A few things here I find odd though:
1) I don't think the regular contributors here are "hobby" growers. We answer questions for them. I don't think that many peepz here with more than 6 mos of posting history are doing this for some free smoke out of a closet.
Most of us regulars are pretty serious dude.
I'm trying to delineate a grower to makes it all work optimally, and knows WHY it works or doesn't, and a farmer who gets great results, who maybe just copied someone else's recipe, and learns from multiple trial and error runs (and perhaps always on the verge of total failure). Hobby vs Pro...not based on op size, but knowledge. imho, the allure of TGA super soil is having the success, without earning the knowledge - just add water.
2) What sort of things is this greenhouse owner such an expert in? That any of us regulars "struggle" with? Can you give us an example? There are many, many threads here from warehouse operators, large growers, dispensary owners, that are seriously simplistic in the questions posed - basic growing questions stuff about PPM's and airflow and pH. Only some of these guys have already bought in huge.
farmers growing in RDWC, then wonder why they get pythium...and lose a crop. He uses Previcur, and gets on with growing.
Pros wouldn't mess around with varieties which are succeptible to disease or pests, or are difficult or finicky to grow.
There are a lot of instruments that pro growers use to determine optimum conditions. Their Priva climate computer software is $100,000. pretty serious stuff. They steer the plants daily, and very accurately. Tomatos are not a cash crop, and they have to do everything right.
Pro growers don't argue whether defoliation is good or bad, ad nauseum. They leave 18 leafs on the plant at any one time...and they all do it that way.
They know how to steer the plant vegetatively or generatively, and when/how to balance growth. They know how to prevent weak growth, and encourage strong growth, despite varying weather conditions. Controlled environments should make it a no brainer.
They pay about $0.50 / m^3 / EC for fertilizer solution. Imagine using the whole line up of
advanced nutrients for 200,000 plants!! Also, no organics, humics, PGR, or even silica (for this grower). Higher EC raises brix, and lowers yield. The EC in the rockwool slabs is kept at 3.5 mS. The fertigation strategy prevents salt buildup...no 2 week flush bs.
He recycles 100% of his drain, and samples the solution weekly, adding in only what the plants use. Our good-enough solution is DTW. It's wasteful, polluting, and costly, but without weekly sampling, it's as close as a hobby grower can get to pro results. We can do ONE run with sampling, and as long as you grow the same variety, nothing will change.
As they say, fools rush in. Baseline industry talent has improved considerably over the last 18 months or so, but there are plenty of morons out there that think they can grow money all day long with absolutely zero prior experience. I mean - it's a plant - how hard could it be?
IMHO, dispensary employees and owners/operators are seriously all over the board in their skills, comprehension, and passion for the product.
I mean - I often find that those with the money to fund warehouse grows - older folks with savings made from more traditional jobs and income sources - don't have the slightest ability to operate the equipment or even begin to care about what good cannabis is. Profiteers, in my experience, through and through.
I totally agree with everything you say. The high profit makes cash croppers lazy. Waste costs money. Knowledge costs money. Incompetence costs the most.
