Startup Sells Pot 'Grow Fridges' That Are Tended By Robots (nj.com) 87
NJ Advance Media reports on "an Israeli and Maryland-based startup that claims to be able to quadruple the yield of traditional cannabis grows" -- using indoor, climate-controlled 40-inch-tall "grow fridges" that are tended by robots.
You see, despite the old cliche of "growing like a weed," cannabis has actually been something of a high-maintenance slacker when it comes to its cultivation... In shade, it provides far less seed and pollen. It's not tolerant of the cold, and does not reproduce well in drought. It's also very susceptible to fungal infections, so too much water leaves it vulnerable to pathogens... For years, the high price fetched by traditionally farmed cannabis and low cost of human labor conspired to make robotic farming uneconomical.
What else is inside the Seedo container besides the plants, gro-bots and soil? Nothing -- which is kind of the whole point: Seedo uses a patented, beyond-surgical grade filtration system that ionizes the air, making it deadly to bacteria, viruses and mold.... At $150,000 per Seedo container, the costs to achieve this are high, but cutting the usual 10 percent to 20 percent loss to disease of a traditionally farmed cannabis crop to disease to less than 5 percent, they rapidly become economical... A traditionally-farmed 1,000 square meter grow operation produces 600 kilograms of cannabis per year. But Levy says 16 Seedo containers (along with a Seedo robot to tend them) can fit into that same space, producing 2.4 tons of dry bud [2,177 kilograms]. And because they can be stacked 5 high, the same robotically farmed footprint can generate up to 12 tons [10,886 kilograms] of dry bud cannabis. "You can make a return on investment very fast," said Levy, whose backers now include include Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream International, acquired by Pepsi late last year for $3.2 billion.
"Think of Seedo as the first driverless car for hydroponic growing," explains their web site, noting that their gro-bots control each container's temperature, humidity, lighting, pH sensors, and automated CO2-release systems, with internal cameras offering HD-live streaming to their iOS/Android app.
Seedo is now "in negotiations" to export its containers to California and Nevada, according to the article, and also in New Jersey -- assuming New Jersey's state legislature votes to legalize it first.
What else is inside the Seedo container besides the plants, gro-bots and soil? Nothing -- which is kind of the whole point: Seedo uses a patented, beyond-surgical grade filtration system that ionizes the air, making it deadly to bacteria, viruses and mold.... At $150,000 per Seedo container, the costs to achieve this are high, but cutting the usual 10 percent to 20 percent loss to disease of a traditionally farmed cannabis crop to disease to less than 5 percent, they rapidly become economical... A traditionally-farmed 1,000 square meter grow operation produces 600 kilograms of cannabis per year. But Levy says 16 Seedo containers (along with a Seedo robot to tend them) can fit into that same space, producing 2.4 tons of dry bud [2,177 kilograms]. And because they can be stacked 5 high, the same robotically farmed footprint can generate up to 12 tons [10,886 kilograms] of dry bud cannabis. "You can make a return on investment very fast," said Levy, whose backers now include include Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream International, acquired by Pepsi late last year for $3.2 billion.
"Think of Seedo as the first driverless car for hydroponic growing," explains their web site, noting that their gro-bots control each container's temperature, humidity, lighting, pH sensors, and automated CO2-release systems, with internal cameras offering HD-live streaming to their iOS/Android app.
Seedo is now "in negotiations" to export its containers to California and Nevada, according to the article, and also in New Jersey -- assuming New Jersey's state legislature votes to legalize it first.
What's that in metric? (Score:1)
C'mon people, how hard can it be?
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I wonder if we could fit a single one in our IT janitor's studio on Fruitdale in San Jose.
Why? SJ has a mild Mediterranean climate that is perfect for growing dope. Fertile soil, low humidity, and plenty of sunshine. Just plant it in your backyard, water it, and it will grow fine.
The device in TFA is for growing dope in New Jersey, not the California Coast.
What we really need is national legalization, so dope can be grown where it makes sense and exported to other states.
Disclaimer: I live in San Jose.
Re:What's that in metric? (Score:4, Funny)
What about the AI (Score:3)
the AI becomes an DEA RAT (Score:2)
the AI becomes an DEA RAT
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it decides it wants to get high and smokes all the profits away.
And by "get high", you mean Earth's orbit, and by "smokes all the profits away", you mean orbital bombing?
Wonder what else you could grow in this (Score:3)
Given how well this works fo ra fussy plant like pot, I wonder what other plants it could be tuned to grow with high productivity?
There are not many crops that can yield the kind of return pot can, but for legal ones I'm thinking at least Saffron...
Another idea, restaurant grow farm. (Score:2)
Found the guy who didn't click the link to the website!
The website lists other things that will grow, but that was already obvious - my question is more around, what else makes economic sense to grow in a pretty expensive container.
I was taking the price of the first link, but it seems you didn't look at the Seedo website for pricing - if you click "buy now" the price is $2400, discounted from $3000. So you should probably actually read something next time before assuming someone else did not.
Back to the t
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I've worked in the restaurant industry. People have NO IDEA the sheer volume of food that a restaurant churns through each day. There is NO WAY a refrigerator sized grow room is going to manage to supply any restaurant with the veggies used.
1) Talking about a pretty high end place.
2) I was thinking they would have more in the back (which is why the price per meal would need to be high).
3) I've eaten at some very expensive places where basically you are getting one carrot. If they priced the meals that came
Isn't that exactly where the fridge helps (Score:2)
Well, la tee da for you, Mr. "I've eaten at some very expensive places" hoyteedoity...
Relax man, the last thing I got eating out wa sa Jomacha shake at Arby;s.
Unfortunately, for us normal down-to-Earth people, it takes 10 weeks to grow that carrot you enjoyed overpaying for.
Sure, if you grow it out in dirt. What are you, some kind of animal (well, Ok, we all are, I meant an animal without an expensive grow fridge).
The whole point of a system like this is to use technology to hasten that cycle. Hydroponic
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The web site indicates that a large variety of other plants can be grown. On the other hand the web site is glossy and devoid of any detail about the product. Avoid.
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Given how well this works fo ra fussy plant like pot, I wonder what other plants it could be tuned to grow with high productivity?
How well can it grow potatoes on Mars?
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Yeah, I started reading the summary thinking, "This could be awesome for chilli plants" then reached the price and thought, "..or I could buy a farm."
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You could read the whole thing and see they have one for sale for $2,400. It could be great for cloning chili plants. Get some cuttings of the plants you like the best and grow them in the fridge until they're good enough to plant.
That's not the weed man (Score:1)
Pretty soon, the whole town is littered with homeless tents and crazy people stumbling around shitting in the streets.
That's not the effect of weed. That's the effect of socialism.
People who smoke weed too much lack the energy to screw up their lives so badly they become homeless.
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That's not the effect of weed. That's the effect of socialism.
The AC's point was the original puritan argument against hedonism, and it's not entirely without merit. In an ideal world, you'd educate people about the risks of using drugs and most people would see value in the logic that mind-altering substances are detrimental to their health and are an unproductive use of their money and free time. Unfortunately, in practice, that works about as well as arguing politics on the internet.
If you believe people have a right to sit on their ass and get high rather than b
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Yes, socialism made housing too expensive, socialism made mental healthcare too expensive and that black market is pure socialism.
I guess it was socialism that also caused Hearst to manipulate things to make hemp illegal so his business wasn't threatened by cheap paper as well and socialism that created the private prison industry.
Is there nothing that socialism isn't responsible for? Shit it even made Obama pass a law forcing people to buy insurance from private insurance companies.
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Additionally, once people start turning to illegal drugs, they tend to get impure product that's been cut
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Only if you're growing for money (Score:2)
So someone finally heard about... (Score:2)
Re: 12 tons [10,886 kilograms] (Score:2)
Ya again with the mixed measurement in an article, if they had used tonnes I would have been less perturbed , but tons and kilos in the same paragraph is just poor reporting!
American readers top GDP per language (Score:2)
If a publication has a substantial American readership, how is it "just poor reporting" to report a mass in both 1000 kg metric tons and 907.2 kg American tons?
No, it's usually not a good option for a publication to ignore the USA entirely. This is because on a GDP per language basis, the USA is probably the largest market in the world. Its GDP of 19.39 trillion USD is still bigger than China's (12.25 trillion USD), India's (2.60 trillion USD), and the EU's (18.5 trillion USD), and far bigger than any of th
A quick reminder to everyone that... (Score:2)
Marianna is still considered a scheduled 1 narcotic according to the DEA. The agreement that the DEA signed under the Obama administration is just basically an promise to not after the weed industry if they follow certain guidelines. This is an agreement that is in no way legally binding and one that can just go away whenever a future admin decides they don't want to permit it any further. And frankly I'm surprised that this president hasn't allowed himself to be pushed into that course of action by the
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LOL (Score:3)
Oooooh spend $1000's to grow an OZ of dry weed? LOL Its not the first system either. there been a couple more over the last 5 years. Get a small grow tent. led. fans and an autopot system and you got the same thing for $500. There will be some idiots parted with their money soon.
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Kottonmouth Kings said it well: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyric... [azlyrics.com]
Thereâ(TM)s absolutely no need for any of this unless youâ(TM)re trying to be at commercial scale. Believe me, it most definitely does grow like a weed and is easy enough to tend unless you have investors and/or shareholders to concern yourself with.
Math (Score:3)
cutting the usual 10 percent to 20 percent loss to disease of a traditionally farmed cannabis crop to disease to less than 5 percent, they rapidly become economical.
I'm pretty sure that the cost for adding 10% more plants is less than one of those robot systems.
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The problem is security. a 100 acre farm is nothing beside these boxes, even 100 acres of modern green houses is far less than a comparable pot box setup. But security is a huge cost and goes up as the footprint expands. And the thing is if they have a hundred pot boxes ready to be installed, and you get a line on a big empty factory. You could start growing next week. Building your own climate controlled greenhouses might be 10th the cost, but will can take a long time.
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I imagine it's less about the cost, and more about the return.
If you could easily add 10% more plants - why haven't you already? Otherwise you're leaving money on the table. But if you're constrained by space limits or some such (given TFS' emphasis on footprint advantages), then methods for increasing yield per area look attractive. If returns are high (this isn't lettuce), a 10% yield boost over the lifetime of the container could deliver worthwhile RoI - and then you have the option of stacking a second
Tech for techs sake (Score:2)
Homegrow = Replace the old 5 gallon bucket in the back yard with a computer and a bunch of pumps and sensors to go shit-house.
Commercial grow = Replace your infrastructure with a extra few thousand/plant worth of computers and a bunch of pumps and sensors to go shit-house.
I'm working on some A/I enhanced toilet paper to go along with all of todays latest A/I shit
kind of gimmicky (Score:2)
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Why spend $100K to produce $100 bucks of tomatoes a year?
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I don't know the l what TF the summary is on about, but the website says it's $2400 not $100k. Still not great for low value crops, but a heck of a lot cheaper than a half-hight growth chamber from Percival with NO hydroponic stuff in it.
I may look at a couple of these for my work... they're make inoculation experiments perfectly repeatable
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Because smart people with seed money (lol) look for markets with significant growth potential and try to come up with ways to tap into those markets. If you can get into a market early, you stand the best chance of making a pile of money.
Upstarts can definitely come in later, but getting in first lets you learn the business, make connections, and figure out how to undermine any potential rivals. Take a look at Tesla - the established automotive companies made it almost impossible for them to sell cars in se
When the container is not the fridge (Score:2)
TFA sez: "A traditionally-farmed 1,000 square meter grow operation produces 600 kilograms of cannabis per year. But Levy says 16 Seedo containers (along with a Seedo robot to tend them) can fit into that same space..." Thus, according to the article, a Seedo container plus 1/16th of a Seedo robot is about 60 m^2 in footprint. Since the fridge thing is approx 0.6 m x 0.6 m (0.36 sq m), the fridge CANNOT be the Seedo container mentioned in the article, unless the Seedo robot takes up 99+% of that 60 sq meters
I just can't wait to get back to the land ... (Score:2)
Growing like a weed (Score:3)
despite the old cliche of "growing like a weed,"
That saying isn't about fucking weed. It's about weeds. What a stupid line. I'm sure they felt INCREDIBLY clever when they wrote it.