Pro Gro didn't start with a plan to scale quickly. They started with a commitment to grow cannabis the right way, believing that quality isn't something you chase after the fact, but something you build into the system from day one.
Rooted in Michigan's caregiver era, Pro Gro's foundation was shaped by hands on experience, resilience, and meticulous attention to detail. Long before consistency and efficiency became industry buzzwords, the team was already focused on precision, quality, and craft.
As the operation evolved into a large scale, regulated cultivation business, those early standards didn't fade. They became the benchmark, guiding how Pro Gro approaches consistency, execution, and repeatability at scale.
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Today, Pro Gro operates in one of the most competitive cannabis markets in the country, producing precision-crafted flower through disciplined systems designed to perform the same way, run after run.
From reaction to execution
In Michigan's compressed market, even small variables can ripple through an entire operation, affecting plant performance, labor planning, and daily decision-making.
"Consistency isn't just a quality issue here," explains Jacob Nelson, Vice President of Cultivation. "It's an operational one. If one room behaves differently than the next, everything downstream gets harder."
That way of thinking shaped how the team evaluated the foundation of the grow. As Pro Gro tightened execution across rooms, it became clear that their approach to precision irrigation and crop steering would only work if the root zone behaved predictably. That realization ultimately led them toward Grodan stone wool.
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The impact of that consistency-driven mindset extended beyond plant performance. It shaped how teams planned their days, turned rooms, and executed against tight timelines, something Building Operations Manager Lexi Carlson has experienced firsthand.
"When rooms don't perform the same way, you're reacting instead of executing," she says. "The goal is to walk into a room knowing exactly how it's going to behave."
Where the system strained
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Earlier in their evolution, Pro Gro relied on soilless media and pots, including coco. Those approaches aligned with how the team was operating at the time, but as the facility expanded and expectations increased, variability became harder to manage.
Even with tight SOPs, the team found itself chasing inconsistencies that couldn't be fully corrected. "When we were in soilless pots, you could do everything as uniform as possible and still end up with inconsistency," says Director of Cultivation Nick Winegar. "Bale to bale, the composition fluctuates. Even with pre-filled coco bags, you'd hydrate them and see inches of variance from pot to pot."
For a team that views cultivation as both a science and an art, that level of variability wasn't sustainable. It made intentional crop steering more difficult and reduced confidence across rooms. If Pro Gro wanted to preserve craft while continuing to grow, the foundation had to change.
A more predictable foundation
Grodan stone wool aligned with Pro Gro's focus on efficiency, cleanliness, and control at the root zone.
By making the switch to Grodan Improved Hugo blocks and fine-tuning their irrigation strategy, Pro Gro built a cultivation foundation aligned with how they wanted to grow. The one-touch block configuration carries plants from propagation through harvest, helping reduce handling and variability in the root zone.
With a more predictable foundation in place, irrigation could be applied more evenly, dry-backs managed with intention, and crops steered with greater confidence from room to room. Instead of correcting for inconsistencies, the team could focus on refinement and repeatability.
That shift didn't just change plant behavior. It changed how the operation functioned at every level.
For Carlson and the team, consistency shows up in the day-to-day. When rooms behave as expected, workflows get cleaner, room turns get smoother, and bottlenecks start to disappear. The entire facility runs more efficiently because fewer variables need to be managed.
"When we know how rooms are going to perform, it changes how we plan the day," she explains. "We're not guessing. We're executing."
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Automation has played a key role in supporting that consistency, particularly in fertigation. By pairing a standardized root-zone foundation with a Dilution Solutions fertigation controller, Pro Gro reduced manual mixing and brought greater efficiency to daily operations.
Cleaner resets, streamlined irrigation, and reliable media performance reduce stress on the team and free up time to focus on plant health and quality. Instead of firefighting, the operation moves forward with confidence, cycle after cycle
As Pro Gro continues expanding its footprint and operating at scale, the challenge isn't growth alone. It's maintaining consistency across rooms, buildings, and teams while preserving the standards the company was built on.
Rather than reworking processes with each expansion, the team remains focused on refining the fundamentals that drive repeatable results. Irrigation strategy, environmental control, and crop steering are continuously evaluated to ensure each facility performs as predictably as the last.
By pairing caregiver rooted experience with disciplined cultivation systems and trusted partners like Grodan, Pro Gro has built a foundation designed for repeatable success at scale. Rather than compromising what made them successful early on, the team has remained focused on refining the fundamentals that matter most, consistency, execution, and quality, run after run.
It's the same philosophy Pro Gro was built on from the beginning, now supported by systems designed to perform predictably and raise the standard for cannabis cultivation in the Great Lakes State.
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