Dr. Tassa Saldi is an accomplished molecular biologist with more than 25 years of research experience in RNA biology, infectious disease, and molecular pathogen detection. Dr. Saldi graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Molecular Biology. She completed her graduate and postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado, where she studied RNA structure, small RNAs and RNA processing. She was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the American Cancer Society and was one of eighteen doctoral fellows nationwide invited to present her research at the Aspen Cancer Conference. Dr. Saldi has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals. As the Chief Science Officer and co-founder of TUMI Genomics, Dr. Saldi continues to use her expertise to provide the cannabis industry with reliable, accurate diagnostic tools and pathogen mitigation guidance.

My guest this week is a returning guest. Dr. Nicole Gauthier is a pathologist, and Professor and Extension specialist at the University of Kentucky. Her program focuses on disease management of specialty crops, including hemp. In her Extension role, she develops educational and outreach programs to help growers manage disease through identification, understanding of pathosystems, and integration of management strategies. Her research program focuses on a range of hemp diseases, including Fusarium head blight. Dr. Gauthier earned her BS in Horticulture Science and her PhD in Plant Pathology from Louisiana State University. She joined the UK College of Agriculture in 2011 and began working with industrial hemp in 2014. There will be a link on the podcast page to access her resources and research. Now on to the show!

Hemp and cannabis research and Extension fact sheets https://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/extension/publications#HEMP

Silicon study https://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/pprr-02.pdf

George has degrees in Horticulture from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida. He is the GGSPro Technical Services Manager with Griffin Greenhouse Supplies. GGSPro assists ornamental, edible, and hemp/cannabis growers across the country with their cultivation issues ranging from sanitation, IPM, fertility, lighting, and water quality. GGSPro fields over 17,000 grower related calls and emails annually. This amount of valuable interaction helps Griffin collaborate with chemical vendors, academic researchers, and plant producers to implement change within the green industry.

My guest this week is June Graesch from Bioworks. Julie has 18 years of experience as a biological scientist, practiced in laboratory, greenhouse, and field research as well as technical service support for the integrated pest management industry. She has been with BioWorks for 5 years and has previously held positions at BASF, Becker Underwood, and Iowa State University. Now on to the show!

Irrigation is one of the most underrated aspects of cultivation and understanding water quality, dissolved oxygen, and best practices will make a HUGE difference in plant health. My guest this week is Les Evans from Dramm, to answer all my questions about water. Les has a degree in Biological Engineering, with a concentration in Water/Soil & Environmental Engineering from NC State University, and 29 years of industry experience helping growers, of all types of crops, with their environmental and water quality challenges. Les’ day-to-day involves supporting the Dramm sales team and their customers with water treatment designs that maximize investment while minimizing environmental impact. When he's not at his desk, he can be found planting perennials with his family, or running the NC Mountains-to-Sea trail system a stone's throw from his home in Raleigh.

My guest this week is Chris Castle. Chris is the co-founder and CEO/COO of Flora & Flame out of California, currently the largest vertical indoor living soil cannabis farm. Chris is a bay area native who has been cultivating cannabis for 17 years, with the last 6 solely on indoor living soil.

Before starting the podcast I wanted to let listeners know that I plan on adding more interviews of growers this season. While the original intention of the podcast was to bridge the gap between academic research and real life cultivation, I have done a wide variety of interviews of the years and think it’s important to hear how growers are dealing with real day to day issues in their cultivation facilities, as we don’t typically get to grow under perfect conditions and control for every variable. So while these interviews might be slightly less scientific and may contain some personal experiences and anecdotal information, my hope is that it will spark new ideas, research, and help growers deal with real life scenarios that they may be facing as well, and grow the community.

In the spirit of this, my guest this week is Matthew Butters. I met Matthew when he emailed me and we started corresponding. I went to tour his facility, which is about 2.5 hours away from me, and after the tour I decided I wanted to have him on the podcast. Matthew serves as the Director of Cultivation at Smokey Point Productions and Waypointe Ventures, a prominent i502 operation in Washington. Leveraging his expertise in cannabis cultivation, he has a rich history of successfully developing and leading cultivation teams in various settings worldwide. Matthew is driven by a commitment to achieving sustainable production of top-tier cannabis on a commercial scale, reflecting his passion for excellence in the industry. Now on to the show!

My guest this week is Michael Alden. Michael is the Research Director at Stairway Holding, Inc. and explores methods to improve  efficiency and productivity in cannabis cultivation. He spent the past 5 years as a graduate research assistant with Dr. Jim Faust studying the flowering physiology of poinsettias (M.S.) and cannabis (PhD) at Clemson University. Now on to the show!