\n<\/p>\n
For cannabis enthusiasts of a certain age, Cypress Hill was the soundtrack to countless smoke sessions.<\/p>\n
As the band members have matured their interest in cannabis has evolved as well. <\/p>\n
Lead singer B-Real\u2019s latest project with master grower Kenji Fujishima is THC Controls, a cultivation automation system that allows growers to take a hands-off approach to farming. <\/p>\n
Cannabis & Tech Today<\/em>\u2019s Sara Brittany Somerset interviewed B-Real for the spring 2021 issue and learned so much that we couldn\u2019t fit it all into print. Read on for the full story.<\/p>\n B-Real: Not that I\u2019m aware of yet, but I would imagine that at some point they will come calling. <\/p>\n We haven\u2019t gone out of our way to pitch our system to any other brands. <\/p>\n I mean, it\u2019s just a matter of time before people get into the cannabis industry. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot about word-of-mouth when people find something new to use, whether it\u2019s a nutrient, new technology, or even a new strain or genetic. <\/p>\n I believe once the word starts getting around about the control systems we offer, and how people have been able to utilize it, be successful with it and get what they need out of it, I believe that companies will be knocking on the door for the THC Controls.<\/p>\n B-Real: Realistically, for us, we don\u2019t necessarily worry about the competition in that way. <\/p>\n We\u2019re very secure and confident in what we do that we could share this type of technology out and still do well. <\/p>\n Because it\u2019s about the genetics that you have that are unique to the market, and how you cultivate and go about using them. <\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re tied into our SOPs. <\/p>\n Everyone will have their own SOPs and they can record them and do the research on their data that they come up with, or we could share them our SOP. It just depends.<\/p>\n B-Real: If you\u2019re an MSO, you have to put strains in all these different markets. <\/p>\n It helps you keep consistent with where the strain started. <\/p>\n So, if it\u2019s a California strain and these are the SOP we use, we can make sure that the operators that are cultivating our genetics in that state can be consistent and adhere to our SOPs. <\/p>\n And we can feed, monitor, and supervise them to make sure that they\u2019re staying on those. I think it\u2019s important for any company, especially relating to genetics, to keep consistent. <\/p>\n Too many times you see the brands that do genetic deals in an MSO situation where you go to a particular city or state, and that product is nothing like it is in its original territory. <\/p>\n This will give you feedback, so, if you are an MSO and you\u2019re trying to keep that consistency in your product, as it relates to the flower, this system will provide better tools to handle that issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n B-Real: Exactly! THC Controls can definitely help with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: I think with any cultivation, whether it\u2019s hydro or indoor or outdoor or greenhouse, it\u2019s how you care for the plants. <\/p>\n First of all, it\u2019s the environment. You got to have the right environment. <\/p>\n With that being said, it\u2019s the care of the plants. What you\u2019re feeding the plants and how well and dedicated you are to that plant. <\/p>\n Are you cleaning the plant? You\u2019re making sure pests aren\u2019t there, and if they are how do you take care of them? <\/p>\n It\u2019s the practices and the methodologies in which people take care of their plants. <\/p>\n I mean, some people just want to plant it and forget it because they don\u2019t know, and some people are just lazy growers. <\/p>\n Some people love the plant and, at the end of the day, that\u2019s the kind of product you see what those people did during that growth cycle. You\u2019ll see the love in the flower.<\/p>\n Nowadays, there\u2019s care for the plants, but also at scale it\u2019s not like you can talk to each plant because some facilities have thousands of plants, if not tens of thousands of plants. <\/p>\n With that being said, is where the control systems have come in where now people, rather than hand watering. <\/p>\n I was always a firm believer in hand watering. It wasn\u2019t necessarily just because I didn\u2019t understand automated feeding, but what it did was make me pay attention to every plant. <\/p>\n That was always what I was telling people who were learning from me at the time, is pay close attention to the plants. If you walk into a room you need to not only see, but you need to feel what\u2019s going on. <\/p>\n And then, if there\u2019s something wrong with the environment, you need to be able to make those adjustments. Full automation is great, but you should still pay attention to your plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you walk into a room and you see the plants drooping or doing something weird, you need to be out there to identify that to see if there\u2019s a problem. <\/p>\n Correct that problem before it might start spreading to other plants. <\/p>\n I think the automation stuff and what we\u2019re doing now, and a few other companies are doing, is just it allows a lot of human error to be taken out of the factor of watering.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a time saver because now that you\u2019re not having to worry about the watering cycle, the employees or the person that\u2019s running the grow have more time to spend with the plants, which is I think the most important thing \u2013 care of the plants.<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: If you talk about lots of water right now, that\u2019s not changed, but it\u2019s more carefully thought about. Back in the day, we would just water the plants until they fully were running off just to keep them saturated. <\/p>\n Now, with technology and the systems that we\u2019re using, we\u2019re figuring out what percentages of median saturation that the plant needs to run the best possible crop. <\/p>\n Just because it\u2019s wet doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good. If it\u2019s over wet that\u2019s bad. If it\u2019s too dry, that\u2019s also bad. <\/p>\n There\u2019s a percentage or a ratio of where the median should be wet. Again, this is going to be different for everybody out there, depending on their temperatures, their humidities, and whatnot. <\/p>\n How far they dry back, how far they saturate, to get the best results. What THC Controls does is measure those levels.<\/p>\n Water sensors will tell us the correct percentage saturation, and it\u2019s going to dry to this percentage, so if we could find the perfect percentages on both ends, to figure out how to not only grow the best product but produce more. They call that crop steering. <\/p>\n It\u2019s like you\u2019re guiding your crop to the best possible outcome and you can only do that with data. <\/p>\n If you know, for example, THC Controls will not only record what your temperatures are, what your humidities are, what the light levels are, also the saturation level of your median. <\/p>\n Once you find that perfect combination of all those, that\u2019s going to be the best possible scenario for making the best product.<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: The guys from THC Controls will come to the facility and they\u2019ll assess what you have as far as your operation, whether it be a greenhouse or if it\u2019s an indoor facility. From there, it\u2019s a preferential thing and a budget thing. What do you want it to control or what are your goals? <\/p>\n Because we can control watering, but we can also control everything else that goes along with it. Let\u2019s just say, for example, you want to automate your whole facility. <\/p>\n They\u2019re going to assess how many things need to be controlled so we can figure out how much equipment is going to be needed to do this because, whether you\u2019re controlling one room or five rooms or whether you have one component in a room or 10 components, different size modules that have to be used.<\/p>\n Next, they put that together and they give you a program. Once the system is installed, it allows you to tune and run your grow room to your specifications based on, not only your formulas but what temperatures, what humidities you want. At one point in your growth cycle do you want these things to happen? <\/p>\n For example, if you have an eight-week strain you could program the system to run the complete eight weeks of your harvest. We\u2019re talking about everything from what your humidity is in a room at a specific time or week. <\/p>\n Your humidity, your temperature, and then what you\u2019re feeding it, and the duration of those feeds. It goes back to where we were talking about the saturation points of the medians. They used to hand water, but you want to water 30 seconds, 14 times a day, or something like that. <\/p>\n That\u2019s what might be needed. Now you can do that.<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: Again, that comes into the plant care. <\/p>\n Just because it\u2019s automated doesn\u2019t mean that it controls everything because plants are living organisms, so sometimes shit happens. <\/p>\n Sometimes you have equipment failures. <\/p>\n Generally, if a plant\u2019s sick it might not be eating as much, so you\u2019re going to notice that. You still have to look at it. <\/p>\n We set multiple sensors throughout the rooms so that when you\u2019re looking at it you could tell if there are hot spots in the room or if one area of the room is a little bit higher humidity or if the CO2 is higher in a certain area. <\/p>\n It lets you know that. You\u2019re looking at a screen that\u2019s telling you exactly what\u2019s going on in your room at that time. <\/p>\n And then, there are also graphs that you can go back and see if there were spikes or something weird that was going on. <\/p>\n It\u2019ll give you the time, so it allows you to adjust what you need to when you see a problem or if you see a problem.<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: Yes, we do. <\/p>\n At first, this was used to control lighting, humidity, temperature, and all that kind of stuff. <\/p>\n Now, what we were noticing is also incorporating the actual feed program, because it\u2019s easy to turn on an existing one.<\/p>\n If you hand mix a reservoir, it\u2019s easy to have that pump turn on to feed it. <\/p>\n Now what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re building our fertigation skids. Are you familiar with fertigation at all?<\/p>\n C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>I am, but kindly enlighten our readers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: Fertigation is a method. <\/p>\n For example, some machines will take your concentrated nutrients and mix them in line through the tank and feed it to your plants. <\/p>\n You set this equipment up to automate the mixing of your nutrients, whether it be micronutrients or salts or whatever it is, these machines do it. <\/p>\n Typically, these systems \u2014 what you can buy, most of them are proprietary or older technology. <\/p>\n We weren\u2019t able to get other companies to work with us so that we could integrate those machines with THC Controls. <\/p>\n What we have to do is build our own. We work with a company called Bear Ag and they\u2019re building the machine for us. <\/p>\n They\u2019re building the hardware part of it. <\/p>\n The injectors, the things that are going to take our concentrates and send them to a mixing tank.<\/p>\n They\u2019re working with THC Controls to build the brain to talk to that system.<\/p>\n Now, what that allows us to do is that it allows the environment control system to talk to the feeding system so that it all works together. <\/p>\n Now, we\u2019re talking about how we can control everything from the feeding end of it to the environment control part of it.<\/p>\n B-Real: For outdoor I imagine it wouldn\u2019t be that effective, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve run that sort of test yet. I believe the grow op has to be in an enclosed area. <\/p>\n I think that\u2019s something that will eventually catch on in the future. The system is primarily used for Indoor grows and greenhouses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kenji Fujishima: As far as the feeding system is concerned, yeah. Anything that\u2019s plugged into power we can control.<\/p>\n Header Image courtesy of Pedro Garcia.<\/em><\/p>\nCannabis & Tech Today:<\/em><\/strong> Have any of the larger, corporate cannabis Multi-State Operators (MSOs) such as Tilray, Canopy Growth, or Aphria approached you yet, to acquire THC Controls?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today:<\/em><\/strong> Your legendary cultivation expertise is what gives you a leg up over other MSOs who are newer to the game. Are you not concerned about arming the competition with your proprietary tech?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today:<\/em><\/strong> Quality control is a serious issue among MSOs. How will THC Controls align the inconsistency factor?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today:<\/em><\/strong> Quality control across different markets has always been an issue due to varying parameters. There hasn\u2019t been a fool-proof way to standardize it. Until the advent of federal legalization, which will hopefully legalize interstate commerce, a brand-name herb in California might not taste, or be the same quality that you get in Colorado. Therefore, having an underlying factor that will equalize variants will be very helpful to cultivators.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>In your opinion as an OG grower, what are the most important factors for quality cultivation?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>There are additional important factors for quality cultivation, including using clean water. Does THC incorporate that too?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>Walk me through how this works. Let\u2019s say a corporation raised a ton of investment money but has no idea what they\u2019re doing and they want to subscribe to THC Controls or purchase a THC Controls encapsulated unit. What does that look like from point A to point B?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>Do you check in at specific intervals? Let\u2019s say it\u2019s four weeks in and my leaves are looking a little yellow on the lower limbs and they need some nitrogen. Is that something you monitor and alert?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today: <\/em><\/strong>Do you incorporate micronutrients into the system?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
C&T Today:<\/em><\/strong> I assume the THC Controls cultivation system is primarily for indoor \u201chydro\u201d grows because you cannot regulate outdoor conditions. Would the system work in an outdoor greenhouse?<\/strong><\/h4>\n