It can be done, and it's being done. Some issues are that everyone's an expert, and are too pig headed to know when to ask for help. Words to live by "you need to know what you know, but you need to know what you don't know" if you don't know something, don't fake it, swallow your pride and ask for help. There's a lot of ego in the cannabis industry, most of these so called "master growers" have never seen a commercial greenhouse or a commercial facility. Another issue is all these LP's need to do things by the book, that means hiring engineers, architects, pulling building permits, hiring contractors ect. Most of which have never seen a cannabis plant, let alone a medical facility. They have no model to follow and just make it up as they go. I've worked with and fired many engeneers who told me that my ideas weren't possible, tried and true methods that I've been using for years. Environment is key, and can be very costly. Dehumidification is very costly, and a challenge to control. Your hvac designer and environmental controls shouldn't cut corners, saving a few buck here will come back and bite you in the ass. Most LP's I've seen start off too big, filling a room over capacity, putting all there eggs in one basket. Smaller batches is key, don't crowd the plants and don't worry about plant counts, it's all about the canopy not the plant numbers. These pests and problems don't materialize out of thin air, they come from somewhere, they have a source. Sanitation is key and restricting access to your garden is crucial. Prevention is worth a pound of cure. You also need to see the big picture and not focus on a single crop, cutting your losses and destroying a sick/infested crop is better than trying to fix a problem that could potentially affect the whole facility. The QA is responsable for sanitation protocol and releasing of the tested product, they have no business in the garden other than to validate that the sanitation Sop's are being followed, they need to know there role and not pretend they know anything about growing. It's the head growers responsibility to grow a healthy pest free crop. The QA deciphers the lab results, and releases the batch for sale, and shouldn't micro manage the grower. A lot of these LP's over complicate growing, they want a high tech. Facility run by computers. It's a fricken plant that grows in shit. More words to live by "keep it simple" and "less is more" let Mother Nature do its thing. Don't be so arrogant and try and compete with her. Weather it's an LP or grey market facility, money is the bottom line. Don't fool yourselves the grey market will use any and all means nessesary to bring a crop to market. There are so many unscrupulous people out there who are using chemicals on there crops, from my experience the grey market are worse offenders than the LP's. They have no guidelines or regulations to follow, they do as they please. Personally I would never buy anything from a dispencery, I've seen too many lazy growers who would rather spray than clean. Cleaning and sanitizing is 90% of growing, it's not a very glamorous job, as many think it is.
Cheers Itsme.
Ps...have a happy new year everybody....
