PM Growers nurtures 2,400 cannabis plants annually at its indoor facility in Bangor, Mich. The plants grown for the company’s medical cannabis patients require a stable cultivation ecosystem, a necessity that controlled climate system provider Surna delivers with reliability.
“We’ve been working them for about a year-and-a-half,” says PM Growers co-owner Rick Taylor. “We did a lot of research before deciding to purchase with them. I traveled the country talking to other growers, and they were quite pleased with the savings they got with Surna.”
Surna, based in Boulder, Colo., has been designing climate systems and controls for the cannabis industry since 2006. The company's MEP (mechanical, engineering and plumbing) design and products keep cultivation facilities clean and prevents contamination.
PM Growers uses a suite of Surna products, including dehumidifiers, fan coil units and chillers. The company enjoyed immediate results via lower electric bills and a welcome downturn in its CO² emissions. Surna chiller compressors alone have decreased the company’s wintertime electric bills by up to 20%.
“They have a really good team of people,” Taylor says. “We had some early issues with temperature gauges on their equipment, but their people helped us get those issues fixed. Their equipment has worked flawlessly; we haven’t had one real issue.”
Temperature and humidity are crucial in keeping product quality high, as a non-suitable environment can result in product contamination, mold growth, degradation of raw materials and other costly problems.
Many inexperienced indoor growers suffer mold and yeast issues that contaminate their plants. Thanks to Surna technology, PM Growers’ fungal spore count hovers at a more-than-acceptable 10,000 parts per million (ppm).
Although investing in environmental control systems can be costly, the results more than pay for themselves, notes Taylor. PM Growers is currently preparing to enter the adult-use cannabis space, while a new extraction lab is set to launch later this year. A clean growing facility is boosting the company’s registry of customers, many of whom are dealing with chronic pain or persistent muscle spasms.
“We’re trying to grow a premium material, because we want our customers to have the best,” Taylor says. “We have people who are coming from 150 miles away. Surna’s equipment is working very well for us.”