Gretchen Schimelpfenig

This article provides insights on the latest findings from academic researchers exploring the impacts of emerging technology on hemp grown for cannabidiol (CBD).

How can greenhouse cultivators improve profitability by installing high-efficiency heating systems to reduce energy costs?

This column reviews a study published by cannabis industry design and construction professionals and describes the impact of energy regulations affecting heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system selection in cannabis production facilities.

This column expresses how cannabis facilities that invest in RCx projects can enhance equipment reliability and worker safety, improve conditions for plant growth and development, increase canopy yields, and reduce maintenance costs.

Learn about the diverse kinds of support cannabis growers can get from utilities and efficiency programs for efficient lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), and controls approaches.

Learn how to bring efficiency concepts together to create circular cannabis systems.

Learn about the value of monitoring environmental conditions, how software platforms can analyze data and offer insights, and the ways growers can use data to optimize plant health and vitality.

Learn about the four major steps of integrated pest management (IPM) programs: setting action thresholds; monitoring and identification, prevention, and control; the various control methodologies; and how climate control systems both enable indoor cannabis cultivation and can manage pests like mold and mildew.

Learn about the major choices of substrate, their benefits and disadvantages, the ways watering volume and frequency are affected by substrate choice, and more.

Learn the ways light energy from different parts of the action spectrum can affect plant expression, harvest structure, and quality characteristics and how light-emitting diode light fixtures can be controlled to modulate light intensity and spectral distribution to produce different effects.

Learn the ways cannabis cultivation uses water as a resource, how to measure and benchmark the key performance indicators (KPIs) for water efficiency and productivity, and the benefits of monitoring, quantifying, and ranking KPIs for water.

Understand what information to gather for cultivation operations, which KPIs are important, and how to interpret a performance benchmark.

Learn tips about monitoring environmental conditions to further improve yields.