Overview
Kaye Taupman has been the Operations Manager of Watercolor Labs since 2021. The indoor Oklahoma facility has revolutionized its cultivation operations by implementing new tech, including Trym software and sensors. Facing spatial constraints and manual labor inefficiencies, the company embraced technology to enhance productivity and decision-making.
Company Background
Starting as a modest two-person team, Watercolor Labs rapidly expanded to a 15-member team within two years. Rooted in values of cooperation and teamwork, the company specializes in premium cannabis products and specialty in-house strains that have made a name for the group in the Oklahoma cannabis market.
Trail Blazing Strain Innovation
The team dedicates extra attention to low-stress training, ensuring optimal light penetration and trichome production. One of their best-performing and loved strains is ‘Trail Blaze,’ bred from Northern Lights, Power Plant, Skywalker, and Blueberry Skittles.
Characterized by its sweet piney flavor with fruity and fresh berry undertones, “Trail Blaze” embodies the company’s commitment to quality and uniqueness. The strain’s unique terpene profile, featuring Terpinolene, Ocimene, Limonene, Beta Pinene, and Caryophyllene, delivers an uplifting, energetic experience, setting “Trail Blaze” apart as a truly innovative offering in the cannabis market.
Challenge
Historically, Watercolor Labs struggled with space limitations and the manual processes of recording plant weights, which prolonged harvesting cycles and room flips to a week. The reliance on physical whiteboards and paperwork for task management further complicated operations, leading to inefficiencies and reduced time with the plants.
Before TRYM, challenges like laborious harvest processes, cumbersome task scheduling, and manual plant counting hindered efficiency.
Solution
Introducing Trym’s Touchless Harvesting and digital team management features marked a turning point for the team. Trym’s mobile and iPad applications allowed remote task assignment and real-time updates, streamlining operations. Additionally, integration with Aranet sensors provided critical data on plant conditions, facilitating better environmental control and watering schedules.
That time of thinking about all of that, we can now spend with our team and with the plants. We want as much time spent with the plants versus trying to figure out what tasks we are supposed to do.
Results
By implementing Trym, the Watercolor Labs team cut down the room turnover time to three days, significantly improving labor management and enhancing team focus on plant care. In addition, the shift to living soil and using Aranet sensors contributed to a notable increase in yield, achieving 2 pounds per light in their latest harvest.
Leveraging Sensor Insights
At Watercolor Labs, integrating Aranet Sensors with the Trym platform has been pivotal in tailoring care to the unique needs of plants across different soil mediums. Transitioning from coco coir to living soil, which inherently has a slower drying time and requires distinct watering schedules, highlighted the necessity for precise monitoring.
By focusing on environmental data, such as soil moisture levels, Watercolor Labs dynamically adjusts feeding schedules and frequencies, ensuring their cultivation practices are as responsive and efficient as possible, regardless of the soil medium used. This strategic use of technology exemplifies their commitment to data-driven and adaptable cultivation methods.
Enhancing Cultivation Through Data Insights:
Watercolor Labs has refined its cultivation practices by harnessing Trym data analytics, especially in adjusting workflows to closely monitor trichome coloration pre-harvest, a key indicator of flowering maturity.
Their meticulous, data-informed strategy fine-tunes flowering times and significantly enhances yield quality. By leveraging precise, real-time data, Watercolor Labs ensures each crop cycle is optimized for the highest quality output.
Trym brought transformative changes:
- Streamlined Harvesting: Touchless Harvesting accelerated the harvesting process, turning it from a daunting task into an efficient, easy experience.
- Enhanced Task Management: Implementing workflows and task tracking significantly improved communication and productivity.
- Predictable Yields: The software and hardware combination (Trym + Aranet sensors) signaled to the team how much and how often to feed their plants. This consistency, only possible through root zone sensors, helped the team reach a consistent 2lbs per light.
Watercolor Labs’ story is a testament to the synergy of passion, innovation, and technology. Their evolution from a two-person team to a successful 15-person crew shows the significant impact of embracing change and innovation.
