently Dr. Greenhouse attended the University of Arizona’s CEAC Short Course, and got the chance to catch up with a few of the students and speakers about their work in Controlled Environment Agriculture. This week we’re sharing her conversation with KC Shasteen and Chris Kaufmann in the University’s research vertical farm. KC Shasteen is a Biosystems Engineering Masters student, and Chris Kaufmann is a Biosystems Senior undergrad, and a first year student in the accelerated Masters program. Thank you for listening.

Recently Dr. Greenhouse attended the University of Arizona’s CEAC Short Course, and got the chance to catch up with a few of the students and speakers about their work in Controlled Environment Agriculture. This week we’re sharing her conversation with Max Smith and Michael Blum in the University’s teaching greenhouse. Michael is a second year Biosystems Engineering Graduate student, studying plant lighting and quantum dot films. Max is a first year Graduate student in the Applied Biosciences program doing research for their saltwater greenhouse project. Thank you for listening.

Last week Dr. Greenhouse attended Univesity of Arizona’s CEAC Short Course, and after accepting this year’s Mission Award, she got the chance to catch up with a few of the students and speakers about their work in CEA. This week we’re sharing her interview with Megan Kane, PhD student working in the Lunar Mars Greenhouse. Thank you for listening.

For today’s episode, the doctor will be in the expo hall. Last week we attended Indoor Ag Con in Las Vegas, with more than 800 people in attendance. We got the chance to catch up with a few of them on the expo floor, and asked them about their insights and hopes for the indoor agriculture industry. Keep an ear out for Nadia’s own thoughts on the event before we flew home.

Our interviewees, in order of appearance, were:

Glenn Ford, CEO InCity Farms

Neda Vaseghi, CEO and Founder of Microclimates

Marc Paynter of Argus Controls

Dan Albert, VP of Plant Performance with Unfold Bio

Brian Harris, East Coast Sales for HortAmericas

Andrew Carter Co-founder of Smallhold

Jim Pantaleo, Business Development Coordinator for the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems