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Nobody wants to admit it, but most of this tech has been driven by (and often funded by) the prohibition of marijuana. Due to the extremely short spring/summer in most of Canada, indoor grows became the norm, and much of that technology/knowledge was transferred over to these locations almost decades later.

When legalization occurs next spring, you'll see lots of these greenhouses switch to the new cash crop.




That's nonsense. MJ plantations are amateur hour, nothing compared to the high tech inside modern greenhouses.


I don't know what grow houses you've been in but here in Florida many are absolutely sophisticated, even including CO2 management.


Having some climate/AQ control systems does not make a setup advanced. I'm not claiming there is not a single illicit system that has some automated equipment in it, the gp's claim was that current greenhouse tech was developed in/for mj growing ops, which is preposterous.


MIT's OpenAG (state-of-the-art in the industry) must be boring you to tears, then.


> you'll see lots of these greenhouses switch to the new cash crop

Will they? Or will the marijuana farms just move outside, in the open since they no longer need to be hidden.

Pot isn't hard to grow (I'm told), it's just hard to hide the fact that you're growing it.


I'm not an expert, but while hemp in general might be a fairly hardy crop, the strains of cannabis prized for their cannabinoids might be a little more finicky. Hemp can endure a wide variety of molds and diseases and keep growing without losing much yield, but this might be less of a virtue in a crop destined to be commodity-graded for human consumption. Also, I'm given to understand that the intensity of the sunlight available to the plant is a major factor in determining the potency of the final product. I would be surprised to learn that any of the excellent marijuana grown in Canada was planted outdoors.

Combine that with how responsive the yield and quality of harvest is to intensive cultivation, and it seems a more likely competitor for greenhouse space in Niagara than for acreage around Tillsonburg.




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