The ‘Ferrari’ of vertical farms

“This is the largest and most technologically advanced indoor facility for medicinal crops in the Middle East. In fact, it’s the ‘Ferrari’ of vertical farms, but that means you also need good growers who know how to ‘drive’ it,” continues Steve. “So as head grower, I’m responsible for training and managing our small, multicultural team of 14 people – including workers from Turkey and Palestine as well as Israel – and for supervising and improving all aspects of the production process.” 

Standardization is key

Besides skilled employees, another key to the company’s success is complete standardization, according to Steve. “To consistently produce the highest level of quality, we needed to standardize every aspect of cultivation; that’s the whole basis for how we grow here. And the medium in which the roots grow is a huge aspect within that,” he says. “I first came into contact with Grodan’s products at agricultural college, initially for tomatoes and cucumbers, and I always saw its value and potential within a standardized approach to growing.”

“That’s why we’ve been using Grodan’s growing media ever since our farm opened, across all our phases of cultivation – from propagation all the way through to flower production and harvesting,” he adds. “The physical, chemical and biological inertness makes a big contribution to the standardization I’m looking for – and that can’t be said for organic substrates. Soil mixes are chemically buffered, which means I can’t perfectly control what nutrition the root system is exposed to, unlike with stone wool.”

Uniformity minimizes variation

The uniform porosity of Grodan’s stone-wool growing media also plays an important part in Trichome’s standardized approach, comments Steve: “I know precisely how much water and air a cube or slab can hold, and each one is identical, so this supports uniform irrigation and aeration. In contrast, there can be 20-25% variation in organic substrates, which can be a challenge when working with such a large-area crop.”

But the biggest advantage of Grodan’s growing media, according to the head grower, is that there are minimal sanitation issues. “Contamination is a risk in any agronomic venture, but the production of medicinal crops is the most tightly regulated. We work extremely hygienically, and we have lots of controls built into our end-to-end processes as part of our quality management program. As a non-organic substrate, Grodan’s stone wool makes a great contribution to the sterility of our facility.”

Data-driven decisions

When asked how data-driven he is, Steve replies: “Too much! Many growers in this industry tend to panic and adjust their strategies too frequently based on very short-term conclusions. But I’m a strong believer in making decisions only when we have information. In the past, I’ve used all kinds of tools and techniques to get my hands on as much data as possible. In that respect, this facility is like a candy store for me, because we have upwards of 40 GroSens sensors monitoring the temperature, EC and water content in the stone wool at any one time.”

Ongoing field trials

Steve explains that Trichome has 50 crop turnovers a year across its nine flower rooms. “I’m constantly running field trials by changing just one parameter per crop. Thanks to the sensors, we’re able to analyse and evaluate our assumptions and hypotheses with much more precision, based on real-time information rather than manual methodology. I regard GroSens and Grodan’s growing media as the perfect combination to monitor the crop conditions 24/7, which helps us to make the right decisions at the right moment.”

“We’re happy to be part of the trials of Grodan’s cloud-based eGro solution, which underlines our good partnership with Grodan,” he adds. “The company is a reliable supplier and has a good customer service philosophy in terms of support. We have regular contact with the rep, who often has interesting research and advice for us. After ‘toiling in the dark’ for many years, it’s nice to be able to exchange knowledge with the experts at Grodan so that we can hone the art of medicinal crop production together.”

Continuous improvement

Trichome has so far completed five full cycles, and the results have been even better than expected. “Within all cycles, the yields have been above average while the contents and percentages of the desired substances have exceeded our expectations,” says Steve. “We’re committed to continuous improvement, so we’re always trying new things, such as new strains that might require different sizes or densities of stone-wool growing media. And I’m in no doubt that Grodan will continue to support us in this,” he concludes.