The Best Grows Have The Best Janitors

Front Row Ag technical experts Tyler Simmons and Mike Harnos discuss why sanitation is one of the most important systems in any commercial cultivation facility. In this video, they explain how cleaning protocols prevent contamination, improve operational reliability, and protect long-term profitability. Topics include:

• Why every facility needs a documented cleaning SOP
• Common contamination hotspots that are often overlooked
• How biofilm develops in drains, irrigation systems, and equipment
• HVAC and mini-split maintenance best practices
• Real examples of facility outbreaks caused by poor sanitation
• The operational cost of neglecting janitorial work
• How cleanliness improves team morale, consistency, and facility performance

Transcript:

There's an old joke in cultivation that the head grower is really just a glorified janitor.

As funny as that sounds, there's a lot of truth behind it.

At the heart of preventing expensive cultivation problems is something surprisingly simple: consistent, thorough cleaning.

Some of the highest-risk areas in a facility are also the ones people overlook most often.

The first is floor drains and standing water.

We've all walked into rooms where small puddles have been sitting on the floor or where a drain is partially clogged and water is backing up.

Whenever I see that, I immediately think of it as a biofilm factory.

Those drains develop a slimy ring of bacteria and fungal growth. Every time someone walks by, splashes water into the drain, or mops the floor, spores and bacteria can become airborne again and spread throughout the facility.

Sometimes a single area of recurring standing water can become a continual source of reinfection.

Another common problem is clogged table drains.

In large facilities with long benches or multiple irrigation zones, it's easy for these drains to be forgotten because they're difficult to reach.

Eventually they clog, water begins backing up onto the tables, biofilm develops, and in severe cases standing water can even contact the bottoms of the plants.

When you find one that's been neglected for a while, it's enough to make your skin crawl.

Another frequently overlooked area is the HVAC system.

If your HVAC equipment has proper filtration and routine sanitation, it's one of your best defenses against airborne contamination.

If it doesn't, it becomes one of your biggest sources of contamination.

Instead of removing spores and pathogens from the environment, it's constantly blowing them throughout the facility.

Surprisingly few operations have SOPs for routinely inspecting ductwork, cooling coils, or other HVAC components.

That's a major missed opportunity.

Of course, irrigation systems and water reservoirs also need regular cleaning.

We've discussed those extensively before, but they're another critical part of any sanitation program.

Another area people often forget is door thresholds.

Every doorway is a transition point between rooms, making it one of the highest-risk locations for cross-contamination.

Some facilities install sanitizing footbaths or chemical mats at entrances, but it's not just footwear that matters.

Think about the door handles.

Hands are one of the biggest vectors for spreading pathogens.

Someone may touch plants in one room, grab a doorknob, walk into another room, and immediately begin handling another crop without thinking twice.

It's an easy way to move contamination throughout an entire facility.

The same applies to shared tools and equipment.

Pruners, carts, ladders, hoses, measuring devices, and countless other items move from room to room every day.

Without routine sanitation, they become excellent vehicles for spreading disease.

When I visit a facility, many of the things you've mentioned are exactly what I'm looking for.

They're obvious once you know where to look, but they're often invisible to the people working there every day.

Floor drains are a perfect example.

Every time water splashes into one, it can aerosolize spores and bacteria.

Fortunately, they're also one of the easiest problems to solve.

One simple solution is placing chlorine tablets on either side of the drain.

As water flows through, it continuously sanitizes the drain and suppresses microbial growth.

All you have to do is check the tablets every few weeks and replace them as they dissolve.

I've also seen some surprisingly unusual contamination sources.

One facility was experiencing repeated microbial testing failures for months.

After hours of inspecting the building, everything appeared clean.

Toward the end of the day, I watched an employee drive a floor scrubber into one of the cultivation rooms.

That immediately caught my attention.

We sampled the brushes underneath the machine and found bacterial counts exceeding 100,000 colonies.

The scrubber itself had become the contamination source.

Every time it cleaned the floor, it was spreading bacteria throughout the room.

It's no different than trying to wash dishes with a dirty sponge.

The cleaning tool itself has to stay clean.

That means replacing scrubber brushes, changing mop heads, and sanitizing cleaning equipment every day so it isn't spreading contamination instead of removing it.

Another major problem area is mini-split air conditioning units.

From a microbial standpoint, they're almost the perfect environment.

While they're operating, the evaporator coil stays cold.

Once they shut off, moisture condenses inside the unit, creating a warm, damp environment where bacteria and mold thrive.

Then the fan starts again and blows whatever has grown inside directly across the crop.

We've opened mini-splits expecting to find black plastic blower wheels, only to discover they were actually orange underneath a thick layer of mold.

In one dry room, simply cleaning five heavily contaminated mini-splits immediately resolved repeated microbial testing failures.

None of these maintenance tasks are particularly difficult.

The challenge is simply identifying them before they become expensive problems.

Most sanitation failures aren't caused by difficult work.

They're caused by overlooked work.

One of the challenges with sanitation is that you can neglect it for a surprisingly long time without seeing immediate consequences.

Biofilm can slowly build inside irrigation lines while everything appears to be working normally. Water quality seems fine, filters stay clean, and the crop looks healthy.

Then one day, the system reaches a tipping point.

Pieces of biofilm begin breaking loose, filters clog, emitters plug up, and problems seem to appear overnight.

The same thing happens throughout the rest of the facility.

HVAC systems, water filters, floor drains, and reservoirs can slowly accumulate contamination for months before they finally create an obvious issue.

That's what makes preventative maintenance so difficult to justify for some operations.

People feel like they're saving time and money by skipping routine cleaning because nothing bad happens right away.

The problem is that they're comparing the cost of prevention against zero.

The real comparison should be between the cost of prevention and the cost of a crop failure.

Imagine hiring one full-time sanitation technician.

Maybe that position costs $40,000 to $50,000 per year.

At first glance, that feels like a significant expense.

But compare it to losing a crop worth $250,000 or more because sanitation wasn't maintained.

Viewed that way, preventative maintenance becomes one of the best investments a facility can make.

The financial loss isn't the only consequence.

One thing that's much harder to measure is what happens to the team.

I've walked into facilities where everyone loved coming to work.

People took pride in the crop, enjoyed the process, and morale was high.

Then the facility spent six months chasing a contamination issue that could have been prevented.

Eventually everyone became exhausted.

The excitement disappeared.

People stopped enjoying their work, and valuable employees left the company.

Losing morale can be even more expensive than losing a crop because it's much harder to rebuild.

Another thing people often underestimate is how quickly bacteria multiply.

Unlike many organisms, bacteria don't need to reproduce sexually.

Many species simply divide.

Under favorable conditions, some bacterial populations can double every two hours.

Imagine introducing just a few teaspoons of contaminated soil into a nutrient-rich irrigation system after a filter failure.

A single teaspoon of soil can contain billions of bacteria.

Once those bacteria have water and nutrients available, the population grows exponentially.

People sometimes say,

"This biofilm appeared overnight. That doesn't seem possible."

But when bacterial populations are doubling every few hours, it's entirely possible.

What starts as a relatively small amount of contamination can become trillions of bacterial cells in a very short period of time.

That's why biofilm, slime, and microbial growth can seem to appear almost instantly.

It didn't actually begin overnight.

The population was growing the entire time.

You simply didn't notice it until it reached a visible tipping point.

Understanding microbial growth changes the way people think about sanitation.

Once you realize how quickly bacteria can multiply—and how much revenue is at risk—the investment in preventative maintenance becomes much easier to justify.

Whether it's spending money on air sterilization, cleaning mini-splits, sanitizing holding tanks, or replacing filters on schedule, those expenses become much easier to approve when you understand what they're preventing.

The biggest challenge isn't usually the cost.

It's recognizing the threat before it becomes visible.

That's why education is so important.

Once people truly understand the risks, they stop viewing sanitation as an unnecessary expense and start seeing it as an essential investment in protecting the facility.

When I walk into a facility that's running well, I can usually tell almost immediately.

The biggest difference isn't the equipment—it's the culture.

The best facilities educate their employees. Everyone understands why sanitation matters, not just what they're supposed to do.

It's easy to hand someone a mop.

It's much harder to explain why cleaning that floor today might prevent a six-figure crop loss six months from now.

The strongest facilities have already learned those lessons.

Many of them have experienced contamination issues in the past, refined their processes, and turned those experiences into detailed SOPs.

Everything is documented.

Tasks happen the same way every time because there are simply too many variables to leave sanitation to memory or personal judgment.

When they discover a weakness, they don't wait for it to happen again.

For example, maybe the manufacturer recommends replacing RO membranes every six months.

But the facility notices their particular water source fouls the membranes after only three months.

Instead of trying to stretch them to six months again, they immediately change the SOP.

From that point forward, membranes are replaced every three months.

They don't hesitate because they understand the cost of failure far exceeds the cost of replacement.

Dedicated sanitation staff also make a tremendous difference.

Think about the responsibilities of a head grower.

They're already working long hours while managing irrigation, nutrition, staffing, environmental control, harvest schedules, and everything else.

When time runs short, what gets skipped?

Usually it's the cleaning.

The plants still get watered.

The floors don't always get mopped.

That's why having someone whose primary responsibility is sanitation is so valuable.

Another common characteristic of successful facilities is that everyone stays informed.

Morning meetings keep the team aligned, everyone understands current priorities, and sanitation isn't treated as an afterthought.

Infrastructure also matters.

Sometimes facilities simply weren't designed for maintenance.

For example, one common irrigation manifold may feed every flowering room.

If Room 8 develops a bacterial problem, there's no way to isolate it for cleaning because the same pipe also supplies Rooms 1 through 7.

At that point, the right long-term solution isn't another cleaning product.

It's redesigning the plumbing.

The facilities that avoid these recurring problems usually have:

• Individual irrigation lines for each room.
• Isolation valves.
• Flush valves.
• Redundant RO systems.
• Sanitized holding tanks.

Those design decisions make maintenance dramatically easier throughout the life of the facility.

There are also subtle signs you notice immediately when walking into a well-managed operation.

The building simply smells different.

Facilities with standing water, decaying plant debris, and poor sanitation develop a distinct odor.

On the other hand, when you walk into a building with a faint smell of chlorine, it's often a good indication that sanitation is taken seriously.

Another thing you notice is the people.

Clean facilities usually have happier employees.

People enjoy working in organized, well-maintained environments.

When the equipment is maintained, the building is clean, and everyone takes pride in their work, you generally see healthier plants as well.

I've always believed that I'd rather have a modest facility with excellent people and strong SOPs than an expensive facility with poor execution.

You can spend $25 million building a state-of-the-art operation, but without disciplined processes and employee buy-in, it will still struggle.

I've walked into beautiful, high-end facilities that had completely neglected basic maintenance.

In one case, I climbed a ladder and removed an HVAC filter that had over an inch of mold growing on it.

The building was impressive.

There were dozens of employees.

Yet nobody had ever checked that filter.

That wasn't an equipment failure.

It was a failure of communication and SOPs.

If someone had been responsible for inspecting that filter regularly, they would have taken pride in catching the problem before it became serious.

Instead, nobody even knew it existed.

The best facilities understand both their systems and their people.

They build procedures that support both.

Whether it's a small operation or a large commercial facility, success comes from creating repeatable processes that everyone understands and follows consistently.

Cleaning isn't glamorous work.

But it's the foundation everything else depends on.

The people responsible for sanitation rarely get the recognition they deserve, yet they're often the reason everyone else can do their jobs successfully.

If the cleaning isn't happening before, during, and after every crop cycle, eventually the entire facility begins to fall apart.

That's why the people pushing mops, replacing filters, sanitizing equipment, and maintaining the building are some of the most important people in the operation.

Without them, nothing else works.

One thing I've learned from visiting so many facilities is that the most serious sanitation failures are often the least obvious.

During onboarding, we're trying to give a facility a clean slate before introducing a new fertility program. That means we pay very close attention to cleaning because existing contamination can undermine everything else we're trying to accomplish.

Over the years, we've seen some incredible examples.

I've walked into facilities where the water storage room and the garbage room were sharing the same space.

There were piles of old coco, dead plant material, and organic waste sitting right next to the water tanks and nutrient concentrates.

From a sanitation standpoint, that's about as bad as it gets.

I've also visited facilities that were still under construction where contractors had stacked tools, equipment, and construction materials directly beside the nutrient concentrates.

In one case, there were several inches of mold growing on the tops of every concentrate drum.

Dirty water rooms are another recurring issue.

Growers spend a tremendous amount of time selecting genetics, choosing fertilizers, and dialing in environmental controls, yet two of the most important variables—water and light—are often overlooked.

It's surprisingly common to open a water room and find algae growing in holding tanks, mold inside nutrient concentrates, or obvious contamination throughout the mixing area.

Then someone explains why they don't think reverse osmosis or water sanitation is necessary.

The disconnect can be startling.

Many growers developed successful habits years ago under very different circumstances, so it's understandable that some sanitation practices don't initially seem important.

But dead plant material naturally decomposes.

Garbage becomes a food source for microbes.

If waste isn't removed promptly or is stored near clean production areas, it dramatically increases contamination risk.

The same applies to nutrient concentrates.

I've visited facilities where concentrate tanks were mixed outdoors and left exposed to the environment.

It's easy to underestimate how much contamination can enter an open nutrient solution under those conditions.

Some of the most extreme situations I've encountered involve piles of used substrate and dead plant material sitting immediately beside nutrient storage or directly outside cultivation rooms.

Months later, those same facilities call asking why they're failing microbial testing.

At that point, the contamination pathway is often obvious.

Facilities that consistently avoid these issues tend to think more like pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Everything entering the building follows a controlled path.

Some operations receive incoming equipment in a separate room where it's cleaned, disinfected, or sterilized before entering production.

Others use dedicated sanitation rooms with double-door systems so clean and dirty areas remain separated.

Equipment is physically cleaned before it ever reaches the cultivation rooms.

Facilities that invest in those preventative systems often run for years with very few sanitation problems.

Understanding how rapidly bacteria multiply is a major part of that mindset.

Once you appreciate how quickly microbial populations grow, preventative cleaning stops feeling excessive and starts feeling completely reasonable.

One of the more memorable onboarding experiences involved a facility that had connected every dehumidifier to a central condensate collection system.

The idea made sense.

Rather than wasting that low-alkalinity water, they collected it in a central reservoir and reused it to supply their humidifiers.

The problem was there was virtually no sanitation anywhere in the system.

When we inspected the condensate tubing, we found a thick layer of pink slime coating the inside of the lines.

The humidifier piping looked the same.

Every harvest, the system had been continuously blowing bacteria and microbial growth back into the cultivation rooms.

The contamination wasn't coming from the crop.

It was coming from the building itself.

That discovery led to a complete overhaul of the system, including extensive cleaning and repairs before the facility could move forward.

That kind of contamination is more common than people realize.

If you're going to reuse condensate water, you need to treat it like any other water source.

When we find heavy microbial buildup like pink slime inside PVC pipes and tubing, trying to clean every inch of it usually isn't worth the effort.

The fastest and most reliable solution is often to replace the tubing entirely.

Start with a clean system, then put preventative sanitation in place so the problem doesn't return.

Reusing condensate water is a perfectly reasonable strategy, but only if it's managed correctly.

The water should be filtered, sterilized with UV, or treated with a low level of sanitation chemistry before it's reused. Just as importantly, the humidifiers themselves should be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after every harvest.

Once the system is reset and sanitation becomes part of routine maintenance, condensate reuse can work very well.

The larger lesson is that sanitation isn't about reacting to problems—it's about preventing them from developing in the first place.

Throughout all the facilities we've visited, the same pattern keeps appearing.

The growers who consistently produce the best crops aren't necessarily using the newest equipment or the biggest budgets.

They're the ones who understand that cleanliness is part of cultivation.

They've built systems that make sanitation repeatable.

They've trained employees to understand why these tasks matter.

They've documented every important maintenance procedure with SOPs.

And when they identify a weakness, they don't wait for it to become a crisis before fixing it.

Cleaning isn't glamorous.

Replacing filters, sanitizing humidifiers, inspecting drains, flushing irrigation lines, and maintaining holding tanks rarely get celebrated.

But those are the activities that protect everything else.

The reality is that a head cultivator spends a surprising amount of time thinking like a janitor.

Not because cleaning is beneath the role, but because protecting the crop starts long before nutrients are mixed or lights turn on.

It starts by removing opportunities for pathogens to establish themselves.

That's why some of the strongest handshakes in a facility should go to the maintenance crews and sanitation staff.

They're not the people standing on stage accepting awards for the harvest.

They're the people who quietly make those harvests possible.

The growers can't succeed without them.

If your facility is clean, your employees are engaged, your SOPs are followed consistently, and your maintenance program stays ahead of potential problems, you've already eliminated many of the biggest threats to production.

Ultimately, sanitation isn't just another task on the checklist.

It's the foundation that supports every other aspect of cultivation.

When it's done consistently, many of the biggest problems simply never have the chance to develop.