Managing 38,000 square feet of flowering canopy is no small feat, but for Alex Mayhugh, Cultivation Manager at Story Cannabis in Maryland, the job is less about micromanaging every detail and more about building a system that works, and a team that understands it. "A day here can be pretty calm or very exciting," Mayhugh says in this video. "It's not just about operational excellence, but also about making sure everyone becomes as capable and knowledgeable as I am."
© Front Row Ag
Story Cannabis operates a hydroponic, two-tiered indoor facility with eight flower rooms under LED lighting. Their current cultivation footprint is substantial, and much of their operational efficiency stems from their use of Front Row Ag nutrient systems and Grolink sensors. "It's made things simple for us," Alex explains. He also says that it makes it easy for him to train the staff. "Front Row gives us the educational pieces they provide, not only in terms of plan husbandry, but also water management, nutrient management, and why plants are using them and for what."
The emphasis on education has helped Story standardize processes in an industry that, not long ago, was anything but standardized. "Back in the day, most of the knowledge came from underground grows," says he. "It was like witch doctor science. Now, we can target specific salt values and use crop steering data to tailor that to the different phases going on in the flower rooms."
Story uses Grolink sensors embedded in their substrate blocks to monitor moisture content, electrical conductivity, and temperature. These real-time readings inform irrigation decisions and allow the team to adjust their strategies daily. "We always look at the previous day's data to adjust the crop schedule for the next phase," Alex notes. Each recipe comes with target values, and if the grower is off track, they can refer back to the educational resources from Front Row to recalibrate.
© Front Row Ag
One of the biggest improvements Story has seen is in consistency across cultivars. "Every grow I've worked at has seen wild variation in nutrient uptake. Before, it was a lot of guesswork, you'd mix and match nutrients based on what you thought was right. With Front Row, the system is simplified."
That consistency has translated into high-performance results. According to Alex, Front Row's output, paired with Story's genetics, has broken internal records for THC, terpenes, and yield. "We do our own seed hunting at our R&D facility, and we're working with everything from short sativas to tall indica hybrids," he says. "Our genetics broke crazy barriers in THC and terpenes but also in grams per square foot."
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