An Interview with Master Grower Shlomo Booklin – Part 2

How does GrowerIQ incorporate best practices to help new cultivators avoid mistakes?

In part 2 of our interview with Master Grower, Shlomo Booklin, Shlomo discusses his experience working with seed-to-sale compliance software, and the importance of technology within large-scale cannabis production. As a bonus, here's an article that was inspired by Shlomo's insights: What is the Highest Yielding Indoor Strain for Cannabis?.

Daniel Kain: Describe your experience working with seed-to-sale tracking software.

Shlomo Booklin: I’ve worked with several on the market. There are many faults that need to be fixed in existing seed-to-sale systems. In order to comply with Health Canada, you need to track almost everything from amount of seeds to cuttings, batch, location, condition in each room etc. The software needs to be diverse, and most importantly, user friendly. Many systems on the market are cumbersome and non-intuitive.  The more a software can do for me the better, because as Master Grower, compliance is only one challenge. To stay on top of the market and be good at what I do, the software must have a smooth interface and a diverse feature set.

DK: What are the limitations of other tools/solutions on the market?

SB: I won’t name the solutions, but one American system I worked with wasn’t designed to follow the regulations of Health Canada, and its hard for them to change the software to understand the limitations of Canadian market and regulations. The Canadian solutions I’ve used could be much better in customer service; they don’t have good follow up, they just sell and then move to next. As a customer I need to be more fluent in the software before I’m left in the water and need to swim by myself. There are lots of glitches that don’t allow me to operate smoothly.  My staff and I need to have customer support constantly available, and from my experience, it’s hard to get professional help in real time.

DK: Describe the challenges of inventory management in large-scale cultivation?

SB: When you have a large facility, you have many stages and rooms and a lot of inventory of product in the vault. It’s critical that you have a real time picture of your available inventory, what you could have in 2 weeks, what is in the pipeline in production in a month etc. It’s important for the sales and customer service teams to know what strains are coming up in a week. Real-time inventory visibility is great for the end-customer, and helps LPs create brand loyalty.

DK: Shlomo, why did you choose to work with GrowerIQ?

SB: I’ve known the team behind GrowerIQ for several years, before they got into cannabis, and have a great respect for their technical abilities. GrowerIQ is filled with energetic young people, very devoted to the product, and are proud about what they do. The more I dive into the program, I realize that GrowerIQ addresses a lot of the limitations that exist in other cannabis solutions. I became an advocate for the software because of the small-details and intuitive interface that make my job as a Master Grower much easier when applying a software application to my facility.

DK: How has your expertise been incorporated into GrowerIQs platform?

SB: Being a Master Grower for large scale facilities, I witnessed first-hand the problems in existing seed-to-sale systems. When I communicated this to the GrowerIQ team they jumped on it to fix it. Every grower has their own method of growing and what they're used to. I have a methodology that I’ve followed successfully for years. I often joke that in my 30 years experience I’ve made every mistake possible, but I’ve learned from those mistakes and learned to avoid them.  I’ve shared my experience with the GrowerIQ team so they can design intuitive processes and incorporate my methodology into the platform; it definitely makes the program much more foolproof for newer LPs!

Continuing Your Learning Journey

We hope that you loved this episode and derived more value than you expected. If you didn't get the chance to listen to part 1 of this interview with Shlomo Booklin, we urge you to check it out! 

Beyond this, you should also check out our resources which were inspired by Shlomo's insights, like How to Become a Master Grower of Cannabis, Master Grower Tips for Cannabis Growth, and Cannabis Strain Selection & Sourcing. 

Find Out More

GrowerIQ can help you get started if you are considering a cannabis cultivation license, or would like professional advice on your existing setup. The best place to start is by setting up a time to chat with one of our specialists. Get started right away by filling out the form below, or starting a chat with us in the chat widget to the right.

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