From lights to HVAC to nutrients, Avid Growing Systems provides an infinitely scalable, turn-key cultivation solution
By Garrett Rudolph
When looking at growing methods to supply a large-scale commercial marijuana operation, Pat Gagné couldn’t find an existing platform that met the criteria he was looking for.
So he assembled a team of engineers, millwrights and the best growers he could find to build an entirely new system from scratch.
The result was fully-automated, infinitely scalable, turn-key modular cultivation units called Avid Growing Systems.
“We tell customers that we’re here to take the voodoo out of commercial growing,” Gagné said. “We don’t keep our growing methods a secret from our customers. If we make our customers stronger, that helps make us stronger.”
Initially, Avid wasn’t intended as a commercial product, the CEO said.
“It was meant to be my own competitive advantage,” Gagné said. The system was originally developed for another company he founded, CannaCure, which is applying for a marijuana production license from Health Canada.
The Avid Growing Systems are comprised of individual chambers that feature hydroponic growing tubes, HVAC, lighting, odor control, live video feed and enough computer software to run the operation with essentially no human interaction. The patent pending system allows plants to grow from clone to harvest without ever having to be moved. The chambers are typically set up to house either four 600-watt grow lights or three 1,000-watt lamps, but the lighting options can be customized as growers see fit. Each chamber measures 5.5 feet wide and 16 feet long.
Going modular
Gagné said full environmental control was the top criteria in developing Avid. This was accomplished with the confined space of the individual chambers. In more traditional warehouse operations, growers must account for every cubic foot of air in the grow room. With the Avid Growing Systems, wasted space is held to a minimum, making it easier to ensure proper temperature and humidity.
Compartmentalized units provide multiple benefits to cultivators, Gagné said. They reduce the amount of cooling required, and mitigate the potential for crop loss due to mold, mildew and pests.
Plus, they allow business owners to start small, then scale up as revenue grows, rather than investing in a multi-million dollar cooling system before a single plant is harvested. Gagné said he suggests growers take a “sensible” approach, by starting with seven to 14 chambers. Because the system is infinitely scalable, it’s easy for growers to double or even triple the number of chambers after they start putting product on the market.
Phase one of Gagné’s own grow at CannaCure will feature 56 chambers in a 122,000-square-foot former pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.
Down the road, if a business needs to change locations, the Avid chambers can be moved without needing to start over on a warehouse build-out. The only requirements for Avid Growing Systems are connections to water, drainage and electricity.
“You don’t have to invest a lot of money in other people’s property,” Gagné said.
Another added bonus of the modular system is that Avid can provide a system to the customer within a matter of weeks, rather than months of coordinating with contractors to build out a warehouse, co-founder Jim Reddon said. With a platform designed to produce six crops per year, Avid’s speed to market is a big advantage over other methods, Gagné said. Installation can be completed two to six weeks after initial order.
Software
Avid Grow Systems represent a transition from old-school grow-by-intuition methods to a more modern, scientific approach.
“We believe we’re just scratching the surface about what we know of growing marijuana,” Gagné said. “We want to bring it down to a science.”
The Avid software systems control everything about the cultivation process, including redundancies to prevent system failure and about 50 sensors that collect data for analysis and tracking each plant’s history.
“Every aspect of the business, in terms of cultivation, can be monitored from a cell phone or a laptop (through a VPN connection to ensure nobody else can see your data),” Gagné said.
The software analyzes real-time measurements and can initiate a corrective course of action if needed. When errors are detected, an alert is sent to the grow managers detailing what the problem is and what the corrective course of action will be. The manager then has the option to approve the action or go to the facility and make changes manually.
“A guy sitting on a beach drinking a beer can do that all from his phone,” Gagné said.
Gagné sees the modern marijuana grower as more of an analyst than somebody with 20 years of cultivation experience.
The data collected by the Avid software gives growers not just the ability to fully understand the cultivation process, but also opens the door for a deeper, more scientific level of research and development.
Where an old-school grower might have tweaked nutrient formulas and made adjustments based on anecdotal evidence, modern growers can utilize specific measurements and statistical analysis to refine their techniques.