SA: "Perfecting our boutique medical cannabis cultivation through automation and hydroponics"

"We are a family run business with a passion for cannabis. Our key priority and focus is quality, perfecting the cultivation of our boutique medical grade cannabis. This is achieved by a hands on approach within a controlled indoor GMP environment through to our hand trimmed finished product." Uncle Rooney's is a fully automated indoor medical cannabis facility in South Africa. In a recent video, they shared an inside look at their hydroponic production.

Click here to watch the facility tour

Automated boutique production
PJ Pywell, the CEO of the company, shares that they launched their business in 2020. "We decided to go with a premium concept, developing a small indoor hydroponic facility. That way, we can really focus on making sure we have top level quality for our consumers. We also brought on my uncle, who used to be an organic citrus farmer and brings very unique and strong skills to the team."

The facility is 400 square meters, housing a mother room, a series of breeding rooms, a clone room, a vegetation room, and a series of flower rooms. They use the TrolMaster Hydro-X Pro Control System to monitor and control different zones in the vegetation and flowering rooms. "It delves into every aspect that we could want as a grower. It helps us to dial in our VPD to an absolute ideal, and we have HVAC that allows for a nice airflow in each room."

With the TrolMaster Aqua X, the growers are able to control their irrigation. "The system allows us to set up our timers and monitor all the EC, pH, and water temperatures. Accordingly, we mix all of our nutrients into the tanks and our irrigation water get filtered and reused."

In their clone room, they are hunting for the strongest clones to make it through the selection. "We take about 450 clones per month, hunt out the best ones and transition those to the vegetation room." The flowering room is provided with a Quest dehumidifier, and a combination of HPS and ceramic metal halide lights. "In our facility, we have a bit of a flowing farm scenario, where we try to constantly fill up the rooms and push out as much as possible."

For more information:
Uncle Rooneys
www.unclerooneys.com