Step inside Story in Abell, Maryland with Cultivation Manager Alex Mayhugh. He walks through how his team manages 38,000 ft² of two-tiered hydroponic canopy using crop steering, sensor data, and consistent nutrient inputs.
Alex covers his approach to irrigation, staff development, and genetic selection, including how they track and optimize plant performance across a wide variety of cultivars. He also explains why Front Row Ag’s fertilizer line helps simplify training, increase consistency, and support targeted production planning—without relying on guesswork.
Transcript:
My name is Alex Mayhew. I’m the cultivation manager at Story in Maryland. Our facility has eight flower rooms with about 38,000 square feet of two-tier LED hydroponic canopy. We run Front Row A/B/Bloom, which keeps things simple.
A day in the life here ranges from calm to very busy. Beyond plant care and husbandry, a huge part of the job is people—training every tech to be as capable as possible. My day includes production planning, data management for irrigation and room environments, and walking rooms with the team to troubleshoot anything they see. Front Row’s education makes staff training easier—not just on plant work, but also on water and nutrient management and the “why” behind it.
Back in the day, a lot of feeding was based on underground/home-grow habits—“a little of this, a little of that”—so results varied wildly plant to plant. Now we target exact salt values. We know our NPK and micros, and we tune them with crop-steering data by phase. It’s more technical and advanced: daily tasks like cleaning filters, checking watering, and checking sensor data drive decisions.
We use Growlink substrate sensors and run data-driven irrigation—tracking moisture content, EC, and media temperature, then scheduling shots from those parameters. We still have to start with the best plants and help them achieve their best; the formula we use fits this environment really well. Ease of mixing is great, but so are Front Row’s suggested recipes and targets; from there we adjust up or down with data, and refer back to the educational pieces when we need direction.
Every day we review the previous day’s data—especially dryback—and tailor the crop schedule for the next phase (Stack, Swell, Ripen). We program volumes and shots, watch the data run, and make further adjustments if needed. With Front Row’s support we’ve gotten very consistent. When we’ve had questions or wanted to try something new, they’ve backed it up with knowledge and helped us find the right path.
I’ve used Front Row since its inception. Across different grows you see huge variation in uptake and a lot of guesswork with other programs. Switching to Front Row removes the guessing. With a few parts, the math is simple whether you’re mixing stock or a batch reservoir.
On output, we’ve seen genetics break serious barriers—THC and terpene performance—and excellent grams per square foot with strong stacking top to bottom. We run a wide variety from our own R&D phenohunts—everything from very short sativas to very tall indica-leaning hybrids. Current favorites include Super Boof and Dante’s Inferno; Mule Fuel is always a winner. Recent standouts—Strawberry Passion Punch, Hawaiian Dream, Crescendo, White Wedding, Drizznipper, Rum Scotty—all looked amazing. “Shave Monkey” surprised us and might be one of our heaviest yielders ever.
I’ve seen a lot of facilities on competitor programs that don’t quite hit the performance we get out of Front Row. Some companies hand you a plan and say “trust it,” but if parts are mixed at different sites or lack tight validation, real-world results vary. Front Row’s consistency and solubility are rock solid—what we mix always lands where it should. Their resources on water use, cleanliness, pH, and the reasons behind each target make our lives easier. The consistency, solubility, and education—how to mix and why—go a long way for us. Front Row till we die.
