Name: Matthew Indest, Ph.D.
Location: New Orleans
Title: Technical Director of Agronomy and Plant Improvement at Curaleaf
One word to describe your cultivation style: Holistic
Indoor, outdoor, greenhouse or a combination: Combination of all three, but heavy focus on controlled environments (indoor and climate-controlled greenhouse)
Can you share a bit of your background and how you and your company got to the present day?
I studied horticultural and agricultural sciences at Louisiana State University from 2007 to 2016. I worked at research stations across the state to support field trials and breeding projects in both agricultural and horticultural production scenarios. Breeding really caught my interest as it involved observing and cataloging the diversity in a plant species, then guiding the populations toward a specific utility. After a postdoctoral with [the] USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) in New Orleans, where I applied my statistics background into cotton quality measurements, I began growing cannabinoid-rich flower at scale under my hemp license in Louisiana. My hemp variety trials spanned three farms across the state. In 2020, I started my role as technical director of agronomy and plant improvement with Curaleaf, where I support our international cultivation network to grow the healthiest plants we can.
What tool or software in your cultivation space can you not live without?
Electrical conductivity meters for fertigation and rootzone monitoring. You can’t manage what you don’t measure!
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your business in the last six months?
Sunglasses for specific high-light environments that filter spectrum. HPS (high-pressure sodium) spectrum can make diagnosing plant health symptoms challenging without a filtered lens.
What cultivation technique are you most interested in right now, and what are you actively studying (the most)?
Tissue culture for generating elite momstock has immense value given the widespread prevalence of hop latent viroid. I am actively studying applied molecular genetics to accelerate traditional breeding techniques.
Right now, we are in the most challenging time to date for plant-touching businesses, as price compression, competition from the illicit market, high taxes, and more continue to be a challenge. How can cultivation teams respond to these retail/wholesale market pressures?
Commit focus to quality and service. With competition, it is critical to distinguish your products and brands by offering unique menu options, delivering the highest quality products and responding to customer feedback.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
Science is about exploring unknowns, and failure is expected to learn new things. What I learned early on is how easily simple messages can get lost in communication. It is important to follow up consistently to avoid a disconnect between intent and interpretation. This was a valuable lesson to learn and apply while building SOPs (standard operating procedures) for a global company.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven grower about to enter the legal, regulated industry? What advice should they ignore?
Actively seek out opportunities and find a company where you can settle in. Progress takes time and a change made in cultivation takes months to quarters to show fruit. The most basic and fundamental ideologies of plant health have a major impact on a commercial scale. Keep things simple and you will do well.
How do you deal with burnout?
We take time to appreciate wins with the team. In such a rapid growth environment, failure can happen. It takes grit to continue moving forward against obstacles. Having a team to lean on and support helps when you feel like you are losing traction.
How do you motivate your employees/team?
Spending time with them to learn about their successes, concerns, observations and challenges. These teams are in the field day after day and learning from their experiences in the plants is the best opportunity to improve. Listening, empowering and enabling our teams has been the most impactful to our operational successes.
What keeps you awake at night?
Processing everything learned each day. In the cannabis space, there are continuous opportunities to learn.
What helps you sleep at night?
Tomorrow is another day to grow and find something new.
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