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Welcome to the very first episode of Greenhouse Success Stories! In this premiere, hosts Trina Semenchek sits down with Gabriel Forero, Head Grower at Sunterra Greenhouse in Alberta. Gabriel shares his fascinating 18-year journey from the flower industry in Colombia to large-scale field crops and eventually to greenhouses in Canada. He speaks candidly about the ups and downs of working in both food and cannabis cultivation, the importance of adaptability, and why growing both plants and people is at the heart of his passion.
You’ll hear Gabriel’s perspective on the challenges and realities growers face—like juggling high-tech systems with hands-on experience, the importance of strong teamwork, and the never-ending need to stay alert in a fast-paced agricultural environment. This episode offers invaluable insights into the human side of greenhouse management, highlighting not just technical know-how, but also the role that leadership and mentorship play in building successful teams.
Whether you’re an experienced grower, new to the industry, or simply curious about what it takes to run a thriving greenhouse, you’ll find plenty of practical wisdom and inspiration in this conversation. Let’s dive in!
Key Takeaways
00:00 From Tractors to Greenhouses
06:10 Passion for Food and Cannabis
09:53 Adapting and Improvising in Greenhouses
13:29 Striving for Excellence, Not Perfection
16:55 Mindful Data Collection Matters
18:34 Clear Communication in Agriculture
22:29 Consultants vs. Plant Scientists
25:59 Keep It Simple, Trust Manual Data
29:53 Plant Growth and Weather Forecast
31:18 Plant Care's Changing Triangle
33:43 Emphasizing Education in Horticulture
39:04 Training and Growth Process
40:32 Canada's Foreign Worker Program
46:13 Greenhouse Cable Breakdown Fix
49:15 Leadership in the Greenhouse
50:11 Family Distance and Stress Management
Memorable Quotes
“I always say, besides growing the crops, I like to grow people. I think I did well with my team—they’re now thriving here in Canada, in Europe, and the US. That’s what I keep from my time with cannabis: not only the plants, but the good connections and the growth of people.”
“When you train someone, you need to show them the whys. It’s not just about checking a box or putting a number on a piece of paper. If you understand why each step matters, you catch problems before they happen and build a stronger team.”
“In a greenhouse, the moment you get comfortable, something happens to shake things up. You need to train people to adapt, improvise, and always keep moving. Nothing stops—everything needs to continue, and that’s what makes this work so engaging.”
Connect With Luis-Gabriel
Luis-Gabriel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-gabriel-forero-4b434541/
Connect with Sunterra
Website: https://www.sunterragreenhouse.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sunterragreenhouse
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sunterra-greenhouse/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunterragreenhouse/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunterragreenhouse/
Resources Mentioned
Philips (horticultural lighting): https://www.philips.com/agriculture
Bayer (crop science): https://www.bayer.com/en/crop-science
Connect With Us
GSS LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcast
GSS Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/
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Transcripts
Welcome to Greenhouse Success Stories. Tune in every week as we share
Speaker:conversations with growers, operators and innovators from the world,
Speaker:providing insight into what's working in their greenhouses. Each week we discuss
Speaker:firsthand experiences and provide insights into how these farms are
Speaker:succeeding and thriving with your host, founder of Little Greenhouse,
Speaker:Trina Semenchek. Thank you so much, Gabrielle
Speaker:Ferrero, for being the first ever
Speaker:Greenhouse Success Stories podcast guest. I'm
Speaker:really looking forward to this conversation. Gabrielle is the head grower at
Speaker:Senior Terra Greenhouse in Alberta and so we'll
Speaker:be hearing you know a lot from him about his journey through
Speaker:greenhouses and some of the challenges that
Speaker:he's had while being in there. So thank you so much, Gabrielle, for enjoying it.
Speaker:Hey Trina. No, thank you. No problem. I'm always happy to be
Speaker:realistic and support the industry.
Speaker:Thanks, Gabriel. So, just to get started,
Speaker:I was wondering if you could tell me your story of how,
Speaker:you know, you got into the greenhouse space and why you
Speaker:choose to keep working in the greenhouse space. If you could talk about
Speaker:that to start? Yeah, sure. So that we need to go back
Speaker:18 years back in the past.
Speaker:So I was working first in Colombia, South America.
Speaker:Colombia have a huge industry of greenhouses. So I work in the flower
Speaker:industry. Good flowers. I worked there for like four or five
Speaker:years and then I moved to the field
Speaker:crops, to potatoes, carnivore, Lettuces, all of that.
Speaker:Because the standards of growing in Colombia are very high for
Speaker:those greenhouse crops. So I want to do my part in the food
Speaker:sector. So I started working in a company or family. Company,
Speaker:definitely Katia family. And I worked with them like five
Speaker:years. So it was a huge
Speaker:conglomerate of farms, 2,000 hectares.
Speaker:2,000 hectares? Yeah. It was huge. Wow. And then
Speaker:we have a rotation at that time, 800 hectares of
Speaker:potatoes. And then you manage the rest of the farms, right?
Speaker:And then we have the 800 hectares of potatoes. Then we have corn
Speaker:irrotation. Then we have 3 hectares of lettuce
Speaker:a week. Then we have like 1.5
Speaker:hectares of cabbage a week,
Speaker:1 hectare of spinach a week. Then we have,
Speaker:I don't know in the GR prob. If 200 hectares of carrots,
Speaker:then we have like hundred hectares of peas. So it wasn't huge. We are talking
Speaker:about a float of tractors and like 400 people.
Speaker:I was there for a couple of years and then I was like, okay, I
Speaker:want to come to. I want to move ahead and study, do something. So I
Speaker:came to canal, I left my work there, I came to Canada and
Speaker:I started studying and then
Speaker:we went back home to visit the family. Well, then we come back. When I
Speaker:come back to Canada, we're talking nine years ago. I
Speaker:was like, you know what, let's go to the greenhouses. So I started working in
Speaker:a greenhouse in Bloomington at that exact
Speaker:time. The canal is what in boom. So
Speaker:I was pulled out as a. As I grow up to the
Speaker:canary sector. And I worked with the canary for three years and a half.
Speaker:And then I know I just going back to editable. So now I'm being
Speaker:here for three years. Three years growing in the. In the sector here
Speaker:in Alberta. So how come you didn't want to work with
Speaker:cannabis? Just to be politically
Speaker:correct. It's just too much bs. These are not. It's
Speaker:just, you know, a business. When you are working with plants, you need
Speaker:to be realistic. You can be successfully doing the best and
Speaker:still being negative impact, still being in a bad position.
Speaker:And with cannabis it's tough because
Speaker:you are working with plants. It's nothing different than working with any other plants.
Speaker:It's a plant. Plants are plants. That. Why be moving across the
Speaker:full spectrum of crops? I can grow any crop.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, once you learn the foundation, then you just need to adjust some
Speaker:stuff. And I was there and it's too much bureaucracy. The
Speaker:bureaucracy is crazy. Too much
Speaker:bureaucracy. And then you are dealing with people that have
Speaker:Zero idea about plans. And they want to
Speaker:take the command and do the take the decision. And I
Speaker:can't do that. You know, you take decisions of what you know, but if somebody
Speaker:else knows more than you do, let other people take the decision. And in cannabis
Speaker:that was tough. Did you find that, you know,
Speaker:from working with like potatoes and carrots and all these
Speaker:vegetables that you originally work with, did you naturally have like more of
Speaker:a passion towards food than you might have had towards
Speaker:cannabis? Or do you think that didn't play a role? That play a role
Speaker:for sure, because food is food and then people need to eat. And
Speaker:I always happy to provide to grow food. But you know,
Speaker:cannabis was fun because I never brought it and there was so much mystic
Speaker:and taboos and bullshit around it that when I arrived it was
Speaker:not sinful. It's a plant. So we did great. I get passion because
Speaker:the team that I work with, they were super passionate guys. They were
Speaker:guys from the 20 years until 28 and I
Speaker:was managing them. So I was like the mentor of them. And
Speaker:I feel that I did well because I trained them all the same. They did
Speaker:well in their careers. Many of them are in Europe, some
Speaker:of them are in us, others are here in Canada and all of them are
Speaker:doing good. Oh, that's great. So I feel good because I
Speaker:did my part. You know, I, besides growing the crops, I like to grow people
Speaker:and I think that I did well with them. I still have contact with some
Speaker:of them. They sometimes they tell me when they have problems
Speaker:or questions or just to say hello. And that's fun. That's what I
Speaker:keep from cannabis. Not only was bad, I still keep the
Speaker:good connections with them. And the plants are fun. You know, growing plants is fun.
Speaker:Stressful part is dealing with people and not just your workers
Speaker:with all kind, from the top big bosses to
Speaker:down to the neighbor. You know, people are people and you just need to learn
Speaker:how to, to manage that. Yeah, for
Speaker:sure. Just one last follow up question on this, but how was,
Speaker:how did you find growing cannabis in comparison to growing the other
Speaker:crops? Like you managed that or you mentioned that. Oh, it was like a new
Speaker:crop for you to try. So there was some excitement around that. But
Speaker:yeah, could you just talk a bit about the differences? Well, the big, big
Speaker:difference was the pockets. They have so much money
Speaker:in that time that I was trying stuff that was
Speaker:inimagable, something that I never imagined to do. I have a
Speaker:specific light, I can manage to the level of real
Speaker:feeding the an nucleus on time. So when
Speaker:you are growing plants and you are able to modify your
Speaker:feet at the same time that you are feeding the plants. You know what I
Speaker:mean? It's crazy. So they have so much technology. So I learned a lot.
Speaker:New sensors, all kind of stuff. But at the end, the foundation is the same.
Speaker:You are growing plants, so it doesn't matter. You have the super arbus control
Speaker:with 2,000 sensors at the any supply. And if the
Speaker:plants are not properly treated, people is taking
Speaker:good care of them. Doesn't matter what system you have or what tools you have
Speaker:is real. Right? So. Right. I think that
Speaker:the biggest, biggest difference was all the paperwork that we need to do because
Speaker:it's super control is like. It's like you were doing
Speaker:aspirin or pharmaceutical stuff. It's like
Speaker:super control environment. I remember
Speaker:it was more secure than any bank that I visit. To have
Speaker:cameras everywhere, super doors, the bolts where you have the cannabis
Speaker:is super thick, metal stuff is
Speaker:just crazy. But the, the growing
Speaker:conditions, the technology that you have available is.
Speaker:I can speak. It's amazing. The best greenhouse I worked in my life was a
Speaker:greenhouse of cannabis in Quebec. I don't want to say the name of the company,
Speaker:maybe we get in trouble, but I just love it. The greenhouse was the best
Speaker:greenhouse. It was just amazing. You know, it was have all kind of
Speaker:technology, was beautiful. Oh, wow. Now I'm so curious and
Speaker:I want to go tour this. So what would you say is the. What
Speaker:keeps you in the greenhouse sector? Like, is it
Speaker:developing new skills when it comes to growing plants or learning about
Speaker:this new tech? Or is it growing people? Like, what really keeps you around?
Speaker:Because you've been in it for a while. Yeah, no, it's because it keeps me
Speaker:busy and it keeps me engaged. Because in a greenhouse, the moment
Speaker:that you get comfort, some shit happen. So it's
Speaker:like, it's just killing, like pump it, you know,
Speaker:it's like, okay, today we are doing this and then you have a plan and
Speaker:the plan is worthless because something happened that is just scratch. So
Speaker:you need to just read up. So you need to train people to adapt and
Speaker:just to do their best. I was expecting like the best,
Speaker:but sometimes you don't have the tools to do it. So you need to
Speaker:improvise and improvisation is key.
Speaker:And I like to improvise. So, you know, there are problems all the time. So
Speaker:we just need to move ahead and just make it work. And then we make
Speaker:it work and then we correct. But the important part is that nothing stops. Everything
Speaker:needs to continue. And Arinos is very demanding
Speaker:in labor, in energy, in everything.
Speaker:You know, you have a crop that is going to start be
Speaker:producing for 40 weeks, 41 weeks producing
Speaker:tomatoes. So you need to be
Speaker:right on time and work fast. It's a very, very fast
Speaker:environment to be. And I'm a fast person. I speak even fast.
Speaker:So I think that is. Yeah, I like it. I've been in love with agriculture
Speaker:since I was in the university. I always love agriculture. So at the
Speaker:end here I'm in agriculture in a greenhouse because he's all the
Speaker:time working. When I was in Colombia, for example, I was in the fields. We
Speaker:don't have winter. We don't have a season when everything dies. No, we. You are
Speaker:24, 7, going, going and going to. We never stop producing.
Speaker:So I think that is what is at more attractive for me. I be used
Speaker:to be working all the time. Because if of course, if you are
Speaker:in the. In other. In the feed crops in Canada, you need to
Speaker:stuff. You have the storage, right. So you produce. You are planting
Speaker:crazy fast because rain arrives. So you need to have everything on
Speaker:the field. Then rain pass over. Then you take care of your field. Then you
Speaker:need to harvest everything like crazy because winter is coming. You harvest everything,
Speaker:then you put everything in the storage. And then you need to take care of
Speaker:the bin and the production. Don't overdry them, take care of them
Speaker:even if potatoes or grains were there. And then you start selling that,
Speaker:moving that. But then you need to take care of the machines and everything. So
Speaker:there is not a real moment that you can stop in
Speaker:agriculture. Doesn't matter where you are working. Have you ever taken a
Speaker:vacation? Not really. Since I started working,
Speaker:my vacations are maybe 10 days, but still I connected to the phone and
Speaker:checking all the stuff, right. So. But I plan to do
Speaker:one this year. Oh, good, good. Where are you gonna go? I go to
Speaker:Colombia to visit my parents with my wife and my daughter. Oh,
Speaker:nice. You just have one daughter? Yeah, Gabriela. Yeah, she's eight
Speaker:and Andrea, my wife. Yeah. So we plan to go in December this
Speaker:year because you know. Yeah, well, that's good. It's
Speaker:as you say, it's not that time in a greenhouse because you finish working
Speaker:right away. You need to start doing the clean out, then prepare
Speaker:for the plants to came. So you need to have the greenhouse ready to go,
Speaker:then start planting and then take care of the plant when they are baby. So
Speaker:you have a good mass of roots ready to face wintertime.
Speaker:So you're stuck. The Timojuana Yeah. You
Speaker:are working all the time. I would love to have more vacation, but the
Speaker:reality is that. Right, so yeah, yeah. Would
Speaker:you consider yourself sometimes a perfectionist, Gabrielle? Because I
Speaker:could see being a perfectionist to be really
Speaker:beneficial in some ways as a grower. Like paying attention
Speaker:to every detail of the plant, making sure it has what it needs. But no,
Speaker:I'm not perfectionist at all. I look at the detail. I look at the detail
Speaker:to the point where I do my best and you try to provide the best.
Speaker:But if you look for perfectionist, right now we are in clean out, for example,
Speaker:and I see in a small piece of material there in the floor.
Speaker:But that all bothers me. But if I was perfectionist, I will just lose in
Speaker:my head here. Because it needs to be perfect, the clean out. But nothing is
Speaker:perfect, especially when you are working with plastic. Of course, we love to be always
Speaker:perfect, but even mother Nature is not going to
Speaker:help to make it perfect. And you need mother Nature to help you to push.
Speaker:So not just I. Maybe I was
Speaker:perfectionist 10 years ago when I was doing my masters and my PhD and
Speaker:everything. But then after that, I started doing more
Speaker:operations again, more field work or like being in the real
Speaker:boots on the ground doing stuff. I just look
Speaker:for the best. But perfection, I just. I lost that
Speaker:one like probably. Yeah. Years ago.
Speaker:And what was your PhD then? No, I did my Master's. So that's
Speaker:another history. So I started my master during my
Speaker:masters. My advisor convinced me to continue with
Speaker:Ph.D. and we were doing
Speaker:great. We were doing all the papers and everything. But then
Speaker:Gabriela. Gabriel appears in our lives with my wife.
Speaker:And when Dabrila born, I harvested another two
Speaker:years of study to finish my PhD. No
Speaker:family first. So I was like, you know what? No, I need to focus on
Speaker:Gavi and Andrea. And I just stopped.
Speaker:I told my advisor, I said, no, you know what? I want to meet with
Speaker:my family. I want to finish this. And he supported me. So we did a
Speaker:master. I finished with a master with five papers, publish and a
Speaker:bunch of stuff. One gray. Yeah, the. The PhD was
Speaker:just in the corner, but this. Yeah. You should
Speaker:send me one of your papers one time. I would. I'd love to read it.
Speaker:Okay. And you. The papers that I have for sure. Yeah. So you mentioned
Speaker:that the minute that you get comfortable in a greenhouse, that's when things
Speaker:start to go wrong. Because maybe you're not paying attention to
Speaker:something. Could you tell me a story about one
Speaker:time when something went wrong in a greenhouse or you had
Speaker:A challenge in a greenhouse. And you struggled
Speaker:with addressing the challenge. Can you tell me a bit about a time that
Speaker:happened? I'm thinking deeply, but what I can say,
Speaker:like I always focus on what I need to do.
Speaker:That happen a lot when you gave something to somebody else. So let's say that
Speaker:I need to do a budget and I can't focus in the water
Speaker:for a week. So I just checking the regular stuff.
Speaker:But I need somebody to be collecting my samples.
Speaker:So in one of those samples, everybody's on another.
Speaker:That's the irrigation. But I don't have more. What more plans. So I need to
Speaker:cancel an alarm. So okay.
Speaker:A true grower. Yeah. So I have some
Speaker:things that I do, but I try to train somebody, but I
Speaker:don't tell these things because I think that is for granted that they can do
Speaker:it and it's not. So example, there was one
Speaker:valve. I have eight valves in one side of the greenhouse and nine valves
Speaker:in the other side. So one of those valves have
Speaker:escaped water. One of the light was broken. All the lights were broken.
Speaker:Yeah, one of the lines was broken. And then they are collecting these samples.
Speaker:And they were like robots. They were just taking the sample, putting the number. When
Speaker:I checked the number the next day, I see that the number is
Speaker:50% below. So I'm like, what happened When I didn't
Speaker:catch this yesterday, I was busy. So that kind of stuff is what I mean
Speaker:when I say you can go like a robot.
Speaker:If I train someone to collect data, you need to read that data
Speaker:too. It's not just putting the number in a piece of paper. And I finish
Speaker:my job. And that was my mistake. So when you
Speaker:train someone, you need to show them the whys. And that was
Speaker:years ago when happens. So now when I teach somebody,
Speaker:I teach the whys instead of why. This is important, just the why. When you
Speaker:understand the why, then you know that it's important. And then they just do it
Speaker:automatically in their heads. So I start now teaching the whys.
Speaker:Why it's important to the leaf. Why is it important to check the fish? Why
Speaker:is it important to check the AC every three hours? Why it's important
Speaker:to go and count the fruits. Why it's important to do plant registration. Why is
Speaker:it important to put attention to people? When is talking to you and look at
Speaker:the eyes. You know what I mean? All those why is important.
Speaker:So now I work with the why. So based on your question,
Speaker:I will say that any aspect of the greenhouse where you are not
Speaker:wondering the why, you get Too confident and then you have
Speaker:a problem, you know what I mean? Okay. And then when you
Speaker:explain the whys to people, like do you explain how
Speaker:it affects the physiology and the growth of the plant or
Speaker:how detailed do you go in those why explanations?
Speaker:I go as detailed as the person wants. Okay.
Speaker:Because when you are talking a plain language in agriculture is easier.
Speaker:Some people wants to be like a divas, like, oh, the blah blah
Speaker:blah, special names and bullshit. I mean, I write five
Speaker:papers now. I don't need to go back in that scientific stuff, Right. I want
Speaker:to be plain so everybody understand plain and we are on the same page. If
Speaker:I want to go fashion, I go for a, what is
Speaker:it? A presentation or something with a fancy stuff. But
Speaker:we are growing, growing needs to be as clear as possible for people.
Speaker:Because at the end you try to transmit what you know to people and they
Speaker:need to execute. So I always the most plain
Speaker:language user when that he reflected to the
Speaker:crowd, just everybody on their side. Yeah.
Speaker:And if somebody has more like deep. Some, some guys are very curious so they
Speaker:ask me, hey, the ppms, what that means, why are you
Speaker:talking about? And I just explained to them, even if they understand or not, doesn't
Speaker:matter. But I explain. Sometimes even they ask me questions that I have no idea.
Speaker:Like I explained. No, let's see, let's figure it out. So I am my
Speaker:consultant or I do have research and then I came with an answer.
Speaker:Sometimes they ask me stuff like I don't know, my
Speaker:consultant, I don't know neither. So we go to somebody else and then we find
Speaker:out. Right? You don't know, nerd. You know everything but what you know. You need
Speaker:to ensure that you transmit that to the people as easy as possible.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Some of the clients that I've had,
Speaker:I train them, you know, on how to grow indoors with vertical farms.
Speaker:And one issue that I've had people tell me is
Speaker:that sometimes I can get too technical. I think I just, I personally like
Speaker:the science behind it. And you know, I start saying, oh, this is how the
Speaker:chemicals break out and ionize in the water. And they're like, oh no,
Speaker:that's fine. You know, that's what your brain works and that's perfectly fine. Now what
Speaker:you need to do is just transmit that super simple for a simple
Speaker:structure instruction to make it happen. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. And people
Speaker:don't need to know like the chemical bonds or
Speaker:you know, plant maybe the details about plant physiology. Yeah, they
Speaker:don't need to know that to be good growers. They just need to know that
Speaker:if you do, you know, X, Y and Z, this is how the plant will
Speaker:grow and how fast or this is how it will change. They call that an
Speaker:operational grower. You need to be. It doesn't matter what level you are, you need
Speaker:to be always an excellent operational grower. That being said, you need to
Speaker:check that your filters are working properly, your pumps are working properly,
Speaker:your sensors are working properly. People listen, doing what they need to
Speaker:do properly. All that is operation sites. Right. So the operational
Speaker:grower, that's what it is tough. Then you have the person that is
Speaker:dealing with a more technical stuff like the settings of the computer,
Speaker:the temperatures, the bends strategy, the pipe
Speaker:strategy, the winter strategy, the curtain strategy, all those
Speaker:strategies. That is something different that needs to have science behind an
Speaker:understanding of the full holistic crop. Everything
Speaker:True. So would you say that's pretty common to have like
Speaker:operational growers and plant scientists?
Speaker:I think that the industry, you can have a very good operational
Speaker:grower, but the person that is making the decisions of the
Speaker:crop strategy is a consultant or a master grower. A head
Speaker:grower. Head grower. Okay, so that's how you would differentiate.
Speaker:Yeah. So when you, when you are in the operational side, you are, you are
Speaker:sure that the operation is doing
Speaker:well. Right. So my vents are doing what I ask, my pumps are doing
Speaker:what I need. The plants are receiving the amount of water that I need.
Speaker:The chemical structure of the feed is right, the
Speaker:leashage is good. All that stuff is operational. Right. But that came
Speaker:behind in the back stage is all
Speaker:the settings that you set the computer to do. And now you just need to
Speaker:check that is happening. Right. And then maybe you have a plant
Speaker:scientist adjusting certain parameters of the
Speaker:computer and then seeing how the plant reacts and compares that. Plant
Speaker:scientist is more a term for like a person that works with lights
Speaker:or is in the industry working with a company like Philips
Speaker:or Newman's or Bayer. But in
Speaker:that scenario, what you are describing, that is a very good
Speaker:consultant. So you can have consultants that
Speaker:have many years of experience and are amazing operational
Speaker:and managing decision. And you can have
Speaker:consultants that are more operational. There are different consultants. Right. And
Speaker:depend what you need. So I've been lucky because I always have
Speaker:consultants that are complete and they know their business
Speaker:very well. So I learned a lot from that. So they know from
Speaker:sick to box putting in a grocery
Speaker:store. And that's what you need at the end. Right. If you want
Speaker:to be like a good Head grower,
Speaker:slash operations director or
Speaker:greenhouse manager or whatever you want to call it, you need to
Speaker:know this and you need to have some basic knowledge to,
Speaker:to develop it. Right? So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So going back to your story of track, you know, getting
Speaker:training that person a track percentages at each of these
Speaker:valves, what happened when you noticed
Speaker:that it was 50% lower than it needed to be? And was this the
Speaker:water content in one of the substrates that you're. That was
Speaker:volume of water there? Yeah. Okay, so did the
Speaker:plant like, did you lose crops because of it or did you catch it soon
Speaker:enough? No, we catch it just in the border of the winting point.
Speaker:Well then I bring everybody, not just the person collecting that. I agree.
Speaker:Everybody in the greenhouse is saying, look, this happened.
Speaker:Why are passing a clause here? Like people
Speaker:is looking at this all the time, people collecting data. Why nobody say
Speaker:nothing? We need to speak out. So I tell people, the
Speaker:worst thing that you can do is don't say what you have. You
Speaker:know what I mean? You are willing to speak out. Doesn't matter. The most stupid
Speaker:thing is just keep quiet. Even if it's something that is obvious.
Speaker:But it's never obvious in plants. Nothing is obvious.
Speaker:So it's like I always be curious. I
Speaker:always think that something is wrong. You need to find what is wrong today.
Speaker:That's why I say chase all the time. Say Chase, go inside and find something
Speaker:wrong. Something needs to be wrong. That's the mentality. Something is wrong, everything
Speaker:is wrong. No, but check. And then you are always alert.
Speaker:So there is like 10 things that I check on the, on the morning, then
Speaker:I go and do walks, I check stuff. And it's,
Speaker:it's part of, of how you work. Right. Some people like, oh, no doubt there
Speaker:is artificial intelligence. I will put an algorithm and man,
Speaker:I don't trust computers yet. I use computers for the stuff that I want them
Speaker:to do. And I don't pretend the computer to do what I need to do.
Speaker:Right. Some people is thinking that sensors and data
Speaker:collection in the greenhouse will be the change.
Speaker:But we have a lot of data now. So the thing is how you
Speaker:amalgamate how you manage the new research, the dis.
Speaker:Artificial stuff with the reality and just bundle. That is
Speaker:still far, it's far from reality. Example,
Speaker:I do my pluralization in ATPNs twice.
Speaker:So it's 160 plants. So 160 plants
Speaker:measured different things.
Speaker:There are sensors that are to that automatic.
Speaker:But it's maybe one or two sensors
Speaker:that need to tell me what I need. I don't trust that I using two
Speaker:data points in a 295,000
Speaker:word. What I mean 295 samples that I have
Speaker:unit and I collected two data point. I
Speaker:prefer my 160 manual 100%.
Speaker:So at the moment that the technology becomes cheaper for adaptation,
Speaker:growers will start adapting them. So
Speaker:that being said, when I was in cannabis, there was so many toys and
Speaker:so much stuff to do that at some point you just get
Speaker:overflow with some. You are like not enough. Let's keep it simple because
Speaker:the simple it is, the better it is for you to catch errors and
Speaker:to correct fast. It sounds stupid because I'm being. You
Speaker:know what I mean? I saying something that then I saying the opposite. Sounds
Speaker:opposite, but it's not. The growing needs to be simple.
Speaker:You can put so much influences and so much stuff in the computer in
Speaker:priva that you forget one. Then
Speaker:you just spend maybe two hours again to find which one was. So
Speaker:just keep it simple and use the influences when you really need it. That
Speaker:is for example the sun influence with the water. Yes, you need more sun, more
Speaker:water, the temperature the same. More temperature, more water,
Speaker:the event position, all that stuff. You can develop influences
Speaker:with the computer. But all that stuff, like checking my bucket, checking on
Speaker:people, checking on the work that needs to be done, that needs to be a
Speaker:human. There is not going to be computer stuff.
Speaker:I know that always when I say this, I receive 10 emails from people. Oh,
Speaker:I have the solution. And this is not. Have you tried
Speaker:and where have you found it? Maybe not being as
Speaker:useful as you need it to be or I guess, yeah, why
Speaker:you were explaining a bit about why you're skeptical of this tech.
Speaker:But I'm wondering if you could maybe tell a story. I want to give you
Speaker:a history, but that it was in a previous job was not in greenhouses.
Speaker:So that was the potatoes. So I went my boss with Emilio
Speaker:and there was a drone that can collect the
Speaker:ngi. But it's a spectrum of the plants and it's telling you, oh, the plants
Speaker:are great, the nitrogen and all, everything is good. Or you have a problem.
Speaker:Oh, okay. So we send this drone. So it detects nutrient deficiencies. Yeah,
Speaker:nutrient deficiencies or diseases
Speaker:or pests. These pest diseases problems because the plant become
Speaker:Genoa or they lost this photosynthetic light
Speaker:that the sensors in the drone detects. Wait, quick question.
Speaker:So would it detect if there's a deficiency? And
Speaker:what might be the cause of the deficiency or just the deficiency?
Speaker:Usually those systems there is Something wrong, Right? Okay. And
Speaker:when it's something wrong, then somebody missed one check. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:Usually it's a human just like to alert you. It's like a sensor. Sensor to
Speaker:tell you something is wrong. Right. So they fly these
Speaker:potatoes 20 hectares. He comes back. Oh no, everything
Speaker:is good. Your crop is super healthy. Congratulation. I was okay, thank
Speaker:you. Now let's go and check the roots. So I pull a plan out. I
Speaker:was full of sponges, but I say look, these plants are fuck, man.
Speaker:And your sensor didn't detect it. So what is giving me nothing. See, humans,
Speaker:you know, you need to. It's not just a sensor. It's how to
Speaker:analyze and transform the information for you to take
Speaker:decisions. And I think that the best
Speaker:tool is temperature, humidity and radiation. Because the plants
Speaker:depends on that. So you manage with that the crop. But then
Speaker:to scout the crop and other things, you just need to do something different. So
Speaker:there are a bunch of sensors and cameras and you just see that there are
Speaker:so many companies doing a collection of data,
Speaker:amalgamation of data, then giving you outputs to do a better crop.
Speaker:But at the end, not just that, it's mother Nature. So what zone you will
Speaker:have. What is the forecast for the next weeks? Can I push my plants? Can
Speaker:I push my plans? Because a measurement that I have for four days ago,
Speaker:people wants to do like a life management of the
Speaker:plants. And I think that is crazy at this point. It's
Speaker:crazy because you need to know what's going to happen tomorrow. And the
Speaker:forecast is okay, but it's not accurate all the time. Right. So
Speaker:for example, why I'm saying this, because if you have a a good
Speaker:weather conditions for the next days, you can push your plants. Because my plan
Speaker:is too vegetative. So you want to go generative. So you want to be warmer
Speaker:24 hours going increase. Then you deep in the night the
Speaker:temperatures. But what happens when you are doing this and you push for a
Speaker:day? I like to push my plants in a weekly basis.
Speaker:Every week I change every week. But the irrigation. So
Speaker:every week we change the crop
Speaker:strategy, the temperature, the humidity, that kind of stuff. But daily
Speaker:you manage the watering. Sometimes you stop super early, sometimes you stop late.
Speaker:The beginning of the irrigation. How many cycle change they
Speaker:see during the day? Sometimes it's. You know what? We can increase the AC because
Speaker:it's super dark. You know what? Let's decrease the AC because it's super.
Speaker:A lot of light, super bright. It's bright. So
Speaker:you change that in a daily basis, in an hourly way but
Speaker:the settings of the plan itself. I do it weekly. Some people wants to do
Speaker:it daily. But for me because it's like
Speaker:imagine you changing your normal
Speaker:food time depending on your
Speaker:mood or I happen to do this not. I don't know how to
Speaker:explain it but a plant reacts according with the
Speaker:weather, temperature, humidity, the weather conditions, the person
Speaker:that is working on it and what you are providing to them. So it's like
Speaker:a triangle. You can manipulate the triangle perfect. You
Speaker:need to do the best at that point for the plant
Speaker:on that strict type. And then it change again and then
Speaker:change again. But you don't change for example temperatures. Oh, I have very
Speaker:good weather today. So I push super hard the plant and tomorrow is a shitty
Speaker:day. I just lost what I did. And the crop suffer.
Speaker:So you need to stress the plant in a way that is stress but is
Speaker:not super
Speaker:comfortable. Because the plant is super comfortable. It's going to be super
Speaker:vegetative. The plant is super. Is going to be super generative. And you lost the
Speaker:crop any of both stations. You go to the and it's vibe.
Speaker:You need to be in the middle. In order to be in the middle. You
Speaker:just need to be checking details daily. But have a
Speaker:Saturday for the week. And then adjust, adjust
Speaker:to adjust those settings daily. Does it take you a lot of time or is
Speaker:it pre. No, that is the. Those are the influences and the parameters that you
Speaker:put to the computer. So for example, if you have
Speaker:25 degrees of temperature automatically the pipes needs to go down
Speaker:minus 30 seconds. Or if you have. For
Speaker:every 100 joules that you have, you will lose certain amount of
Speaker:degrees in the pipes. For a certain amount of joules that you have
Speaker:in the day you will feed the plant setting millimeters of water. And
Speaker:for that there is so much stuff that you can do. And that is what
Speaker:I say that we need to focus. We need to focus in the foundation in
Speaker:those basic. There are so many consultants that knows that
Speaker:very well. But now you need to execute it to that level
Speaker:that is watering properly, managing your climate
Speaker:properly. Do all your prevalence settings arguably setting how
Speaker:window setting, whatever you are using properly and then you can become
Speaker:sexy. Like have a sensor that is going to tell me this. But the sensors
Speaker:are going to make you a better grower. What makes you a good grower is
Speaker:the foundation on the stuff that you do. Yeah. It's actually really
Speaker:refreshing talking to you about this topic because you know I'm in
Speaker:the engineering space. I have a background in engineering engineering and so I'm always
Speaker:around the tech conversations and, you know, how people want to
Speaker:automate this and automate that. But leading back to the initial
Speaker:struggle that you had where it was like maybe something was missed in the
Speaker:greenhouse and wasn't addressed right away. Your solution to that is better
Speaker:training and better teaching and, you know, educating people on why
Speaker:all these parameters matter and what makes a plant grow healthy.
Speaker:And I personally think that's such a good strategy. I'm a huge
Speaker:fan of education and teaching whenever possible. You know,
Speaker:I love teaching teaching clients like how to grow and stuff. Maybe I go a
Speaker:bit too much in the why and the technical
Speaker:side of the why, but I think that education piece is so important and I
Speaker:don't think enough people in this space talk about it. I think we
Speaker:hear too much about how tech and automation are going to be
Speaker:used. And, you know, and that's kind of dangerous because if we
Speaker:lose those skills on how to grow plants properly, well,
Speaker:sure, maybe we'll have all these tools, but we are at risk of losing
Speaker:this craft, which is super valuable. Yeah, that is
Speaker:70% of the growth. Then you came with the, with what you have. So for
Speaker:example, in Colombia, I work with greenhouses that are not super high tech,
Speaker:but the high tech was, you know what, you have automatic
Speaker:bulbs, you have automatic water systems. So you have irrigation lines, you have a
Speaker:rack for that. But the crop itself, modern nature manage it.
Speaker:So we don't have pipes because we don't need to, but we have
Speaker:the sun. So when the sun is super powerful and you always have
Speaker:the same sun, we don't have seasons in Colombia, the only season is rain or
Speaker:doesn't rain. The rest is the same. And depending on the elevation of the mountains,
Speaker:you have different conditions. So when I live in Bogota, for example,
Speaker:it can go down to 5 degrees, 8 degrees
Speaker:and then goes up to 25, 27. That's perfect conditions for any
Speaker:plant. Because you close your greenhouse in the afternoon, it keeps the heat
Speaker:goes down to 8, the greenhouse will go down to 15,
Speaker:16, and then goes up again the next day. So that's
Speaker:perfect. So you just need some tasting. You need to follow modernization. How the
Speaker:plants for the strawberry plant grows in Colombia, how they do this. Then let's mimic
Speaker:that in Canary Bong, succeed how this
Speaker:plant do this form? Do you know what I mean? But yeah, I guess
Speaker:the one point that I would bring up to that is we get so cold
Speaker:here in Canada, so we'd have to design for like a different structure.
Speaker:Then you have a greenhouse, high tech that have all these pipes,
Speaker:have the boiler running 24,7 in winter to have alarms of
Speaker:the boilers, of the pipes, of the pumps, of the
Speaker:everything. So if something fails, boom, we need to be here in 20
Speaker:minutes maximum. But I have people that lives here five minutes away.
Speaker:So if there is a boiler alarm, we are on call. We came, we
Speaker:reset the boiler, everything was good. Go. Because if the boilers are
Speaker:down and we are minus 42, we have,
Speaker:I don't know, an hour, hour and a half, two hours to
Speaker:react before we get depleted of heat. And then the greenhouse.
Speaker:Has that happened? Yes. Have you lost crops?
Speaker:Never. I love my shit. You've just got. Because
Speaker:why? I lost my shed.
Speaker:Yeah. But never lost a crop. I never lost a crop because,
Speaker:well, I care. Right. So I wake up, even
Speaker:if I leave far, I call somebody, go, and I will tell you what to
Speaker:do. Done. But
Speaker:it's responsibility, accountability, and not everybody have that in their
Speaker:mindset. Right. You need to be accountable, you need to be responsible, you need to
Speaker:be grower, you need to be everything. And
Speaker:usually happens because of human errors. Right. It's
Speaker:impossible for a grower to know everything and keycheck everything. That's why you need to
Speaker:have a strong team, a very good team. So maintenance team, you need to
Speaker:check on that. A labor team, you need to check on this human
Speaker:resources team, you need to check on this. You know what I mean? And then
Speaker:you have a good foundational team to support the greenhouse itself.
Speaker:Of course, I go everywhere and I just check as much as I can, but
Speaker:always there is something loose. And usually that news is what
Speaker:caused a problem. Like is one that I told you the heat tank is not
Speaker:having water, is not having heat, and we have a loss of heat in the
Speaker:greenhouse, boilers down. Have you found that
Speaker:since you started training people in a different way, like
Speaker:teaching them more about why things matter and you know why
Speaker:that's important to the plant, that you've had less of those errors and
Speaker:more success in overall team. If I
Speaker:go back three years ago to now, three years in this greenhouse. Yeah.
Speaker:This linkhouse is four years new. So I've been here now for two years and
Speaker:a half. If you go back to the first season, I
Speaker:have 25 calls every hour.
Speaker:Right now I have one every eight hours.
Speaker:Wow, that's really good. Yeah. And it's all a
Speaker:timber. Right. And. And now if I have one, I know
Speaker:that it's serious. Yeah. And do you find actually that makes
Speaker:your job probably, like a lot of easier,
Speaker:right, that having less of those calls, like still you can't get
Speaker:comfortable because you don't want anything to go wrong. But yeah, but for sure
Speaker:then I have more time for me, for my family, for to do stuff right.
Speaker:And then when the next person in line gets completely trained, then he will take
Speaker:these alarms and the idea is to continue growing, right? So you
Speaker:just, you are still looking at it. It's like when you have a kid, you
Speaker:let them fall over and they scratch to the floor because they need to learn
Speaker:how to walk and run. Or you are always behind to help them to wake
Speaker:up, clean them and continue, continue. Let's continue. That's what you need to do
Speaker:with people. You babysit them until a point. That way you are confident. You know
Speaker:what, you are now a grown up pallet. Go
Speaker:and do your thinking. So manage that mentality with everybody.
Speaker:Like I was behind them looking. Do you need me? Do you need me? Okay.
Speaker:Do you need me? And I always have my phone on, so I think you
Speaker:have something. You just send me a text or call me. I won't call you.
Speaker:Give them responsibility, give them
Speaker:like more accountability in the greenhouse. And they usually the person
Speaker:that wants to do it, they just do it. Not everybody is a
Speaker:greenhouse mate. Some people in the greenhouse, they came and they just left
Speaker:because it's a lot of stress. You know what I mean? You have a crop
Speaker:inside a bunch of glass, you are going against nature in
Speaker:wintertime. You are fighting all kind of problems.
Speaker:And some people, it's just, they can't hold it. What we like
Speaker:it. Do you find that you ever have a shortage
Speaker:of people who want to work in the greenhouse or have you never faced that
Speaker:issue with trying to find good staff? Well,
Speaker:here in Canada you have government programs to
Speaker:bring people to work because the job is tough.
Speaker:So the conditions are tough. The high humidity or
Speaker:low humidity, high temperatures or cold outside
Speaker:and you need steam. Doesn't matter if it's storm or whatever, you need to come
Speaker:to work because the plants at the end don't care. Right? So we need to
Speaker:have a very reliable workforce. We are using
Speaker:the LMA program and this LMAA program provide
Speaker:us with good workers from Mexico, Jamaica, wherever we want to bring
Speaker:them. We just need to follow the parameters of the government.
Speaker:And so far is we working. Okay, we win people and they like
Speaker:it and they continue working. Yeah. And it sounds
Speaker:like you have a good team. So that's. Yeah. Now, now
Speaker:finally we have a good team. Yeah, the guys are just killing it. So we
Speaker:start example. The first Plants that we have
Speaker:the contractor to chop the cloth because you need to take out the vines and
Speaker:chop it and clean it so that that chopper,
Speaker:it took like nine days to chop the
Speaker:crop and we are talking only 20 acres.
Speaker:Then my boss bought us a chopper
Speaker:and with that chopper we did. The first thing that we did it was in
Speaker:five days. Yeah. Wow. This one we did it in 3.5
Speaker:days. So
Speaker:let's do the pen of third parties better you can do because you have your
Speaker:own team. Right. And the compromise is high. So they
Speaker:say no, you know what it's going to be. For example, today. Today is right
Speaker:now. Let me see what is the temperature in the graves. Give me one second.
Speaker:So right now it's 38 degrees inside, humidity is
Speaker:19. So that is like a freaking hell. It's
Speaker:38. Yeah, 38, humidity is 19. Oh my
Speaker:goodness. And the sun is 900 ralts.
Speaker:900 watts of watts per square meter. That's a lot of sun.
Speaker:But what happens? So the guys is like G is going to be
Speaker:crazy next week. So we want to start at 4am because at 4am the
Speaker:sun is not out, but you can see. So I say sure guys, let's
Speaker:start at 4am so they start at 4am, they leave at Y. So they leave
Speaker:before that stuff happen. And
Speaker:that when you need to be adapting with the
Speaker:weather. Last week we were working from seven to three.
Speaker:This week we are working for four to one. And we move, we
Speaker:move to that. Right. Because so that being
Speaker:said, so you imagine working somebody when they left it was 25 degrees.
Speaker:25 degrees. Working for three hours of the day
Speaker:at your bed. Those guys are machine,
Speaker:you know what I mean? So I always take care of them because it's not
Speaker:easy to be there working at a high piece because at the end you need
Speaker:to be, you need to be efficient. Right. So it's not like, oh I will
Speaker:go and do one row tomorrow and one do the next day. No, no,
Speaker:because the plants need to do five rows a day. So you need to do
Speaker:five. So that, that's an example of how
Speaker:demanding is the job. Yeah. That being said, you need to have people that
Speaker:is used to do that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You need
Speaker:to have people who are okay with, you know, being flexible or working in
Speaker:maybe not 20. Yeah. Because we say climately controlled and
Speaker:greenh. So I think, I know, I think maybe
Speaker:people sometimes think that you can control. Yeah. Everything.
Speaker:Of course then, then somebody will. Oh yeah, I can
Speaker:you install a H vac system with a misting system that costs $10 million
Speaker:and you will keep the temperature at 15. I would
Speaker:never recover that money. Yeah.
Speaker:So. So last question. Gabrielle, this is how
Speaker:we're just going to wrap up all of these episodes on this podcast.
Speaker:What is your proudest moment as a grower?
Speaker:Would love to hear that. I probably moment. Oh when the guys.
Speaker:So I have like an emergency depart to
Speaker:Colombia because of my parents. So I went there and I told the
Speaker:guys, I live in for 10 days,
Speaker:I don't want to see the plants dead. When I came back, just do your
Speaker:best. Follow what you are teach. Follow all the stuff that you need to
Speaker:do. And I came back and everything was perfect. And I feel
Speaker:super proud of the team. I was like, guys, great.
Speaker:So I think that. But you didn't take another vacation after that. Your team
Speaker:has it. They proved it to you. Yeah, but then
Speaker:shit happens, right? So I have that vacation. But
Speaker:then sometimes you get emotionally attached to
Speaker:stuff, right? Being a grower, I don't know. The first grower that
Speaker:is not emotional, always something comes up emotionally.
Speaker:Because plants are nature. And when you are in nature, you are emotional. Some
Speaker:people think that this is one plus one is two. And then you deal with
Speaker:everything at your peace and you can do at your speed and you can. No,
Speaker:no, no, no, no. You go to the speed to the plants. There are some
Speaker:people who would say it's a head of lettuce and you can cut it off
Speaker:and it's worth $2.50.
Speaker:It's not. You need to go to the speed of the crop, right? And when
Speaker:the crop is running, you need to be freaking flying
Speaker:because the plants go super fast. So that's why I said you can't relax. Just,
Speaker:oh, yeah, everything's fine. My people is. No, no, no, no. You're always looking
Speaker:what is going on? Even the challenges. We have black crop
Speaker:because for some reason there
Speaker:was super cold and we had like a minus 50,
Speaker:a couple of hours. And I feel that the greenhouse contracts and
Speaker:then open again and we lost two cables.
Speaker:So that means that the cables that are holding the plants broke, and they
Speaker:didn't broke because of the tension they broke from the anchors in the side.
Speaker:When that happens, you have
Speaker:594times2,
Speaker:1188
Speaker:plants on the floor, and it's only
Speaker:middle of December. So that means that you still have more than 70% of the
Speaker:harvest to come and you have a bunch of plants in the floor.
Speaker:So what you do, we just pull out the cable, do our
Speaker:best to fix them. And start taking off the plants. So plant that is broken,
Speaker:hopefully have a socket. And then we just grow the plant again. But that is
Speaker:a lot of work for the guys. But we didn't lost a single
Speaker:tomato. Those guys are just doing clay. And that was a training.
Speaker:That is it pays. When you have a person that is working coming from
Speaker:Mexico, Jamaica or Colombia, and wherever they are coming, you train them for
Speaker:two months, like training, training, training. Then you leave them
Speaker:and they go in their own, oh, this plant broke. I need to have a
Speaker:soccer. Oh, this plan. And even they comment what is the best for
Speaker:the plants. So you hear them and you let them talk. And then you make
Speaker:an agreement with them. Look, what you say is right, but I think that is
Speaker:better to do this, because this and this. And then you will need science, you
Speaker:know what I mean? Because now the plane was done. Now they need to know
Speaker:a little bit more then you a little bit more technical.
Speaker:They take it and then they are a better worker. And then other
Speaker:stuff happen and you go make the steps that you are always feeling them.
Speaker:And yeah, so far it's been working nice.
Speaker:Yeah. That's so sweet to hear, Gabrielle. Um, okay, this is actually the last
Speaker:question for you. What advice would you give to new growers? I
Speaker:will give the advice that I gave always when they have me that question. Never
Speaker:get comfort zone. Never get so comfort
Speaker:that you forget things. Always red alert,
Speaker:always checking, always looking. The moment that you get in a comfort zone,
Speaker:shit will happen and then you will regret it. Oh, why check this? Oh, why
Speaker:did this. Always check and treat your people the best. At the end, it's
Speaker:not one single person moving a greenhouse. It's a huge team of
Speaker:people that is committed.
Speaker:So have a great team, train them and
Speaker:everybody have different strategies. My strategy, I'm more human. I'm more
Speaker:a human people person. I just go, I know the names of them, I ask
Speaker:them stuff. I know what they like. When I go to the greenhouse, I spend
Speaker:two hours just talking with everyone. And coming back out.
Speaker:I do that at least once a week, talking with everybody. How are you doing?
Speaker:How is the family? What happened with Juan? What happened with your daughter? Is your
Speaker:wife happy? Why you drank too much Saturday. I know that you were
Speaker:drunking because you know what I mean. And then you become like. You become
Speaker:like a friend, but at the same time they respect you.
Speaker:Yeah. In the greenhouse, I feel that you need to earn the
Speaker:respect of them. Not because you are the boss or the title. It's because you
Speaker:are that leader. And when you are that leader and you are, you try to
Speaker:do the best for them. Really? Because you want to know, because I want to
Speaker:be nice in a piece of paper, then that makes the
Speaker:difference. And that is sometimes that is missing in the industry. You know, sometimes they
Speaker:are just bushes of meat and you have number one to 50.
Speaker:Yeah, well, exactly. And if you show people that you care about them, they're probably
Speaker:more willing and more happy to help and listen to
Speaker:you and do what you ask of them because they see that you care about
Speaker:them. Yeah. They show the respect just because the person that you are. And I
Speaker:love that. I think that I feel proud of it because when I go to
Speaker:the greenhouse, I can feel the good energy from them.
Speaker:And when I feel something not wrong, I go back and hey, what's going on?
Speaker:I. You are not like this. And then you just started even helping them. Because
Speaker:the problems are sometimes they need to talk with somebody. You are far from your
Speaker:family. You are visiting them once a year. They are here
Speaker:in a community house. They left all this
Speaker:delicious food in Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica. They are not close to their families.
Speaker:It's a lot of stress beside working the club.
Speaker:Besides Gaurier sometimes losing T shirt up.
Speaker:So it's a lot of stress for them in this environment that you need to
Speaker:manage it. When you manage it, everything it will just flows and flows.
Speaker:Nice. Okay, well, thank you very much, Gabrielle, for
Speaker:sharing your stories on this podcast. That was super fruitful.
Speaker:It's really nice to hear from your perspective. Really refreshing to hear
Speaker:how important it is on the human aspects and how
Speaker:important it is to have a good team and to care about your staff in
Speaker:a greenhouse. Of course, Trina, nothing never is perfect, right? So
Speaker:you have 60 people and people are people and always you will
Speaker:have complaints. Right. Because it doesn't matter what you do. So at the
Speaker:end, I would say just do your best and peace of mind because you
Speaker:know that you did your best and that you have nothing to be regretting
Speaker:for. Right. That's my last five things.
Speaker:Okay, well, thank you very much and yeah, hopefully we have
Speaker:you on again in the future. It was great talking to you, Ina. Thank you
Speaker:very much. Same for you. Take care. I hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker:of Greenhouse Success Stories, hosted by Trina Senanchek. Special thanks to
Speaker:our guests who make this all possible. To read the full show notes for each
Speaker:episode, which includes an episode summary, key takeaways
Speaker:and guest resources mentioned, please visit
Speaker:greenhousesuccess.com and don't forget to subscribe on your
Speaker:favorite podcast platform so you don't miss an episode.
