Most cultivation facilities reach a point where spreadsheets and timers are no longer enough. Lights are on one system. Irrigation on another. Climate data travels through three different dashboards, each with its own subscription fee. And when something goes wrong, growers spend hours trying to understand which component failed before they can even fix the problem.
When Mike and Tom from Agrowtek started visiting cultivation sites almost twenty years ago, that fragmentation showed up everywhere. They saw operators with rooms full of gear, hacking things together with adapters and repurposed parts because the available horticulture control systems did not speak the language of cannabis. They were expensive, closed, and required monthly fees just to keep working. "That's when we decided to build something different," says Mike.
© Agrowtek
The one to rule them all
The GrowControl™ GCX platform is Agrowtek's answer to the everything is separate problem. "Instead of stacking disconnected systems, GCX acts as a single control brain for an entire facility," explains Tom. "We developed three different models, depending on the size of the cultivation facility. The GCX Mini is for hobby applicattions; the GCX for standard sized commercial facilities; finally, GCX Plus for large operations with many zones."
From the same controller, growers can manage climate, fertigation, lighting, irrigation scheduling, nutrient mixing, carbon dioxide management, drying rooms, and more. Every sensor and every function plugs into the same system. "If scheduling the feeding and irrigation and mixing nutrients can be done by the controller, then that frees a person to do what a person should do" Mike says. "Inspect plants. Walk the rooms. Manage pests. Not babysit timers."
Informed decisions
As Agrowtek kept walking the cannabis path, they noticed growers would hack together lots of different pieces of equipment to get their combination to perform one specific task. For instance, VPD didn't have a specific measuring tool, back in the day. "That's a crucial metric, especially because you need prices environmental feedback to grow high quality," Mike says. So, Agrowtek developed an environment sensor that hangs above the canopy capable of reading the actual leaf surface temperature, which allows the GCX to calculate true real time VPD.
Other requests followed. Mushroom growers needed humidity sensors that would not fail under extreme moisture. Something like that, however, would have been useful to cannabis as well, since there's quite a lot of humidity in grow rooms, especially in dry rooms, where that humidity needs to be under constant check. "When our engineers got that feedback, we developed a sensor that can withstand super high humidity," says Tom.
© Agrowtek
As Agrowtek matured together with the industry, so too did the GCX. "Currently, our controller can monitor water, pH, dissolved oxygen, substrate moisture, quantum light data, spectrum, temperature, humidity, CO2, and many other critical values. All data is stored directly on the controller. No cloud dependency. If needed, growers insert a pen drive and export an excel sheet," Tom explains.
No subscription required
Most facility control products on the market run on an app that requires a monthly payment. "That's just not how we roll," Mike shakes his head. "The cannabis industry has given so much to all of us. We were the first to serve growers with cannabis specific tools, and those same growers showed us incredible support. We've been in business for almost 20 years, and this was possible only because growers trusted us. It just doesn't make any sense to us to sell a tool to a grower, and then keep on charging them monthly fee to use said tool, or even to update it. There are other companies out there that work this way, but to put it bluntly, they are not like us."
This same philosophy is reflected in how the controller is built. The GCX runs on Linux, which is arguably more stable and reliable than other operating systems. But mainly, it's a free, community base OS that fosters knowledge exchange and collaboration because, after all, we are all on the same boat.
© Agrowtek
Not disposable consumer tech
Agrowtek designs and manufactures the circuit boards, mounts the components, and builds the metal parts in house at their manufacturing facility in Wisconsin. Boards go through automated inspection and protective coating. Downtime is the enemy, so Agrowtek often sends key spare parts with orders, especially for international customers. The company also trains installers and offers free support, video calls included. Using a free VNC connection, their technicians can log into a customer controller and walk them through rules or recipes live.
Community built system
The GrowControl™ ecosystem is shaped by cultivator feedback. Every module that exists started with a grower saying I wish I could. Crop steering functions, moisture monitoring, CO2 alarm kits, panel mounted control boxes to simplify wiring, and even lighting recipe integration all came from the field. Agrowtek does not prescribe plant strategies or set points, but growers share settings with each other. Entire programs travel from Arizona to the East Coast with one file.
© Agrowtek
"That is one of the best parts" Mike says. "We started in cannabis. If commercial cannabis does not survive, we do not survive. Cannabis made our company successful, so we give back by making sure the tools are accessible and the knowledge flows."
Traditional horticulture prides itself on open exchange of data and techniques. Cannabis is bringing something else: a culture of community and mutual support. In Agrowtek's view, the future of controlled environment cultivation will be shaped by both. And hopefully, it will not require a subscription to participate.
For more information:
© Agrowtek
Agrowtek
3365 Gateway Rd, Brookfield, WI 53045
Phone: (847) 380-3009
Fax: (224) 538-2320
[email protected]
agrowtek.com
