Cannabis Cultivation and Science Podcast · Tad Hussey

Episode 139: The Challenges of a Vertical Tier Farm with Christine DeJesus

·1 hr 28 min·15 clips

Christine DeJesus brings a production-minded point of view to the conversation. Tad Hussey starts with her background and keeps returning to the details that matter in a working grow. Her path runs through regenerative organic agriculture, food justice, and a farm role for Great Lakes Brewing Company. She also works as a producer for Galena's Cannabis in Akron, Ohio. That mix of experience shapes how she talks about cultivation. The episode is built around a highly efficient organic model that has been refined over five years. The conversation keeps coming back to the practical question of how to manage plants, processes, and people at scale. Watering becomes the clearest example. Christine explains that different cultivars do not dry back at the same rate, even when they sit in the same room. A six-foot plant and a short, bushier cultivar may need very different treatment. The team uses moisture readings to guide both watering frequency and watering volume. They do not read every plant in a room of 744. Instead, they sample enough plants per cultivar to see which ones are holding moisture longer and which ones are dropping faster on a given day. That lets them adjust by amount, not just by schedule. A strain reading at 50 or 60 percent on Mondays might get cut back to a half gallon. Another cultivar might stay at a different volume if its dry-back looks different. The episode also digs into the mechanics of delivering that water. Technicians use a hose watering wand with an inline gallon counter. They watch the meter, move from plant to plant, and deliver the target amount without guessing. The equipment is simple. Christine notes that the flow meters are inexpensive and effective, even if they eventually drift and need replacement. That kind of calibration detail matters because the crew builds a rhythm around how long a gallon should take. When the rhythm feels off, they change the meter. The conversation stays grounded in that same habit of noticing, checking, and correcting. It never drifts far from the grow room. Even when the discussion opens onto broader ideas about efficiency or organic cultivation, it comes back to what the plants are doing and how the team responds. The episode is also shaped by the host's habit of asking for clarification and then drilling deeper. That keeps the technical material accessible without flattening the complexity. The result is a calm, hands-on discussion of how a cannabis farm actually functions. It is less about big claims than about the accumulation of small, defensible decisions. The room, the meter, the sample size, and the cultivar all matter. Christine's perspective makes those connections feel concrete rather than abstract.

As heard by us

A practical look at how watering gets tuned by cultivar, not habit.

Christine DeJesus and Tad Hussey spend the hour on the practical engineering of organic cannabis cultivation: watering schedules, moisture readings, and cultivar-by-cultivar adjustments.

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Need a real-world look at dialing irrigation in a cannabis grow room?

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