Weed-Garden: From New Mexico Hitchhiker to meaningful data.
I bought an ounce of weed from a hitchhiker in New Mexico. It was good, flowery and bore me 1 seed! Pot had just been legalized in Minnesota and I threw the seed in a pot on my kitchen counter and decided I would grow a solidarity plant as a lark. To my ultimate surprise, the plant did really well! Aside from the potting soil, I did nothing to it, and it flourished. If this little plant on my counter could produce, what could I do if I actually put some effort into it?
I had quit smoking weed for 10 years. Back in the day, The Phototron was an ad one would see regularly in high times, and other publications. I had some friends who had grown successfully with one, years ago, so I started looking into what I could do in my 880 sq ft apartment today.
I was amazed how far lighting technology had come. It used to be you had to run a 500 watt sodium or metal halide that ran hot, needed proper ventilation, sucked juice like crazy and would tip off any power company, and was more hassle than my small apartment could bear. Now I could get a 100 watt light that ran on LEDs. Less heat, less power, all in a 2x2x4 box that would fit conveniently into a corner.
$350 for a full setup of that size and I cloned my counter plant, orders some seeds and threw 3 plants in the tent in 5 gallon pots. They did well! I fed with bat guano for N, and Fish emulsion for PH and CAL Mag with my water every so often. Got my first crop of just over 3 OZ of flower. Hot Damn! I was really winging the grow. I had taken a home horticulture class years ago and learning as much as I can about cultivation from the internet. What I learned? there are so many different ways to grow! Hydroponic,aquaponic, grow medium with nutrients, 8 million kinds of nutrients. It was incredibly daunting. I needed some extra help.
Years ago, my mother had a 99 plant permit in Colorado and her neighbors guided her in a couple very successful grows. I reached out to my mom, had her put me in touch with her neighbors and I made a trip to go see them in Colorado.
I was greeted by a council of 3 grand wizards. These guys were OG growers in Colorado and had seen the industry change to the point that they were no longer growing, BUT the wealth of knowledge they provided me with that night almost made my head explode.
I started by asking what kind of nutrients they used and what was best. One of them said to me, “I don’t use nutrients.” “What?” I exclaimed. “I never grew pot. I grew dirt. Living soil, No-till soil.” I had never heard of this. I grew up on a horse farm. Alfalfa was what we grew and that pretty much took care of itself. The wizard went on to explain that living soil has all of the parts and living things that create the nutrients that feed the plants. If you grow the dirt, the plants naturally are taken care of. Just then, another wizard pulled out his phone and showed me a setup he had built that was watered out of tanks raising tilapia, the outflow raised crayfish and bunnies wandering around the grow beds feeding on companion crops and peeing and pooping on the grow. It was a self sustaining system. I wanted one!
I got home and immediately started incorporating aquaculture into my grow with a 5 gallon fish tank(2 fish and 3 snails) with a 2 gallon cistern. I rigged pumps to water the plants and refill the fish tank from the cistern. I now had a self nutrifying system. I never had to clean the fish tank. The plants and fish thrived and I go a great crop comparable to my first. I was hooked!
Fast forward a year. We bought a house and my 2x2 tent is now 2, 4x4 tents with 3x3 grow beds of living no till soil fed by 3 fish tanks, 17 fish, 8 snails and some shrimp. Yes, I went a little nuts, but it is really cool to not be roped into buying expensive nutrients. The only supplement I run is I add minerals to my water.
I am also a software developer with a background in warehouse management systems and order fulfillment. With the oncoming legalization of dispensaries in Minnesota and what I know from seeing labeling in other states. Lot tracking my grow will be a thing should I want to distribute. I started looking into what other software there is out there. From what I saw, I thought, I can do this better/cheaper/ and make it more useful.
Corey is someone who I worked with at the geek squad a bunch of years ago. If we needed a tool, Corey would write one. By far one of the smartest, self teaching developers that I know.I tried to hire him at the last company that I ran, but that wasn’t the fit. I called him up, asked him if he was looking for a side hustle, he said yes, and we scheduled lunch. Lunch was on a Thursday. I told him my idea of writing a grow/lot tracking application/ERP. By Tuesday, he had the domain and a first version up and ready!
Currently one can track lots. Make notes. Pr
Corey has been working tirelessly on weed-garden. He has brought it to a higher level from my initial thoughts. We are still refining and figuring out how to make the tool more useful. If you are a grower and have ideas about this, please contact us.
It is our desire to be a SaaP(Software as a Partnership) company rather than SaaS(Software as a Service). Your success is our success!