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Brandy Keen had a hobby garden in the early 2000s and witnessed a dramatically different indoor cultivation industry than we have today. Her husband owned a commercial construction company, and Keen co-founded Surna to make a big impact on an inefficient industry. Keen wanted to change the game.
But in 2007, Keen's husband was diagnosed with epilepsy, and the couple's focus switched from indoor cultivation as a whole to understanding cannabis as a therapy for epilepsy. Surna became a labor of love, more than just a business.
The couple moved to Colorado, where medicinal use was legal, and Keen's husband weened himself off his anti-seizure meds and onto cannabis. As a result, he hasn't had an epileptic seizure since 2007.
Founded during the indoor gardening dark ages, Surna went through a dramatic shift when cannabis was legalized. The nascent industry was riddled with inefficiencies, improper equipment use and a host of other problems.
Keen has been in the industry for nearly 17 years and has helped some 800 cultivators along the way. In this episode, Keen discusses:
- How to improve crop quality and yield while optimizing energy and water efficiency
- Realistic conservation goals for indoor grows
- How to improve data collection and use it to your benefit
- How to efficiently manage climates
- The importance of cultivation facility design and equipment and the difficulties retrofitting facilities
- What to look for when vetting design firms
- How droughts and other water issues will impact indoor grows
Today, Surna Cultivation Technologies is the one-stop-shop for indoor agriculture facility design. Surna has a team of architects, engineers, project managers and a wide selection of equipment designed specifically for indoor farms.
Please make sure to like, subscribe and share the podcast. You could also help us out by giving the podcast a positive review. Finally, to email the podcast or suggest a potential guest, you can reach David Mantey at David @cannabisequipmentnews.com.