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Dean
2023 has started off with a bang in South Africa. And maybe not such a good bang facing multiple challenges within the South African grow landscape. We also starting off slightly different today, for the first time ever, we don’t have Andy with us, unfortunately, we’re missing him. We’re joined today by Luke, who’s going to be chatting a little bit about some of his challenges he faced in 2022. And some projections for 2023, Luke’s full time member of the marijuana sa team, he handles a lot of the growth support drum design, really awesome builds and automations. And of course growing Luke, welcome to the show. Let’s jump right into the first question during the course of 2022, as a grower, personally, maybe not with the sort of grow support side of things, but for you personally, give me told me a couple of challenges that you felt we were facing within the South African grow landscape with relation to your own personal growth for for having me

Luke
on today. So yeah, my challenges that I had started off the 2022 year with a new space. So getting that up and going was was a little bit of a challenge being a kind of a retrofitting, styled a bolt as I went along. So there were things that I needed. And then obviously, challenges with Eskom load shedding was getting sort of worse as we were going into 2022. And that was something that needed to be factored in as well. I also, you know, had a little bit of a spider mite issue as well as the third issue. But that’s, you know, those challenges do occur in the garden. And as long as you stay on top of it, you can mitigate it as well. So I would say that was probably my biggest challenge was getting the new space up and running. dialling it in, and then getting used to it as well. And changes throughout the year through that as well.

Dean
Yeah, I think personally, that’s a common misconception that we see you know, skies are, I’ve had a really good time in as in a separate space, you know, you’ve done a good couple of grows, you forgot about all the original challenges that you faced. Now all of a sudden, you have a new space, but with the new space comes new parameters, and it’s oh, there’s always that dialling in period of a of a new space. And do you feel you’ve got it dialled in nicely now or are you still tinkering, tinkering here and there,

Luke
I think I’ve gotten to a good point now, you know, I put some more equipment in it, just to sort of maximise it is an indoor space. So I want to exert as much control as I possibly can. So throughout the year, made sure that I can get as much of control and keep control as much as I can be very important from my side to make sure that I could accomplish that

Dean
epic. Well, let’s move on to so 2022, obviously, filled with quite a bit of challenges. But for me, personally, and I think everyone watching this here in South Africa, 2023 has started off terribly. I mean, we’re sitting in stage six rolling blackouts, which for our international viewers is meaning you know, sometimes eight to 12 hours of no power a day, staggered. So for indoor specifically, it’s obviously we obviously facing quite a lot of challenges. Luca, someone who’s on sort of the front end of dealing with our clients and supporting our clients, what’s the consensus you feel Currently, we are entering with a positive? Or is everyone a bit tentative at the start of this, this new year,

Luke
I always say, you know, try and remain as positive as possible. But it is also added risk to enter into such adventure, you know, you’re now having to budget and consider what you’re going to do during during loadshedding, which is, you know, it’s escalated quite a lot. I know, just today in some parts of South Africa, they had 10 hours of power during the working day, you know, which is not good for the economy and not for good advices for others as well, you know, so, there consensus as you’ve got to be able to if you wanting to go into an indoor system, and it doesn’t matter what size, you’re going to have the budget for backup solution, making sure that your airflow at least is covered and maybe some supplementary lighting as well, which is you know, always extra added costs. Which

Dean
Which sucks for us, obviously, so too bad in Luke, but I mean, it’s the barrier to entry for an indoor grow is already massive. You’re looking at 1000s of rands, just a lighting fixture close to 10. Now, the barrier is gone even further. So it’s, you know, I think the, the, the saving factor or the investment factor is now near, you know, probably 50% more expensive to get into to get into an indoor grow. And like Luke said, you know, from the smallest system up until in a relatively large system, you need to account for it. And do you see it getting better? I mean, do I do Do you personally feel we’re going to stay in stage six for the whole year? Do you think we’re going to? Or do you think it’s going to get slightly more manageable as we delve more into the working year?

Luke
Personally, I don’t think it’s going to get better throughout this year, potentially the next year as well. But you know, that’s something that’s ever evolving. Just going to have to wait and see and monitor quite closely. But the I don’t, I don’t see in this yearn for getting much better than what we currently have.

Dean
So for a first time grower, someone who’s busy costing everything, what would you suggest to them, buy everything slowly, or just go practice a bit more outside and save up for everything that they’re going to need, so that they can hit the ground, hit the ground running,

Luke
I think just, you know, a budget budget for it. It’s also something that you can work in, not only running a little bit of the parameters that you need to control inside your Grove, but potentially hooking up your internet to, you know, maybe having a cable that you can charge your phone, you can utilise the units in and around your, your living space, if that’s what you’re able to do as well, you know, so just factoring that in, I would say, is probably your best bet. And also, you know, if you need to gradually grow as you as you go along, but then I would say, you know, start off with, with sort of getting the small things as you can and go along and yeah, keep up with the, with the art as much as you can, you know,

Dean
nice, yeah, good, good suggestions, and any closing closing thoughts that you have, for us, we’re slowly sort of a halfway through the first month of the year. You know, anything, any small tips or thoughts you’ve had, in these couple days of 2023?

Luke
Yeah, I think just keep positive as much as we can, even though it is, you know, difficult with where we are and power and those that you want to get into integrate, don’t let it don’t let it stop you. You know, it’s still a wonderful thing to get into teaches you a lot about not only growing plants, but a lot about yourself as well. So don’t ever refrain from from, you know, going into it, I don’t think it’s ever a bad placement. So our closing thoughts, as well as just stay on top of your IBM regiments, you know, and keep on growing.

Dean
Nice. Thanks so much, Luca. Really appreciate your time today. And all the hard work and support I’m sure a lot of the people watching would have also chatted to you. So it’s cool to get some of those tips. And guys, like, like Luke was saying, you know, it’s important to stay positive, it’s easy to get negative in South Africa, but we also love our country. We love the fact that we’re able to grow and it’s only going to make us better growers in the long run, we have to we have to face probably, you know, away while their environment then a majority of sort of the grows worldwide. I can be corrected on that. But I’d say it’s, we’re in the top 10. So guys, thanks so much, Luca. Really appreciate your time. Thanks again for for watching. For those of you who made it to the end, I’m coming to you from a super hot South Africa. You can see it’s a little sweaty in my office over here, but I got to turn all these fans off surd sounds dang cool. But yeah, we’re also sweating under the pressure of, of this environment. But you know, we’re still passionate, we’re still growing as hard as possible, we still want to assist you guys in getting the best knowledge possible so that you can do it for yourself. And even if the barrier to entry at this point is slightly harder, you know, there’s been loads of innovations grow lights, I’ve got cheaper, maybe batteries and inverters are more expensive right now. But you know, we’re constantly looking for the best equipment and the best ways to do things affordably in South Africa, because that’s just the environment that we’re in. But we also want to do it proper. We want to grow that triple A grade. And we’re hoping to continue to bring you guys more awesome information related to this during 2023. Yeah, we starting off this year with a bang. We’ve got loads of content lined up and I just want to ask you guys if you are enjoying it too, please remember to like and subscribe. And till next week. Hopefully Andy will be back with us. And I hope you guys enjoyed this episode with Luke and myself. And we’ll see you there Peace guys.