Lighting and Lighting Controls in a Greenhouse – Part 2

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This educational text from Argus Controls’ highlights how lighting considerations in greenhouse design play an important role in the cultivation of any crop, including cannabis. The text has been split into several sections to make for easier reading, although you can see the original on Argus’ website.

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The following is an article produced by a contributing author. Growers Network does not endorse nor evaluate the claims of our contributors, nor do they influence our editorial process. We thank our contributors for their time and effort so we can continue our exclusive Growers Spotlight service.

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This article was originally written and published by Argus Control Systems Ltd. The original article can be found here.

As mentioned earlier, light is generally considered to be the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans can perceive with their eyes. Since light is a very complex phenomenon it can’t be measured as easily as air temperature or pressure. Each light source has many characteristics.

Light has a specific wavelength or a mixture of wavelengths that can be measured (usually in nanometers). It has a wave frequency (usually measured in hertz or cycles per second) and an intensity characteristic that can be measured in a number of different ways. There are also many other characteristics such as polarization (wavelength orientation).

To complicate matters, almost all light sources, including the sun, emit a spectrum consisting of many simultaneous wavelengths at varying intensities. For horticultural purposes, we are usually interested in measuring three properties of light:

Irradiance - Amount of total light energy falling on a surface.
Spectral Quality - Wavelength composition and relative intensity.
Duration - Length of the daily lighting period.

Combinations of these three characteristics determine the amount of instantaneous and cumulative energy that is available for photosynthesis.

Units of Measurement

Over the years, scientists and light engineers have developed a proliferation of light measurement methods and units to measure the different properties of light. For each property, there are often several measurement standards and engineering units. For example, the foot-candle, the lux, and the lumen are all units used to describe relative brightness or luminosity to the human eye.

Radiometric measurements are used to describe the radiant energy of light, and common units include watts, calories, BTU’s, and joules. (Argus typically uses a pyranometer on the weather station to measure the irradiance of light energy falling onto the greenhouse. This value is used in many climate and irrigation control strategies).

Yet another form of measurement describes the number of photons falling as an indication of the measurement of photon energy.

The typical units are micromols per square meter per second (mol m^-2 s^-1). An equivalent measurement, microeinsteins per square meter per second ( E m^-2 s^-1), is also used . For horticultural applications, some quantum light sensors measure radiation only in the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) range. PAR is usually defined as 400 - 700 nm.

Equivalent Light Measurement Units

Luminosity (human eye response):

1 lux = 1 lumen m^-2 = .093 foot-candles
1 foot-candle = 1 lumen ft^-2 = 10.76 lumen m^-2

Irradiance (total light energy):

1 W/m² = 0.316998 Btu(IT)/h-ft²

Quantum PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation):

1 E m^-2 s^-1 (PAR) = 1 umol m^-2 s^-1 (PAR)

While it is possible to convert engineering units within a given measurement parameter such as luminosity, converting between parameters such as irradiance and Quantum PAR is not as easy. This is because most light sources emit a spectrum of wavelengths and each wavelength carries a different amount of energy. Therefore the conversion factor is different for every light source. In addition, Quantum PAR sensors measure light only in the photosynthetically active part of the spectrum, while irradiance and luminosity sensors measure light over a broader range.

For these reasons it is not possible to determine the PAR value from the readings on a luminosity or irradiance meter. Likewise a PAR sensor cannot be used to calculate the total Irradiance (W/m²).

Light Sensors

For growers, light sensors are useful for integrated control of greenhouse environments and for the planning and placement of luminaires for supplemental and photoperiod lighting. There are three main types of sensors available, each intended for different applications.

Photometric Sensors

Photometric sensors are designed to mimic the response of the human eye. They are most commonly used in lighting design applications for human use.

The units of measurement for photometers are usually expressed in lux, lumens, or footcandles. These are not particularly well suited for use in horticulture applications since they may not give an accurate indication of the photosynthetic action spectrum radiated by various light sources. In other words, although a light source may appear quite bright to the human eye and to a photometer, it may not be particularly suited for horticulture production.

Photometers can however, be used to give a good relative indication of the intensity and uniformity of lighting on a crop, when moved about under the illuminated canopy.

Pyranometers

Outdoor pyranometers are designed to measure solar radiation received from a whole hemisphere. The common unit of measurement is watts per square meter per second (W m^-2). Since they measure global sun plus sky radiation they are particularly useful for greenhouse weather stations coupled to computerized environmental control systems. Pyranometer readings can be used to assist in an array of climate decision adjustments.

A solar pyranometer.

With a single measurement, they can take into account the influence of site topography, region, latitude, season, time of day, and the daily weather influence on available radiation. Flat plane cosine corrected pyranometers measure changes in energy flux density from both direct beam and diffuse sky radiation passing through a horizontal plane. The flat measuring surface provides an indication of the relative strength of solar radiation falling onto horizontal plant surfaces. Although the outdoor variety can be used indoors or out, they are not particularly useful for evaluating supplementary illumination sources since they are optimized for solar radiation.

Even though a "black plate" pyranometer is a better choice for indoor radiation measurements, an outdoor pyranometer can provide a relative indication of the uniformity of light falling onto the crop canopy, the overall light transmission efficiency of glazing materials, and the degree of shading under a screen or within a plant canopy

PAR Sensors

PAR or quantum sensors measure photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in the 400 to 700 nm wave band. The unit of measurement is micromoles per square meter per second (µmol m^-2 s^-1).

They are primarily used in horticulture research applications to measure PAR within plant canopies, greenhouses, growth and germination chambers, and in laboratory applications and light studies. In commercial greenhouses, they can be used to compare the PAR values at various points in the plant canopy, and under screens, and to check the PAR uniformity and intensity when deploying new lighting systems.

For horticultural use, PAR sensors are normally selected with flat sensor elements to approximate the light available to horizontal leaf surfaces.

Light Sensor Placement and Use

Remote light sensors in the growing compartment can be used to confirm the proper operation of lighting equipment as well as shade, blackout, and thermal screens. Information from crop-level sensors can also be used to activate controls based on real time crop lighting values. The placement of fixed light sensors should take into account any potential shading effects not typical or representative of the target measurement area. Power poles, roof members, gutters, and growing crop canopies can produce nonrepresentative shading on fixed sensors.

Care must be taken to ensure that no temporary obstructions occur due to daily and seasonal shifts in sun angle. Indoor and outdoor sensors should be regularly checked and cleaned according to manufacturer’s recommendations. In outdoor situations, snow accumulations should be cleared away after each snowfall. Occasional incidences of bird droppings, spider nests, and wind-blown leaves and debris may hamper light readings until rectified. Indoors, sensors should be regularly checked to ensure that they have not been knocked out of alignment, oversprayed by opaque chemicals, or overgrown by crop canopies.

In all situations it is important to mount the sensors securely and horizontally. Most light sensors require recalibration every two years, or according to manufacturer’s recommendations.

Use of Light Sensor Information (in Integrated Control Systems)

Since the amount of sunlight received influences all climate variables, light sensor information is a key factor in integrated control systems. Light readings, both instantaneous and cumulative, are used to gauge the speed and degree of response needed for climate control activities. Since many climate variables can be directly correlated to incident light in conjunction with other weather events such as wind, temperature, and humidity, climate control programs can be fine-tuned in relation to actual weather, both in real time, and in predictive calculations.

For instance, when opening a mixing valve to supply heat to a compartment, the control system might alter the setting in relation to light energy. If light values have been climbing steeply, the system might throttle back on the applied hot water energy to help prevent a temperature overshoot and the waste of heating energy that might otherwise occur if the net effect of the two heat sources (hot water + sunlight) were not considered.

The same is true for venting, irrigation, and any other operations that are influenced by light.

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Innovations in Extraction – Nano Pharm

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In this Growers Spotlight, we interview Nathan Kiesel of Nano Pharm, and learn some of his methodology behind making THCA crystals and other advanced extracts, all while keeping the products safe for the end consumer.

Nathan Kiesel

The following is an interview with industry experts. Growers Network does not endorse nor evaluate the claims of our interviewees, nor do they influence our editorial process. We thank our interviewees for their time and effort so we can continue our exclusive Growers Spotlight service.

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Extraction Methods and Products

Safety in Extracts

About Nathan and Nano Pharm

Resources

Comments

Abbreviated Article

Editor's Note: Growers Network appreciates its readers! If you are limited on time, we are now offering abbreviated versions of our articles. Click below to view.

5-Minute Snapshot

Extraction Methods and Products

What kinds of products and extracts do you make?

We use wet, fresh trim to make sauce and crystals, while cured and trimmed material we’ll run to produce wax and shatter. We also make sugar wax and high terpene sauce. Sauce is a relatively new thing. It’s has a honey-like consistency, a wide range of terpenes, and a 70-85% THC content. One dab will put you in your chair.

What sells best for you?

Sugar wax sells best. It appeals to the eye; it’s golden and sparkles like a million little diamonds. It has good flavor, but the terpenes aren’t overwhelming. The THC content is between 75-83%.

How do you make THCA crystals and sauce?

I use the MK4c Terpenator. We use a Haskel recovery pump to help recycle and save on gas. To make THCA crystals, we start with a closed-loop extraction at subzero temperatures. We filter the material heavily before it reaches the collection pot. From there it’s a slow evaporation. I’ll do a run, put it aside in a jar, do another run, and feed the new, wet material into the jar with the old material and wait. THCA crystals will form inside over a few days. The sauce is all about the starting material. When I get material with the perfect amount of cure and enough terpenes to keep it viscous, we get everything cold, run the material, stop it halfway through, and recover the oil. We go through a basic purge and I can tell visually if it’s going to work. If we think we can get sauce out of it, we leave it running low and slow for a few days to purge. If not we increase the heat and turn it into wax or shatter.

What do you use to keep everything at subzero temperatures for the extraction process?

We use straight dry ice and isopropyl alcohol for the very cold temperatures. When we don’t need it as cold we use a PolyScience chiller, which gets down to -20 degrees Celsius.

What are some extraction techniques unique to Nano Pharm?

We have been working on two techniques: HCFSE (high cannabinoid full spectrum extraction) to get high THC content and HTFSE (high terpene full spectrum extraction) to get about 60% THC content while the rest is terpenes and other components.

What extracts will become more prevalent and what will go away?

Cannabinoid crystals are the market of the future. The actual wax compound, not just BHO or sugar or shatter, will be the first to go, because it degrades quickly and is often made by starting with a substandard product that is whipped to become yellow or gold. Consumers are catching on to this fact.

Safety in Extracts

What concerns should consumers have when purchasing extracts?

Consumers should be concerned about extracts made with contaminated gas. There’s something called “mystery oil” that is used to help lubricate butane cans or tanks while they’re being filled. It contaminates the oil and should not be smoked. Canned butane also has odorant chemicals called mercaptans that are added as a safety measure so that people can smell a gas leak. Those chemicals are poisonous and anyone using canned butane is putting that into their extracts. At Nano Pharm we clean our gas and distill it several times to get 99.999% pure butane. Our gas has no mercaptans. And we also use multiple laboratory grade filters inside the extraction column.

Is there anything else you think people should know about extracts?

Dabbing temperatures need more attention. Different products need different temperatures.

What’s a good range of temperatures for dabbing?

I stay between 450 and 650 degrees Fahrenheit. For extracts high in terpenes and active THC I’ll use a lower temperature. For a THCA dab, I’ll go to about 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

What safety measures do you take when extracting?

We never run our machines medicated. We make sure we’re 100% coherent when doing extractions. As for PPE, I wear an anti-static wristband and a fume mask to keep ourselves explosion free and breathing normally. We run a ventilation fan and have a gas meter. If the gas meter goes off we’ll kick the fan up to high.

What sets Nano Pharm apart?

We are patients ourselves and our priority is making our patients feel better. Our products are tested and safe. If I wouldn’t use it myself, we would never sell it. We also keep our products affordable. Our most expensive shatters and waxes are about $40 retail.

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Extraction Methods and Products

What kinds of products and extracts do you make?

We start with wet or dry cannabis depending on the product we want to make. We take wet, fresh trim to make sauce and crystals. Everything that is cured and trimmed we’ll run to get wax and shatter. We also make sugar wax and high terpene sauce. Sauce is fairly new. It’s has a honey-like consistency, a wide range of terpenes, and a 70-85% THC content. One dab will put you in your chair.

One dab = One chair

What sells best for you?

Sugar wax sells the best. It appeals to the eye; it’s golden and sparkles like a million little diamonds. It has just the right amount of flavor so that the terpenes aren’t overwhelming. The THC content is usually between 75-83%, so it’s a well-rounded, clean product.

What processes do you use to make THCA crystals and sauce?

To make THCA crystals, we start with a basic closed-loop extraction at subzero temperatures. We filter the material heavily before it reaches the collection pot. From there it’s a slow evaporation and feed off of second-run terpenes. I’ll do a run, put it aside in jars, do another run, and feed the new, wet material into the jars alongside the old material that’s starting to dry, and then we let the jars sit. The THCA crystals will form over a few days. To harvest the crystals, I pour out the jar and simply pick them out. They’re usually about the size of a small rock, so it’s an easy task.

Crystals forming. The sauce is all about the material you start with. When I get material with the perfect amount of cure and enough terpenes to keep it viscous, we put it into our system, get everything cold, run it, stop it halfway through the run, recover a small amount of oil. We then go through the basic purging technique to see if it’ll pan out. I can tell visually if it’s going to happen. If we think we can get sauce out of it, we leave it running low and slow for a few days to make sure everything gets purged. If not we increase the heat and turn the extract into wax or shatter.

What equipment do you use to make extracts?

I use the MK4c Terpenator. It was designed by Greg Wolf, who actually gave me tons of information when I was learning. He put the specs on the internet and the company Terpp Extractors made a business out of it. We use a Haskel recovery pump to help recycle and save on gas.

What do you use to keep everything at subzero temperatures for the extraction process?

We use straight dry ice and isopropyl alcohol for the very cold temperatures. When we don’t need it as cold we use a PolyScience chiller, which gets down to -20 degrees Celsius.

What are some extraction techniques unique to Nano Pharm?

We have been working on a technique called HCFSE (high cannabinoid full spectrum extraction). That gives extracts with high THC content and a full set of terpenes. Another technique called HTFSE (high terpene full spectrum extraction) gives extracts with about 60% THC content while the rest is terpenes and other components of the plant. Those extracts are meant to be a blend for flavor and synergetic effects.

Sauce.

How do you develop new products?

I spend a few hours of my own time every week looking for faster, cleaner, and safer ways of making current products or experimenting with new products. That’s how I came up with the crystals: I set aside half of an afternoon and played around with a few theories and three days later, voila, I made crystals.

What is easiest extract to make? Hardest?

The crystalline THCA is the easiest to make, even if it’s the hardest to get. I literally run the extractions, do two things, come back a few days later, and it’s formed. If the guidelines are followed correctly, the process basically takes care of itself. The HTFSE is hardest process to run. If you’re an hour too late or too early you either have tons of residual solvents or your product has already converted too far and you’ve lost the terpenes.

Wax from Nano Pharm.

What’s in store for the future of extracts?

I see cannabis extracts like liquor. Taking a one shot of liquor is like taking a dab, and 3 or 4 beers are more like a few joints. Extracts will be useful for people with high tolerances and/or connoisseurs. Still, flower will always be the primary market. It gives a full effect that you can’t always get with extracts.

What extracts will become more prevalent and what will go away?

The crystals, whether they’re THC, CBD, THCA, or terpene-derived, are going to be the market of the future. The actual wax compound, not just BHO or sugar or shatter, will be the first to exit the market. It degrades the fastest and it’s often made by starting with a bad or dark product that is whipped to become yellow or gold. Consumers are picking up on the fact that, unless you know the wax comes from a quality company, it’s probably a bad product that’s been made to look appealing.

Wax from Nano Pharm.

Safety in Extracts

What concerns should consumers have when purchasing extracts?

The biggest concern anyone should have is whether extracts are made with laboratory grade equipment and gas such as butane. There’s something called “mystery oil” that is used to help lubricate cans or tanks while they’re being filled with butane. It has a foul smell, contaminates the oil, and is something people should not smoke at all. Canned butane also has odorant chemicals called mercaptans that are added so people can smell a gas leak. Those chemicals are poisonous and anyone using canned butane is putting that into their extracts.

How do you reduce impurities in your products?

At Nano Pharm we clean our gas and distill it several times to remove all contaminants. By the end we have 99.999% pure butane. Our gas also has no mercaptans. We use multiple laboratory grade filters inside the extraction column. We’ve got different micron gaskets with mesh backings on top and three filters of the same size underneath; we use three just in case one or two of the filters unexpectedly fails.

Is there anything else you think people should know about extracts?

Dabbing temperatures need more attention. Different temperatures should be used for different products. For example, if I do a low-temp dab of THCA, I’m only going to convert a small amount of THCA into THC. If I do too high-temp of a dab I’m going to burn it up and possibly make carcinogens. Some people like that heavy burn in their throat from hot dabs, but they don’t realize they’re burning half of the product away. You also can’t vaporize terpenes at too high of a temperature and have them work the way they should.

What’s a good range of temperatures for dabbing?

I stay between 450 and 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on what I’m using, I’ll go more toward one or the other end of that range. For extracts high in terpenes and active THC I’ll use a lower temperature. For a THCA dab, I’ll go to about 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

What safety measures do you take when extracting?

First and foremost, we never run our machines medicated. Even though the medication is perfectly harmless, safety’s first here, so we always make sure we’re always 100% coherent when doing extractions. As for PPE, I wear an anti-static wristband and a fume mask when I’m doing a run or dealing with product fresh from the collection chamber. We also run a ventilation fan on low at all times and have a gas meter. If the gas meter goes off we’ll kick the fan up to high.

About Nathan and Nano Pharm

If I wouldn’t use it myself, we would never sell it.Nathan McCasker

What sets Nano Pharm apart?

We are patients ourselves, and unlike others who are in this industry just to make money, we’re in it to make our patients feel better. We’re medical patients providing medical products instead of a business selling you medical products. Every product that goes out is tested and safe. If I wouldn’t use it myself, we would never sell it. We also keep our products affordable. Our most expensive shatters and waxes are about $40 retail. Our priority is helping patients. Yes, we need to make money, but we don’t need to get rich off of it.

Where did the name Nano Pharm come from?

Jeff Craighead, who is widely known in the cannabis industry in Washington and Oregon, granted me the name and the logo when he stepped away from the industry. He’d been one of my biggest teachers in extracts.

How did you get into the cannabis industry?

When I was 18, a cousin was diagnosed with a terminal illness, so I moved to Washington to assist him. I’d never tried cannabis before, but he introduced me to the medical side, and I fell in love with it. I first tried extracts at a medical marijuana farmers market in Tacoma in 2008. Farmer John Fourtwenty had a product that looked like a giant wax cookie. I sampled it and the dab hit me hard -- I sat on the couch for 20 minutes, but the rest of the day was bliss. After that I started learning and asking everyone about wax.

How did you get into extracts?

After 6 months of learning about and trying different oils and waxes, I came across glassware in a smoke shop for extracting essential oils. I invested $75 in equipment, went home, and did my first flush of BHO. When I saw the gas traveling through the pack and the golden liquid coming out of the end and all that butane evaporating off, I was amazed, even more so than when I took that first dab. So I switched my focus to extracts.

What have been some of your biggest challenges?

What have been some of your biggest successes?

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Want to get in touch with Nano Pharm?

You can reach them via the following methods:

Website: https://www.mynanopharm.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanopharmcbd/
Email: vhalchemist@gmail.com

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About the Author

Stephanie is finishing her masters in Biological Anthropology at New York University this Spring. She graduated with a B.S. in both Anthropology and Biology from the University of Arizona in 2011.

DNA Testing Can Protect Consumers and Producers Alike

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Ben Amirault of Medicinal Genomics explains how consumers aren’t the only ones protected by better testing protocols. Good testing can also protect producers’ economic needs while keeping consumers safe.

Disclaimer

This Contributors article has been reproduced with permission from Medicinal Genomics. The original article can be found here.

A case of mistaken identity is causing a disagreement between two Alaska testing labs.

According to the article, state regulators gave an edible marijuana product contaminated with mold to both of the state’s testing laboratories. The labs used two different methods for microbial safety testing, which produced two different results. One used plating while the other used the PathoSEEK™ Microbial Safety Testing Platform, a DNA-based method.

The lab using plating grew the mold in a culture and then viewed it under a microscope. They identified the mold to be Aspergillus niger, which is on the state’s list of prohibited microbial species, along with A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A.terreus, STEC, and Salmonella. Therefore, the lab failed the sample. However, the lab that performed DNA-based testing on the sample, did not detect DNA from any species on the state’s list.

So why did one lab see A. niger, and the other lab did not? It’s a case of mistaken identity.

A. brasiliensis, bears a striking resemblance to A. niger, and can be easily mistaken for its more harmful relative when using sight alone. The 2007 paper that identified A. brasiliensis as a novel species noted their physical similarities. It was only when the researchers used DNA sequencing that they were able to definitively distinguish A. brasiliensis from A. niger.

Different views of Aspergillus brasiliensis.

Being able to correctly distinguish A. brasiliensis and A. niger is important. A. brasiliensis is not on the state’s list of dangerous microbes, and it has not been connected to any cases of Aspergillosis, the potentially deadly lung infection that can result from exposure to certain Aspergillus species. Researchers also observed that A. brasiliensis does not produce many of the compounds that are commonly produced by A. niger complex (i.e., ochratoxin A, kotanins, funalenone).

Only DNA-based testing is able to differentiate between A. brasiliensis and A. niger, and only Medicinal Genomics has DNA-based Aspergillus tests validated on cannabis. We demonstrated this in our Manufacturer’s Validation Document where we spiked A. brasiliensis into samples and it did not trigger a positive result on any of our Aspergillus detection assays. It was detected on our Total Yeast and Mold assay, as expected.

This is yet another example of why DNA-based methods are superior to culture-based methods. Identifying specific microbial strains with a microscope is like relying on eyewitness descriptions to identify a criminal. Ask any legal professional, and they will tell you eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. On the other hand, DNA evidence is often a slam dunk. Microbial testing on cannabis is no different.

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2. Phone: 866-574-3582
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About the Author

Ben is the Marketing Manager at Medicinal Genomics (MGC) and enjoys the challenge of trying to simplify the amazing science performed in the MGC lab into content for the layman. Ben also maintains Kannapedia.net and helps to organize and execute MGCs annual CannMed Conference. Prior to joining MGC Ben worked as an writer and editor. He earned his journalism degree from the University of New Hmapshire.

Canna Cribs Episode 2: Grow Op Farms

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In this episode of Canna Cribs, we take a trip to Grow Op Farms, the company behind the Phat Panda Brand. We interviewed their CEO Robert McKinley, Director of Cultivation Mojave Morelli, and Hot Sugar Chief Sean Mooney.

Mojave Morelli (Left) | Robert McKinley (Top) | Sean Mooney (Right)

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Growing Style

Grow Equipment

Harvesting and Processing

The Business

About the Interviewees

Resources

Comments

Video

Transcript

Intro

Nate: Hi, my name is Nate, owner of Growers House. One of the top suppliers of cultivation equipment in the world. I help growers source equipment and put together some of the largest, most advanced cannabis growing operations. I am constantly looking for the top products and methods needed to grow the best cannabis. Join me on a tour, where I get inside access to the industry’s leading cannabis grow ops. This my friends, is Canna Cribs.

Episode 2: Phat Panda

Nate: Welcome everyone to Episode 2 of Canna Cribs. In our search for the most sophisticated, largest growing operations, has led us to Washington. We’re at Grow Op Farms Phat Panda, the number one producer in the state. They gave me a full access pass to view the facility. I’m going to go check it out.

Nate Gets Dressed

Nate: I feel a little bit like Walter White right now.

Genetics

Nate: I’m here with Jeff, the manager of genetics here at Grow Op Farms Phat Panda, and he’s going to show us around the room a little bit. So Jeff, what size is this room? What are we talking about? Jeff: This room is just under 2000 square feet, but I look at it like a giant playground for me. Nate: Ok, so this is the playground where you get to mess around doing research and development, right? Jeff: Yeah. I never thought I would personally be able to grow this many strains. This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. Nate: So 200 strains, 2000 square feet, that’s about 1 strain per 10 square feet. Jeff: Then about over half of these strains will be gone within the next 5 weeks as they finish their flowering cycle and go through testing. Nate: Ok, that probably keeps this a pretty dynamic room. So you constantly have to be paying attention to new plants, growing methods, you know… Jeff: How fast they’re taking to clone, how fast they’re taking to veg… because that all matters when you actually slot something into large scale production. It’s all about identifying the most desirable traits across a wide swathe of the cannabis plants expressions. Nate: Jeff, this is one of the most diverse and dynamic genetics rooms I’ve ever been in, so thank you for showing it off to me. Now, I think it’s time for me to visit Brooke in propagation. So I just wanted to thank you again.

Propagation

Nate: We are in the mother room with Brooke, the director of propagation. How many square feet are we talking? Brooke: The entire department is 12,000 square feet. This room, our main mother room or our stock room, is 6,000 square feet. Nate: So 6,000 square feet. How many plants are we talking about in this 6,000 square feet? Brooke: Anywhere from three to four hundred at any given time. Nate: 300 to 400 mother plants which are giving you all the genetic potential to go into your veg, your flowering rooms, and end up giving you your end products. So how many strains can you bring out of a room like this? Brooke: We have approximately 180 live strains in this room. Nate: Wow. 180 strains. So maybe two, possibly three plants per strain? Brooke: Correct, but I… yeah. Our high production plants, I’ve got more of. Nate: There’s a lot going on in this room right now. The fans are buzzing, I hope everybody can hear us ok. The lights are pretty bright. I know you’re using the Gavita lights which we’ve spoken about before because I may or may not have sent some of these down to you guys. I think the Gavita 1000s with a wide dispersion reflector… yep. Brooke: Plants love them, as you can see. Nate: The plants are extremely healthy underneath them. So keeping this room clean, you’ve got the 25 people, but how do you make sure the plants are healthy in terms of powdery mildew and pests? Brooke: Cleanliness is key. We also have a really strict IPM regimen that’s weekly and biweekly. We’ll do Nuke-Em sprays as a preventative measure, we’ll do liquid sulfur biweekly as a preventative measure. The Botaniguard Max drenches. We’ll also do weekly teas. There’s numerous different things that we do as a preventative. Nate: Yeah. I think I also saw that you guys were working with an AzaMax product? Brooke: We do use AzaMax on a regular basis all around the facility on a regular basis. Nate: And you spray that…? Brooke: Mother, veg, staging. Nate: What do you do to make teas? Everybody has their own recipe, but what products do you guys use for that? Brooke: We use the OG Biowar. We have a root pack and a foliar pack. We use that and we do that weekly. Nate: Weekly? So all these mothers get the weekly teas. So you find that gets the biologicals going? Brooke: Absolutely, yes. Nate: So what media do you feed them into? What are these guys all growing in right now? Brooke: We use Cacao coir, or coco coir as a substrate. Nate: And do you reuse your fabric pots, or do you toss them out after every use? Brooke: The fabric pots we do not reuse. It’s once… once we are either unpotting or the plant is done being used for harvest, we get rid of the pots. Nate: Well, what I’d kind of like to do is… you know, you mentioned maybe that I could have a potential to clone some plants with you… put them onto the market in Washington. That would be an honor. Brooke: Absolutely. I’ve got a mother here that is ready to be cloned and I would love to take some clones from her. Nate: Let’s get started!

Cloning Interlude

Nate: Brooke and I got done taking our clones, and now we’re out to the cloning station, where some of her team is taking the clones from a form where they’re ready to go into their plugs. I kinda want to chat with you about your cloning strategy. I’m familiar with some of these products… Grodan cubes, Clonex, I think you guys are using Sunlight Supply plotter trays with 72 cell plugs, some pretty good stuff. But what’s the strategy for your clones? What’s your method? Brooke: We use the Grodan Rockwool cubes as you mentioned and the Clonex. As I mentioned earlier, we do a lot of cloning here. 500 to 1500 clones a week. Andreas is here, we’ve got some pre-soaked Grodan Rockwool cubes that we’re using. And we’ve got the Clonex, and he’s taking some of the clones that we’ve already cut earlier in the day. We’re going to dip it in that Clonex solution. That’s a solution that’s going to help with the rooting. It’s good stuff. We’re going to dip that last node in there, stick it in that Grodan cube, and in the pack it goes. Nate: Does the Grodan help you get there? You kind of innovating with new things right now? Brooke: I prefer using the Grodan Rockwool cubes. My main reason is that it holds the moisture level where we like it. We have a really great success with the Grodan cubes. And bugs don’t like it. That’s my… my number one reason is that bugs don’t like it. It’s sterile, it’s clean, it’s easy to use. Nate: Here we are in the coveted propagation room. You guys have a lot of cuttings in here. What are we talking? How many cuttings? Brooke: We’ve got just about 4000 cuttings in here right now. Nate: 4000 cuttings? And how many cuttings that you take actually make it from the clone to where they’re going to the vegetative state? Brooke: We have over a 90% success rate in here. Nate: That is really high for 4000 clones. And you told me earlier… it’s probably more like 95%... let’s be fair, it’s 95. That’s awesome. That said, it’s really hot in here in the suit and scrubs and my other clothes, so Brooke, thank you so much for showing me around. Now it’s time to move on.

Vegetation

Nate: Here we are. The veg facility. I’m here with Mojave, the director of ag for Phat Panda Grow Op Farms. Why don’t you show me where the plants start in this room and go through where they leave? Mojave: So what we have here is our nursery. So when they’re first coming in, they’re going to go in here into this 5x5 and their DNA are filed and a coco product. They’re going to spend two to three weeks in here. They’re going to fill this pot out, they’re going to get their first topping. They’re going to stretch out to where we like them. They’re going to get their beneficials put on them, then they’re going to sit here until they’re ready to move out to the metal halides. Nate: That’s pretty cool, so what’s this little guy? Mojave: This is a little Bioline product. They’re little beneficial attack mites. There’s a bunch of different species of them. We use a multitude of them. Nate: So this is one of the ways you guys prevent pests from getting in? Mojave: Absolutely, yes. Critical part of our Integrated Pest Management. Nate: I know that we just came into this room four hours ago. We’re just now allowed to be in here. You guys just spraying a preventative as well? Mojave: Yeah, we did a ZeroTol spray this morning. It’s peroxyacetic acid, more or less just vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixed together. We use it as a preventative for powdery mildew control. Nate: Cool. I noticed you guys have a kind of interesting setup here. I noticed these fans with ducts that you guys kinda made yourself. They blow air over the T5s, keep that radiant heat… Mojave: Yeah, keep the heat down, keep the air circulating. They’re always going to keep the air moving. We don’t want it to get hot. We can get pockets back in there that can get over 80 degrees. Nate: You definitely have a lot of fans going in here. I saw that hurricane floor fan, the hyper 6 inch fan you have here… the wall mount, industrial fans. There’s a lot going on. So why don’t we stroll down a little bit and you can show me some of the plants that are a little bit bigger than this? Mojave: So this is where we initially harden these plants off. They’re going to move under the Gavita 240, 1000W adjustable E-series lights. And we’re going to harden them off over here. We do run different hoods as well. We run an open, 150 degree open hood. We really like that. Just gets the light going out a little more side to side, not as intense light directly on the plant. Nate: You don’t get any burn marks or anything like that. I like the wider reflectors as well, that just came out recently. Mojave: They help with the transitional shock when you go from one environment to the next as well. Nate: These pots look familiar. I think I know who you got these from. Mojave: We use the Growers House essential fabric pots. So this is what we’re going to bloom in. So once they fill out their 5x5 GrowPro pot, they’re going to go into a 5, 7, or 10. Typically we’re blooming in the 5s right now. If it’s a stock or mother plant, it’s going to get transitioned up to a 7 or a 10 depending on its lifetime. Nate: What’s the toughest thing for you guys? Especially you as the ag director? Mojave: Really two things. There’s pest and disease management and nutrition. Pest and disease management… you know that’s going to be our first and foremost priority. We don’t have a lot of tools in the 502. There’s a few products we can, and a lot that we can’t. We like to stay in a preventative phase and not a curative phase. We don’t want explosions of anything in here. A couple things we use to help with that are going to be products like ZeroTol as preventative sprays, our OG Biowar teas weekly. We do the root and foliar pack. Really, really good product. Then another little added bonus we do on our feed down here on all of our veg plants before they go to our bloom rooms as well as all of our stock plants upstairs, that’s House and Garden’s Root Accelerator. That product gives the plants the initial head start that they need to be successful here at the Farm. Nate: Well, I wanna go to the bloom rooms and see where these guys make their honey.

Flowering

Nate: We’re about to enter flower room 12 and the light in here is going to be really orange coming out of the door. Our camera crew has special Method 7 filters that are going to make the light look crystal clear. So why don’t we enter this room and check it out? Nate: Ok Mojave, so what strain do we have growing right here? Mojave: Alright. This room’s a whole room of our Oregon Purple Diesel. We’re just starting in the beginning of week 8 here. We just hit week 7 and week 6 with Shooting Powder. It’s starting to bulk up now. Now’s just time to send it home. Nate: Yeah almost. How many days until you’re pulling this product and trimming it? Mojave: We’re going to take this down in 10 or 12 more days. We’re already starting to flush, you can see it starting to get those nice Fall colors that we’re looking for. Plant’s using up all its reserves and we’ll be ready to choppy chop here in a couple days. Nate: I hear the irrigation turning out right now behind us. Mojave: There we go. Nate: Right in time. Let’s take a look at your irrigation system here. So you have water piped in from your chemtainers out front, going through what looks like… Mojave: An S390 dig. So we’ve got feed coming in from our chemtainer outside and it’s going to come into our solenoid. This is going to stop and control the flow. This is wired into our DDC, our digital controls. From here it’s going to flow down through this feed line or headline as you call it. It’s going to make its way down under the tray and it’s coming to come to an Octo Bubbler down here. Nate: I know there’s a flow regulator for about 10 gallons an hour for you guys? Mojave: Yeah, we run 8-10 gallons, strain dependent. Nate: Ok. Moving on up to here, it looks like you guys are using the trellis here from Grower’s Edge. You guys just make sure you use mesh trellis, you go three layers high I see. Mojave: Typically three, sometimes four if we let it get a little bit out of control. But definitely the way large scale production… we couldn’t do it without this method or without this netting. Nate: Yeah, I see. Not many growers run three layers. You guys are lollipopping three layers to grow the plants out. Mojave: Yeah and you’re getting flowers topping out of all different areas of the canopy, so we like to keep all that bud as straight up as we can. Our goal with the Pineapple strain here is to trellis it well so it doesn’t fall down on each other and become a big messy mat. This has worked really well for us. Nate: So behind me, I really wanted to show this off because Mojave’s working in partnership with Quest. And this is a unit that’s not even on the market yet, but they designed together. So give us some info about it. Mojave: Yeah, so this bad boy up here is the 508. It’s going to be a 508 pint unit. It’s going to be about 8 pints per kWh, so it’s going to be their most efficient new model. We’re just running that one in here right now. Nate: And it smashes it all up. Mojave: Yep we’re crushing it right now. Nate: That thing is pretty cool looking. It actually looks cool. Mojave: Definitely looks cool. The best looking one I’ve seen. Nate: You have a lot of dehumidifiers in this facility. Enough to keep in the optimal humidity range, and you guys are not running into any powdery mildew at all. Mojave: Nope. Two and a half years, no PM. Nate: Ok that’s sick. Let’s move on.

Curing

Nate: We’re in dry room D, and it is very dank and quiet in here. I mean this curing room is definitely a big change from where we just were. Could you describe it a little bit? Mojave: Sure. So this is kind of our standard dry room. This isn’t where we cure, but this is where we do all the drying. Typically we’re doing a 10-14 day dry. Our philosophy is to take our time with it. We don’t like to be drying stuff out in 4-5-6 days. We really want to take time, get the core (?) get the moisture out as slowly as we can. One of the ways we do that is we’re bringing in fresh air from outside through those hyperfans up there through a carbon filter. This runs around to the back, and there’s registers in the back of the room that’s going to push out cool air nice and slow around the bottom. No direct air flow right on these guys. Then on the way out, we’re going to do the same thing. Carbon filter with a ten inch fan running out. Nate: Nice. So how do you guys make sure… what dictates for you what the perfect point is where you’re done curing? Mojave: Well, it’s really… up to the plant. So what we’re looking at is moisture level within the flower itself. By day 7 during the dry down, we’re going to start taking moisture samples. We’re going to take pieces of the bud, break them up, put them in a hydrometer. It’s just a little hot plate in a system and you just put it in there and it’s going to give you an accurate reading within 1 to 1.5%. Nate: What moisture levels are you really looking for? Mojave: We’re looking for 11 to 12.5% on average is where we really want to take it down at. That’s when your stem’s got a nice snap to it, the bud’s coming off, you’re not stringing it all. But it’s also not dry like… you know crumbling in your hand like sand.

Trimming

Nate: Here we are in the rainbow room. This is the room where they do all the trimming and all the joint rolling for the entire facility. So give me some statistics. What are you pumping out of this room? Mojave: Day to day, probably 10-12 thousand joints a day, upwards of 70,000 in a week. Nate: That’s crazy, so that means you guys are running 7 days a week at this place? Mojave: 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The trim and joint department is the only department that we run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week just to keep up with demand right now. Nate: That’s crazy. Mojave: Everything is getting hand-trimmed here. The market demands it. And people can tell when their flower is getting knocked around in a tumbler all day. We’re going for a high-end product, high-end boutique cannabis. That’s what we want to put out. Nate: Ok, so what about… how much do you guys trim here a day? Mojave: 20+ pounds a day. 100 pounds a week. Trim, if we can keep up with that, we feel like we’re doing pretty good. As the market demands. Some weeks it’s going to be a little less, some weeks it’s going to be a little more. Nate: That’s a crazy amount. How does that compare to the market in Washington or say the US? Mojave: I think a good statistic to give some perspective of how much we do… Phat Panda Cannabis sells more cannabis in one week than the state of Alaska does combined for an entire month. In one week we’re doing Alaska’s volume for the entire month. We squeeze that down to week and we’re just one company. Nate: Yeah! And it’s right out of this room, the rainbow room. So here we have actually some of your products. Basically, all the joints that would come out of that preroll (?) machine. So this should be 100 prerolls ready to go. That machine rolled 100, and you guys just finish it up here. Mojave: Yeah, it’s going to come out here on this table, they’re going to dimple it, they’re going to put them in the joint tubes, sticker them, get the bags of 50 going, then back into inventory. Nate: Not only that… these joints are cool and everything, but I kinda wanted to show off these guys… Mojave: The big guy. Nate: This is a little proprietary, isn’t it? Mojave: The boomstick. Nate: The boomstick? Is that what you call these things? Mojave: That’s what I call it. We call it the thunderstick… Nate: So what is it? How much weed is in it? Mojave: That’s a 10 gram-mer. Nate: 10 grams? Mojave: A little over a quarter for you and your friends.

Extraction

Nate: Ok everyone, so I’m here with Dillon, the director of Dabstract Laboratories. He’s going to show us inside the laboratory where they get everything processed. So let’s key into this place. After you. Nate: To everyone else, this is just a crazy cannabis science experiment. Let’s break it down. Dillon: These machines are really simple when it comes down to it. You’ve got a tank right here that’s full of solvent. You’ve got a column right here that’s full of weed. And that goes into another tank where we boil off that solvent. From there we have our crude extract and we reclaim most of our other solvent. Nate: Cool. So solvent, weed, finished product? That’s it. Dillon: Pretty basic. Nate: So here we are in our post-production area. And I also have Derrick over here, Dillon’s brother. And these two are the mad scientists who run the Dabstract Labs here in Washington. And I don’t know if you can see this behind me, but they 16 of these 5.5 cubic foot Cascade vacuum ovens, which look beautiful by the way. Can you guys show this off to me? I mean, let’s check it out. You guys have some product in here? Derrick: Absolutely. So after the extraction process is done, we have to remove all the hydrocarbon solvents. So we can pull a vacuum on it and we get beautiful product like this. Nate: Man, that smells great. That looks phenomenal. Derrick: So we strive to have very low residual solvent numbers in all of our products, well below the state requirement. And these ovens let us do that. Nate: So why don’t you guys show me some of your finished product that you guys make here. You laid it out for me, but let’s go over it in detail. I mean, what is this stuff, because you guys are doing some really cool and interesting things. Derrick: Absolutely. We have a lot of different product types for the market. One of our most popular is our cake icing product. It takes a lot of our work by our dedicated staff over here, but it’s these beautiful colored chips that just kind of melt in your mouth. Nate: And it’s a little bit of a proprietary process to make it too? Derrick: That’s why we’re not showing you guys this part. Nate: Yeah, we wanted to film this, but we know we’ve got to leave the secret sauce up to the mad scientists. Derrick: Yeah. Absolutely. So the market really likes this, we like making it, we think it’s a good representation of the products here at Grow Op Farms and other valued producers that we have. Nate: And what are these here that you guys have? Derrick: So this is our terpene sugar. This is also used in a lot of different products. You can give that a smell. Nate: It looks beautiful. Derrick: This is one of our favorite products in the lab. It’s one of the most consistent smoking products. Some of the other products we have is our THCA. Nate: It’s not parmesan cheese? Derrick: It’s not parmesan cheese. This is a single solvent process. We don’t use any other solvents to create this like other brands do. And we leave some of the terpene essence in the product to give it a smell, so that it smells like really grapes (?). This is 96% THCA. Nate: That’s crazy. 96%? Derrick: Yep. And one of our other products is that Dabstract is a high terpene company. So we have our Dabstract high-terpene extract that we take from the plant. We only use flavors from the plant here. We do not add anything fake. This is a high terpene extract from our good friends over at Inflorescence. We can put this in a dabbable product, we can put this in a vape pen that people enjoy, and anything in-between.

Processing

Nate: So here I am at Candyland. And this is one of the many areas within Grow Op Farms Phat Panda, and I’m here with Sean. He’s their organic extraction manager and the manager of edible production, which counts for a huge amount of the sales that this facility does. So now we’ve already seen where they do a lot of the extracts… how does the life cycle of cannabis go through this facility? Like this room in particular? Where does it start? Sean: So we start from extracting everything from our stems to our A-grade material depending on what lot it’s from. We’re able to extract the kief from all of the stem. Turn that kief into distillate, then turn that distillate into a homogenized sugar that allows us to make all of the other products that we make. Nate: And the homogenized sugar I understand is proprietary to you guys, right? Sean: Yeah, it’s something I started going on about 5 years ago, back when the medical system was up and going. Then with the medical system going down, I was kinda left in the lurch where I had to find a 502 to work with. Luckily, I was able to come to Phat Panda and get my edibles license through their license and work together with them on it. Nate: So your stuff is more consistent in dosage… Sean: And it works faster and is more consistent. We make sure to take a very wide bandwidth of cannabinoids in our extraction, so it’s very diverse. Edibles these days, I’m able to manipulate a lot of different things by increasing water solubility or using saturated fats to decrease water solubility and increase the length of duration of the edible itself. So I can have products that are mixed with the sugar for say a 3-tier product, where it’s a flavored sugar, a caramel, and a chocolate, all in one. Each one of those has a different metabolistic… metabolizes at a different rate. I can have the sugar increase the onset, then have the chocolate come next, and then have the caramel to come even after that. So we’re really designing a product that allows you to have a fast not onset, but not lose duration and have a very complex profile. Nate: So give me an example of some of your favorite, most popular products here. Sean: Sure. So the hard candies are a big seller, and you know we’re doing upwards of 30,000 of those a week. We’re doing about 75,000 units a week, and out of that we’re doing hard candies, a chew which is like a taffy, all of these products in a clear format. We’re doing caramels, chocolates, we’re doing drops… Our caramels, we got consultation from one of the best caramel production facilities in the world. Same with our chocolate. I went to one of the top ten chocolatiers in the world, got a consultation from him how to temper properly, what products to use… Nate: And what are the products that are coming out of candyland? Can we label them? Sean: Sure, so we’ve got our powdered THC products, which consist of the flavored powdered THC, the plain sugar THC, then we have our hard candies which are a lozenge that are available in a multitude of flavors, and also cannabinoid formats, whether they’re CBD 1:1 with THC, high THC, high CBD. Then we have our taffies, which again in a multitude of flavors. Then we have our drops, we have our caramels, and our chocolates. Nate: Now that we’ve seen all these products and how they’re made, I want to see how your 50 different products go into the Hot Sugar branded packaging over here in this next room.

Packaging

Nate: So here we are in the first of two packaging rooms here at the Grow Op Farms Phat Panda facility. You guys have special packaging laws mandated by Washington State. So it’s the double packaging right? Sean: Yep. We put our products initially into a 4ml plastic film that we run through our high speed packaging machine. Then we seal that into our mylar, which is sealed all the way around, so that the product is not visible and is completely child-protected and sealed. Nate: And then I noticed that you can’t see or smell the product, so you have to rely on your branding and the consistency of your product to make it sell and take up in the market. So you guys with your Hot Sugar labels have done a really good job showing it off. I would say one of the reasons you guys are doing so well in Washington, you guys are really brand-focused. Sean: We are. We are very fortunate that our owner is so marketing-minded. Nate: That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to figure out why people are the best in their respective areas. And downstairs you have… this is edibles and downstairs is the packaging facility for everything else? Sean: For flower, concentrates, pens, all the other items. Nate: So let’s go take a look at the other facility. Sean: Let’s go take a look at it. Nate: We’re now in the production facility, and I’m here with Faith, the director of production, and we’re going to have some fun down here. First off, what’s this machine? Faith: This is our label applicator machine. These were custom built for us by Auto Labe. Most label machines send the jars through upwards, wrap the label around that way. Ours are all designed to lay flat like that so that these cartridges here are interchangeable. So we can change this all over to joints, to jars, to whichever we need more to accommodate our workload for the day. We can do about 80 jars a minute on this machine right here. Nate: That’s a lot. What about joints? How many can you do of those? Faith: Those we can do about the same. We do about 18, maybe 20 thousand joints a day. Nate: Between all the machines in this facility? Faith: Yes, we have four of these. Nate: You guys are pumping these out. How many… you said 18 hours a day you’re running? Ok, this facility is nonstop. Faith: Sometimes 24 if we’re busy. Nate: Sometimes a big order. So let’s have fun with labels. I’m a grower, I’m not a packager.

Transition

Nate: So tell me a little bit about this facility in terms of personnel. How many people do you have working here? Faith: In the processing facility right now we have 120 employees, and that includes graveyard crew. We’re open 24/7, so we never stop on this side of the building, yeah. Nate: That’s crazy. I’ve noticed you guys have a really strong marketing presence on your jars. You guys really like going with glass. Faith: We like that higher end, so we use glass on all of our packaging. We have a handful of different jars that we use. Different jars for our ounces, our half ounces, even have special jars for Pineapple and OG Chem, which are our two top selling strains. Nate: We have some right here for example. Faith: They’re in special jars. These are just our regular 2 oz. jar for our 1 gram, 1/8ths, 2 gram-mers. Then right here we have some Mason jars too and skull jars for our OG Chem product. Nate: That’s awesome. All this glass. These are ball jars, or where do you get this stuff? Faith: All our glass comes from Kush Bottles. And our different lids… we have various color lids all come in from them as well. Nate: Yeah, you guys really like your branding to pop. You’re doing some really unique products. I noticed you’re even doing the Firecrackers, which is pretty cool. Why don’t we see the process of how they’re making these? Let’s go over here. Nate: Directly behind me is the Firecracker production line, a new product that they’re unveiling here. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about it, because they’re pretty cool. Faith: Yes. They are. They are one of our top selling products at this point. They’ve been on the shelf in stores for about 5 or 6 weeks, and all of our vendors are having a hard time keeping them in stock. They are just a regular 1 gram preroll coated with a layer of distillate that has natural terpenes added and then rolled in a blend of kief. Nate: Ok, so these are probably pretty potent. And with the terpenes in there… yeah, they smell delicious. I would love to take advantage of one of these right now… but we’re in the facility, not going to. I’m probably going to have to get one of these before we leave Washington. Faith, thank you so much for showing me around. Let’s head out.

Dispensary

Nate: Just left Grow Op Farms Phat Panda, and I’m now here at the Green Light Dispensary. We’re going to try out some of that farm to table experience. Let’s head on inside. Nate: Hey, how are you doing? I’m Nate. So I just came from the Grow Op Farms Phat Panda facility, and I wanted to take a look at some of their strains at your dispensary here. These are all of Phat Pandas? Ginger: We’ve got a lot. Nate: What are the most popular products that they sell? Budtender: Definitely their weights (?) the most popular. And I would say probably second is going to be the joints. Nate: Prerolls? Ginger: Yep. Whole gram joints every day. Then it’s probably a tossup between their edibles and their pens. The cartridge pens that they have come in so many different flavors, that there’s gotta be one for everyone and the candies that they do. Nate: Let me take a look at that one. Ginger: That one’s kind of a high chew. It’s a really good taffy that doesn’t taste green. Really tasty. Nate: And you know what I saw when I was in there, they were making the mega joints? Like a ten gram joint? Ginger: These? Nate: Yeah. This is what I want to try. It’s not many days that I get to try a 10 gram joint. I might end up going with something like this. I might have to go to Riverfront Park and try this out. It’s a pretty nice day out. Ginger: Here you go. You’re all set. Nate: Thank you so much Ginger, let’s go take advantage of this. It’s been a long day of filming, I’m ready to smoke this mega joint with my camera crew. Canna Cribs Episode 2, that’s a wrap!

Equipment List

Lights: Gavita 1000w E-Series 277-347v Complete Commercial Fixture
Pots: Growers House Essential Fabrics
Cloning Gel: Clonex Rooting Gel
Propagation Plugs: Grodan Stonewool Macro Plugs
Pesticides:
Nutrients:
Media: Coco Coir
Fans:
1. Hurricane Blower
2. Hyper Inline Fan
Camera Filters: Method Seven Camera Filters
Dehumidifiers: Quest 506 Commercial Dehumidifier
Carbon Filters: Can-Filter 1260 CFM
Joint Roller: Futurola Knockbox 2 Cone Machine
Trimming Bins: Trim Bin by Harvest More
End User Bottles: Kush Bottles

Abbreviated Article

Editor's Note: Growers Network appreciates its readers! If you are limited on time, we are now offering abbreviated versions of our articles. Click below to view.

5-Minute Snapshot

In this episode of Canna Cribs, Growers Network takes a trip to Grow Op Farms, the company behind the Phat Panda Brand. Legend:

Robert McKinley
Mojave Morelli
Sean Mooney

Growing Style

Tell me about the Grow Op Farms facilities.

Robert McKinley: Our indoor grow facility totals 85,000 square feet. We cover every step of the the process, from the plants to concentrates and edibles. Editor’s Note: 56,666 square feet is ⅔ of 85,000 square feet.

How do you like to grow?

Mojave Morelli: We have upwards of 170 strains with about 60 strains in full rotation. When the plants enter veg, they’re hand-watered for the first 3-4 days and then we start automated watering. Our automated watering process starts with RO water getting dumped into giant holding tanks, where it’s pumped out to each room. Each room has 1 or 2 nutrient containers and we do the mixing right there. Once a plant really starts to grow, we go from one or two big feedings a day to lots of small feedings.

How do you handle pest management?

Robert McKinley: We focus on prevention and clean everything. We also use beneficials. A 5-person team inspects plants all day. Any time we find something, we quarantine it and aggressively target the threat. Mojave Morelli: We’re strict on PPE: armbands, beard nets, hairnets, eye protection, booties, etc. We are proactive during veg, because if you spray in bloom you’ll get a beat-up product. We prefer to use beneficials and biological sprays like Grandevo or PFR97. We’ll also follow up with liquid sulfur insecticide and a few organic pesticides.

What is your approach for maximizing yield per plant?

Robert McKinley: We light the whole room, not just the rows. We also over-clone by 25% so we can cull anything imperfect.

Grow Equipment

What media are you using?

Robert McKinley: For seeds we use a dip and towel method. Once they pop roots they go into coco. We use rockwool for clones. Mojave Morelli: For veg, clones go into a 5x5 square pot with coco. After three weeks they go into their final pot: a 7 or 10 meter outbed for stock plants or a 5 gallon fabric pot with coco for clones.

What lights do you use?

Robert McKinley: Our clones are all under T5’s. For veg, clones switch to Gavitas with metal halides. To prevent transition shock in bloom, we run metal halides for two weeks and we gradually switch to HPS. The last two weeks are 100% HPS.

What are your environmental controls the plants?

Mojave Morelli: CO₂ in the propagation room is kept in the 1200 ppm range. Temperature is 77-78 degrees (F) and humidity is 60 to 55%. When we shift into veg and flowering, the day temperature is kept around 78-79 degrees Fahrenheit. At night it’s 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit. We gradually decrease CO₂. About 10 days from harvest the CO₂ is shut off and humidity is reduced to less than 50%.

Harvesting and Processing

How do you harvest?

Mojave Morelli: We start with two days of darkness. Before harvest we chill the room to 65 degrees to slow the plant’s metabolism. When we move them into the drying room, we hang them by the branch from back to front and fill the room from top to bottom.

What is your curing process?

Robert McKinley: We cure at 65-70 degrees and 60% humidity for 10-14 days. The product goes into an oven bag with Boveda packs. This goes into a large, stackable plastic container. The flower is then packaged into a glass jar.

Do you use any automation for trimming?

Robert McKinley: We hand-trim everything, because:

The product looks better.
We save 10% of our weight.

What extracts do you make?

Sean Mooney: We extract using 100% ethanol. We homogenize our distillate across sugar, which we use to proof our edibles. This increases the extract’s absorption in the body. I also produce crystalline CBD with a tiny amount of residual THC wax. The THC activates endocannabinoid receptors for better CBD absorption.

What makes your extracts unique?

Sean Mooney: I love butane-extracted products but worry about residual solvents. We use ethanol, which is historically safe. We also ensure that our edibles are homogenized. You won’t get a different dose biting into one end versus another. Robert McKinley: Other companies’ products are inconsistent. One candy may have 6 mg of THC and another may have 20 mg. Our dosing is near-perfect. Our products deviate by less than 0.2 mg in THC.

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Growing Style

Tell me about the Grow Op Farms facilities.

Robert McKinley: We’re an all-indoors grow. The facility totals 85,000 square feet and we’re double-stacked on two-thirds of it. All of the plants are under about 15,000 square feet of canopy, while the remainder of the space is storage, processing, and a lab. We’re self-contained and we cover every step of the the process, from the plants to the concentrates. We have the largest lab in Washington and make all the edibles in our kitchen. We make everything in-house. Editor’s Note: 56,666 square feet is ⅔ of 85,000 square feet.

Where do you get your genetics?

Robert McKinley: When we first started growing, my head grower Andrew had a really large library representing 20 years of seed collection. Because there wasn’t a true marketplace to acquire new seeds at the time, we were limited to genetics that we had. Nowadays, we grow our own clones and seeds. We do have occasional accidents; sometimes those accidents lead to beautiful babies, sometimes they mess up the whole room. We used to test our genetics in much larger areas, but we reduced our testing size areas to prevent issues with other plants. The testing plants only grow with other testing plants.

What is your cloning process?

Mojave Morelli: We try to keep cloning as simple as possible. We take clones primarily from the top of the mother plants, put the clones in K-Cups with water, let them sit for one hour, trim the weak ones, give the rest a quick dip in CloneX gel, and plant them in Grodan rockwool in a 72 plug tray with an 8 or 10 inch dome on top. They then go directly into a finely controlled cloning room for 7-10 days. As soon as they pop roots, they’re moved on to the veg rooms.

What strains are you growing, and what are some of your best ones?

Mojave Morelli: We have upwards of 170 strains. At any given time we have about 60 strains in full rotation. Robert McKinley: We own two of the most popular strains in the state: our OG Chem and our Golden Pineapple. We’re the only company in Washington that really grows these two strains, so on a per-volume basis we sell those more than any individual strain. We also have an amazing Jack Herer and an original Dutch Treat #5 that won the Cannabis Cup in 2012. We also have some super-elite stuff coming down the pike.

How do you handle pest management?

Robert McKinley: We focus on prevention and make sure everything is clean, clean, clean. Sixty of our staff are dedicated solely to cleaning every day. Every 24 hours, every room is completely cleaned. We don’t bring in plants from others, because one time we found root aphids in a plant that another grow gave us. We occasionally see a spider mite every few months, but we’ve never had an outbreak. We also use beneficials; we release rove beetles, predatory mites, and lots of nematodes.

Beware of Mr Clean and the uncanny valley. Mojave Morelli: We’re also very strict on PPE. We make our employees wear armbands, beard nets, hairnets, eye protection, ear protection, booties -- the whole 9 yards. Any time someone enters a different room they change into a new set of scrubs. Same goes for plants: scissors are sanitized before cutting a new plant. I have schedules for tons of different issues, and it’s reassuring that if something pops up we know how to handle it. We find that the best schedule requires no sprays at all. That’s when the plants are at their happiest. For that reason, we are very proactive in veg. If veg isn’t clean, then there’s nothing you can do during bloom other than spray the hell out of your flowers and end up with a beat-up product that nobody wants to smoke.

Insects

I have a 5-person team of plant analysts that look at plants all day long so that we can respond quickly. A month ago they found a russet mite on a plant and in no time we killed it, bagged it, quarantined the room, went through an aggressive spray program for a week, and since then we haven’t had any signs of the mites.

Fungi

There are two ways we attack fungi: the first being beneficials and the second being biological sprays such as Grandevo or PFR97. Every batch of plants starts with a Safer Brand liquid sulfur insecticide spray that is applied every two weeks. I’ve used everything organic, and I’ve never seen anything that works so well. We use Nuke Em once a week, ZeroTol once a week, and Regalia every two weeks. Regalia triggers a plants’ natural defenses, making them bigger, stronger, and tougher. We’ve been using Regalia for two years and I haven’t seen a drop of mildew anywhere. During flowering plants go on to a lighter program and we try to be done spraying the flowers by week two. The first week we’ll do ZeroTol, Nuke Em, and some beneficial applications. By week 3 we just keep the room well pruned and keep the plants as healthy as we can.

What’s your current feeding style?

Mojave Morelli: When the plants enter veg, they’re hand-watered for the first 3-4 days and then we start automated watering. Our automated watering process starts with RO water getting dumped into giant holding tanks, where it’s pumped out to each room. Each room has 1 or 2 nutrient containers and we do the mixing right there. The water then flows down to feed lines under the beds, where the Octa Bubblers are. Each plant gets 4 dripper stakes from the bubbler, no matter their size. Once a plant really starts to grow, we go from one or two big feedings a day to lots of small feedings.

Do you use a continual harvest methodology?

What is your approach for maximizing yield per plant?

Robert McKinley: We have four strains that average four pounds per light in usable flower. For the rest of our strains, we average around 2.5-3 pounds a light. Part of our approach is that we light the whole room, not just the rows. We have more lights than we might technically need, but they produce a much better, more consistent product. We also over-clone by about 25% so we can cull out anything that isn’t perfect before it goes into a room.

Do you flush your nutrients?

Grow Equipment

What media are you using?

Robert McKinley: For seeds we use a dip and towel method. Once they pop roots we plant them straight into coco in a Dixie cup to grow them out. For our cloning process, we use rockwool. We keep everything super-sterile to prevent the introduction of any pathogens. We’ve tested many products over the years and, interestingly, rockwool is the only medium that the bugs don’t like. Mojave Morelli: When the clones shift into veg, clones go from rockwool into a 5x5 plastic square pot with coco. At about three weeks of veg we pull them out and pot them in their final pot. If they’re grown to become stock plants they get moved into a 7 or 10 meter outbed. Clones go from the 5x5 into a 5 gallon Smart Pot or Root Pouch with more coco. Editor’s Note: Mother plants and stock plants are two ways of saying the same thing.

What kind of automation systems do you use?

What lights do you use?

Robert McKinley: Our clones are all under T5’s. Clones move straight from T5’s to Gavitas outfitted with metal halides when they enter veg. To prevent shocking the plants when they leave veg, we only run metal halides for the first two weeks of flowering. We then go through the rooms and replace half the bulbs with HPS in a checkerboard pattern. We gradually increase how long the HPS bulbs run until the HPS and the metal halides are each running for 12 hours a day. Then we decrease the time for metal halides in the last four weeks, slowly introducing more HPS. For the last two to three weeks of grow, the plants get 100% HPS lights. This method lets them have a full spectrum in their main grow phase: blue light when they’re producing terpenes, and redder light to promote a higher rate of growth at the end for ripening

What are your environmental controls for young plants?

What are your environmental controls during flowering?

Harvesting and Processing

The granular substrate allows us to increase the bioavailability of the cannabis extract, so that absorption in the consumer is more consistent, more predictable, and much more accurate and fast-acting.Sean Mooney

How do you harvest?

Mojave Morelli: Usually we start the process by giving the plants two days of darkness. The morning of harvest we chill the room down to about 65 degrees to preserve the trichomes and reduce the heat and humidity from unloading 1,000 pounds of wet flower into a room. We hang from back to front. We fill the room up from the top to just above the floor. We can fit 1,000-1,500 pounds of wet flower in our drying room.

Robert McKinley: We don’t have enough room to just turn plants upside-down and hang them, so we hang branch-by-branch. We don’t do any trimming on the plants when we harvest.

What is your curing process?

Robert McKinley: I like to cure at 65-70 degrees and 60% humidity. It takes anywhere from 10-14 days for the product to dry. When we harvest, we’re usually about a month out from the flower hitting the shelves. Mojave Morelli: Most people would say that glass is your best bet for curing, but we haven’t found any large-scale glass manufacturers that are making something functional for the volume of cannabis that we work with. Everything we make goes into an ostrich or turkey oven bag with Boveda packs. Once the humidity is stable in the bag, it all goes into a large, stackable plastic container. Our sales are so high that the flower sits in the plastic containers for only a short period before it’s packaged and put into a glass jar. We’re one of the few outfits that puts their finished product in glass.

Do you use any automation for trimming?

Robert McKinley: We hand-trim everything. We have several reasons why:

It makes the product look better.
When people are trained properly, we save about 10% of our weight trimming manually.

We’re able to be more efficient and provide a better quality product. Related Article: Trimming Services: Save Money and Time We have a couple people that are just ridiculously fast at trimming, so we’re blessed in a way. We emphasize consistency, speed, and efficiency in our training procedures for new trimmers. We set standard benchmarks to maintain a consistent flow of the product. If somebody’s hired as a trimmer and they can’t do it, we move them to a different part of the farm.

What extracts do you make?

Sean Mooney: We extract a very diverse array of cannabinoids in a solvent of dry ice mixed with 100% ethanol. After we’ve gotten our extracted materials, we dry the material free of solvents and then decarboxylate it. Then I run crude, decarboxylated oil through a short-path distillation machine that produces a very pure, clear distillate. We homogenize the distillate across a granular substrate of sugar so that it’s evenly dispersed. The infused sugar substrate is then used to proof our edibles further up the line. The granular substrate (infused sugar) allows us to increase the bioavailability of the cannabis extract, so that absorption in the consumer is more consistent, more predictable, and much more accurate and fast-acting. I’m able to manipulate our cannabinoid concentrations directly into configurations of anything from 90% THC down to 10 to 1 CBD to THC.

Cannabinoid-infused sugar. With some of the high CBD distillates, I can crystallize those as well. The process is proprietary, but without using any petroleum-based solvents I’m able to produce a very pure crystalline form of CBD isolate with a very small amount of residual greasy THC wax. I’m able to keep a lot of the CBD flavor profiles, but keep that small amount of THC that helps activate the endocannabinoid receptors to produce a more efficient and at faster rate of CBD absorption. I am a proponent of having some THC in almost all, even high-CBD, products. Robert McKinley: We run all of our plant material, including stems and leaves, through alcohol at least once just to make sure we get every bit of THC out of the plant. We’re super efficient and produce enough THC to turn into distillate. The best thing about having an ethanol-based product is that it’s more natural and safe. There are no heavy metals or weird solvents in there, so it’s just a better product overall for ingestion.

What makes your extracts unique?

Sean Mooney: The first time I saw someone blast propane through a tube to make BHO, I was immediately concerned about residuals. I didn’t understand why cannabis extraction would be so different from any other plant extract. The vegetable oil industry has been using healthy, butane-free extraction techniques at a commercial level for thousands of years. While I love butane-extracted products, I am always worried about any residual solvents. With our alcohol extraction methods, we can get a very large return on our extracts and do it in an organic and clean way. Ethanol has proven to be historically safe. Most of the states developing residual solvent tests are not even including alcohol and there’s a reason for that. As far as edibles go, a lot of companies are doing a terrible job about their quality assurance. They’re dropping 10 mg of distillate into a piece of candy, but it’s not homogenized. If you bit into one corner you’d get a different dose than if you bit from another corner.

Seed crystals forming inside an extract. Robert McKinley: You can grab anybody else’s product off of the shelf and do a test and it’s going to have a real difference in THC content within the product. One candy in the bag may have 6 mg and another may have 20 mg. That’s detrimental for a consumer, because they may not understand what’s happening and then accidentally overindulge. This is why we infuse our sugar before we use it in our products. It makes our dosing near-perfect because it results in a more homogenized product. We randomly grab some of our products off of the shelf once a month and have them tested, and they all come in with less than a 0.2 mg deviation from each other. The end result is that our customers are able to use our products and have a similar experience every time.

What is your best-selling kitchen product?

The Business

What is Grow Ops Farms’ philosophy or defining goal?

What have you done to make Grow Op Farms and the Phat Panda brand so well-received?

Robert McKinley: The first step was to grow really good products. If you don’t have a good product, people aren’t going to buy it, no matter how cool the package or label is. The second step was an emphasis on branding. Our branding style now has its share of copycats, but we were the first to have really cool artwork on all of our different labels and strains. I have the same artist that started with me four years ago working for us, so the overall design is consistent, based on his artistic vision. This helps us visually jump off the shelf. Our third step relates to our packaging. We put everything in glass, even our 1 gram units. We want people to be able to use our product and then store the rest without it going bad before the next time they want to smoke. Obviously people have followed the trend of selling in glass.

What challenges have you faced?

Robert McKinley: A few things really.

Downward market pressure is always an issue. Competitors are always trying to take you off the shelf and price is typically the easiest way to do it. We’re heavily focused on making sure that we maintain our market share by being aggressive and staying ahead of our competition with new products or lower prices.
Over the course of the last few years, we’ve grown really quickly. That means the normal growing pains associated with trying to keep up with demand.
Another problem, that you can find in any agricultural business, is that plants takes time to change. You can’t disrupt your whole process in a month. It takes six months to make any kind of movement. So if you pick the wrong strain and grow too much of it, it takes months to recover. It takes a whole year to start a new product. We have to grow the plants out multiple times to make sure everything’s consistent, because you could have an original mother plant or original seed grow totally different than its clone.

What has been your biggest success?

Robert McKinley: Our company’s culture is one of our biggest successes. Our employees love to work for us. My wife, Katrina, and I happen to do something really cool and we have fun doing it. We want to make the environment really fun. We provide lunch for our employees three days a week. On Mondays we get doughnuts. We have full benefits, paid holidays, paid days off right when you start. We rent out a waterslide park in the summertime and we have big wintertime Christmas parties. It’s really a point of pride for us that when you walk through our facility you’ll see how happy people are. Everyone’s smiling while they do their job. Nobody’s cracking whips or busting asses. Everybody’s accountable for themselves. We’ve built a really strong team.

What is your long term plan?

Robert McKinley: We have started looking into licensing with people in other states. We’re one of the largest farms in the country and we have a lot of experience. Everything we do is done professionally, so we can replicate our processes pretty easily. We haven’t really had the chance to focus on breeding yet. We just don’t have the space right now, and it’s unwise pollinate in an environment like ours, so it would have to be done somewhere else. That’s down the road, probably next year sometime.

Do you have any advice for new commercial growers?

Robert McKinley: Be well-capitalized. Make sure that you always have enough money, because it doesn’t matter if you create a good brand if you can’t stay in business.

Be well-capitalized. The sales team is also really important. Katrina and I are fortunate that we could recruit one of my childhood friends, Jon Waltham, to help. He previously worked for Nestle for over a decade and also worked as a regional manager for Pepsi-Cola. He has a lot of experience working with retailers. He has created a really strong sales team that has been integral to our success. You have to have good marketing, good branding, a good sales team, new products, good products, and a good grower. You have to have all those things to be successful. Have a smart business plan, make sure you’re well-funded, and surround yourself with the right kind of people, because there’s a lot of shysters in this business -- more so than most. Mojave Morelli: If you’re a new grower, talk to everybody you can. Network, go to farms, see what other people are doing. Be friends with people, stay humble, don’t talk bad about other growers, be professional, and that’ll get you really far. And keep it simple.

About the Interviewees

What is your background?

Robert McKinley: My background is actually in marketing. Phat Panda was originally a marketing company and we ended up adopting the name for the cannabis brand. My employees really liked the name, so they convinced me to use it. Mojave Morelli: I got into the industry through conventional agriculture. I’d been growing about 100 acres of organic row crops and was a small, hobbyist cannabis grower on the side. Back in 2014 I was friends with a medical grower from the seattle area, and we knew the right people, so that’s how I got my foot in the door with Grow Op Farms. Sean Mooney: I grew up in a small logging town in southwest Washington. After Mt. St. Helens erupted, the loggers in my town were decimated. The ash ruined their machines, but also covered the whole mountainside with highly fertile material. From an early age I carried water for the loggers in my community to help them grow their plants.

At the end of the harvest the community would have a cook-off in the woods over a campfire with basically a witch’s kettle. We would reduce it down to what was called “honey oil,” so I learned organic extraction at a very young age.

How did you get started with Grow Op Farms?

Robert McKinley: My wife and I own a head shop with a friend of ours in Montana, so we had a little bit of exposure to the cannabis industry prior to Grow Op Farms. That partner owns 20 different head shops and has been in the cannabis world for 25 years. When the law passed that made cannabis legal in Washington, he planned on establishing retail stores and asked if I would grow. Our marketing company was doing really well, so my wife and I decided to build a farm. Mojave Morelli: In the winter of 2013, I had been talking to a few different companies about a lead grower position, that’s how I met Robert McKinley. I liked that he was very professional, and had a lot of experience with marketing, which is a huge aspect of what we do. Over the first year I worked hard, slept at the office many nights, commuted 4 hours a day, and was able to climb my way up to the director of agriculture. Sean Mooney: I had a medical dispensary license in Spokane that allowed me to produce an edible line throughout the state. The 502 system then left me without a license, so I searched for people close to Spokane. I ended up working for Farmer J’s for a brief stint, but they had a serious microbial and pest problem. Next thing you know, everything was spreading, so we had to slash and burn the entire operation. The prospering grow operation next door, Grow Op Farms, took over management. I was the only person from Farmer J’s that stayed in the building.

Want to grow like Grow op Farms/Phat Panda in Canna Cribs Episode 2?

Follow the links for everything you need!

Lights:
1. Gavita 1000w E-Series 277-347v Complete Commercial Fixture
Pots:
1. Growers House Essential Fabrics
Cloning Gel:
1. Clonex Rooting Gel
Propagation Plugs:
1. Grodan Stonewool Macro Plugs
Pesticides:
Nutrients:
Media:
1. Coco Coir
Fans:
1. Hurricane Blower
2. Hyper Inline Fan
Camera Filters:
1. Method Seven Camera Filters
Dehumidifiers:
1. Quest 506 Commercial Dehumidifier
Carbon Filters:
1. Can-Filter 1260 CFM
Joint Roller:
1. Futurola Knockbox 2 Cone Machine
Trimming Bins:
1. Trim Bin by Harvest More
End User Bottles:
1. Kush Bottles

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About the Author

Hunter Wilson is a community builder with Growers Network. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 with a Masters in Teaching and in 2007 with a Bachelors in Biology.

Abatin Wellness Classic Vape Cartridge

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Gentleman Toker takes a long walk… in the woods? What the heck is happening?

Joe Tierney

The following is an article produced by a contributing author. Growers Network does not endorse nor evaluate the claims of our contributors, nor do they influence our editorial process. Any opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the opinions of Growers Network. We thank our contributors for their time and effort so we can continue our exclusive Growers Spotlight service.

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This article has been republished with permission from Gentleman Toker. The original article may be found here.

Quick Look

Pros
The Vape formula doesn't impair cogitation or alertness, so it's excellent for daytime use.
Cons
The THC Oil wasn't as potent as expected for 250mg dose.

Abatin Wellness, one of DC’s six medical marijuana cultivators, grows some of the finest flowers this Gentleman has ever smoked, as I’ve mentioned in this review and this review. But don’t just take my word for it! The consulting firm that Abatin uses is NaPro Research, who also happens to consult for 2017’s Emerald Cup Best Overall Strain and Best CBD Strain, Molecular Farms. The District’s medical cannabis menus have really blossomed (ba-dum-tish!) in the past year and Abatin is no exception. Their new line of tinctures, specially formulated for specific THC:CBD ratios, looks awfully intriguing, but I figured I’d try out the raw, uncut 250mg THC syringe instead. And a vape cartridge, too while I was at it. I figured… what the hell? Just killing time before I’m called upon to save the world by flying a jet straight up a UFO’s bunghole. Might as well live a little.

That’s exactly what I did yesterday when I took my Abatin Classic vape cartridge on a sweet little hike in the mountains, about an hour north in Maryland. Legal is riding my butt to explain that I wasn’t in a national park, which would be illegal. Perish the thought! The first thing I did was read the guide, which provided info regarding the trails and also the copperheads, rattlers, and black bears you might encounter upon your journey. Wait, what? It listed a number of ways you can identify venomous snakes, like a single scale on the underside of the tail and the presence of an anal plate. I’m fairly confident this info has been presented merely to Darwin out of the genepool anyone dumb enough to go looking up a snake’s ass. The black bear info seemed helpful - it advised to make a lot of noise and look bigger, which is one of two ways I’ve heard of defending yourself from bears and I think it’s breed-specific. I say ‘seemed’ cuz I didn’t get a chance to try it out, so they might have written the wrong way on there, and this sociopathic sign-writer is trying to goad me into a goddamn bear fight. Probably has cameras strung up all over the place so he can pay-per-view it on the dark web, the crafty bastard.

I chose the trail described as “2 miles - moderate - steep slopes, very little level ground, and a great challenge.” I didn’t come all the way out here to walk a single measly mile on one of the baby trails. I’m here for adventure, by Jove! I tread down carefully, as an overnight rain had left the leaves and stones slick and treacherous. About fifteen minutes later, the parking lot had vanished over the ridge. Confident in my solitude, I took a few draws of my Abatin Classic vape cartridge and marveled at the sun shining brightly through the bare winter trees. Abatin makes a few different blends - the Classic is high THC, Daytime is high CBD, and Balanced is about 1:1. They’ve also just come out with their first single strain cartridge, Classic Jack (Herer). I’m a big Jack fan, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking that one out. They use CO₂ extraction with no additives, like our friends at DC Xtracts, so you get a rich, natural flavor with each inhale. The Classic THC is a blend of strains and compliments to the chef, this recipe produces an outstanding hybrid effect that balances out my mood and quiets my anxiety without impairing my ability to think clearly. It was still too cold for snakes and on the list of ways your life could end, being eaten by a bear is definitely way cooler than hooked up to a machine, patronized by imbeciles, suffering in agony and humiliation as your body wastes away. Nothing to worry about.

Somebody has a lot of time on their hands.

I love hiking cuz at the end of a two-mile trek that turns out to be 50% uphill, 25% more uphill, and take ninety freakin minutes, you get a real feeling of accomplishment. It may have taken a half-dozen breaks to catch my breath, but those gave me an opportunity to stop and scan for bears… I mean enjoy the view. I’m not as bold with a 250mg syringe of straight THC in canola oil, though. For that experiment, I wrapped myself in a blanket and cozied up on the couch for some Sharknado sequels. Did you know there are 5 Sharknados now and they’re ALL on Netflix? Get the popcorn, baby!

Now, you’re supposed to use the Abatin THC oil to make your own tincture or edibles (can also be used topically), but baking sounds like a bother so I just drank the whole thing. Not very tasty, but it was just a little shot. It took about ninety minutes for the bright sensory enhancement and happy, laughy mood to kick in, just in time for the franchise’s piece de resistance, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! Ann Coulter is in it but, in a heartbreaking turn of events, does not get eaten by a shark, which is a remarkable failure of vision. Everybody dies in Sharknado, how in the hell did Skeletor’s mom get a pass? Anyway, the Abatin THC oil wasn’t quite as strong as I expected, but it definitely got me over the edge where I didn’t feel a need to smoke.

Abatin Wellness continues to impress, this vape formula especially. If you want one for yourself, or oil, or their amazing flowers, you have to be a DC resident and get a medical marijuana card! Reciprocity will kick in for Maryland patients to visit the city sooner or later, but no dice yet. Sign up for my newsletter and I'll let you know ASAP!

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Joseph Tierney is an independent, award-winning cannabis blogger based in Washington, DC. Well, OK, the awards are hypothetical at this point because there aren't any for horror/comedy/scifi-based internet rants from a dabbed-out misanthrope, but if there were, GentlemanToker.com would win them all. But, like, probably not, cuz politics. Right? You feel me.

California Vertically Integrated Micro-Businesses – Have your cake and eat it too!

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Brett Furst of Central Coast Cannabis explains how a California microbusiness is a cultivator, dispensary, and consumption site packed into one. It has legal limitations, of course, but if you ever wanted to "do it all," this is your opportunity.

Brett Furst with his daughter.

Marijuana micro-businesses are hybrid cultivation sites and retail operations. Both the MCRSA and the AUMA task the California Department of Food and Agriculture with regulating and licensing cultivators. Nonetheless, people seeking to obtain a micro-business will need to apply for their license with the Bureau of Cannabis Control, an agency under the umbrella of the Department of Consumer Affairs that handles retail licenses for marijuana retailers and distributors.

MICROBUSINESSES: A new category of Type 12 microbusiness licenses is established for small retailers with farms not exceeding 10,000 sq. ft. ( 26067 (e) 2).Adult Use of Marijuana Act

Legal Side Note: The licenses created by MCRSA and AUMA are relatively consistent, but the micro-business license is an exception. Under AUMA, the micro-business license will be called Type 12 – but under MCRSA, this is a transporter’s license. To clarify this inconsistency, AUMA mandates that recreational marijuana business licenses specify that they are non-medical. Thus, the micro-business license will be called Type 12 non-medical, or NM.

With a Type 12 NM license, you can:

Operate a hybrid retail/cannabis farm
Grow up to 10,000 square feet of canopy
Manufacture, distribute, and wholesale your cannabis on-site
Welcome your customers to consume on site

Specifically, the license prohibits:

On-site product testing (this must be handled by a third-party laboratory)
Operating as a retailer of tobacco or alcoholic beverages

How Do I Get a Cannabis Micro-Business License?

The Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) is still developing the licensing process and regulations that will apply to prospective cannabis micro-businesses. Nonetheless, AUMA provides some insight into the license application process, which requires:

Proof that you are legally occupying the property where you intend to grow
A detailed description of your business’s operating procedures
Submitting fingerprints to the Department of Justice for a background check
Not having a prior conviction for a felony involving drug trafficking, violence, fraud, or deceit, or any other offense that could affect your ability to operate a cannabis business

The BCR may deny your application if your business:

Will restrict competition or turn into an unfair monopoly
Contribute to the illegal marijuana market, either within or out of the State of California
Encourage underage use or the adult abuse of cannabis
Result in too many marijuana businesses being present in one area
Result in violations of environmental protection laws

The BCR will give priority to your license application if you demonstrate that your business was operating in compliance with the Compassionate Use Act and other relevant laws before September 1, 2016. The application fees for this year-to-year license have yet to be determined.

Cannabis Micro-Business Regulations

The BCR is developing more regulations for cannabis micro-businesses. For now, the following regulations are in place:

Taxes
1. In addition to any local government taxes, the state will collect $9.25 per ounce of cannabis buds that you cultivate. In addition, the state will levy a 15 percent tax on your sales.
Track and Trace Program
1. Your cannabis products will need to be marked with unique identifiers so that the government can track them as they move through the market.
Testing
Labor Relations
1. If your micro-business has more than 20 employees, then you will need to make a labor peace agreement with the relevant union.
Environmental Regulations
1. You will need to follow all Department of Fish and Wildlife and State Water Board regulations concerning the protection of riparian areas, waterways, and other environmentally sensitive areas.
Pesticide Standards
1. You will need to comply with the pesticide regulations put in place by the Departments of Food and Agriculture and Pesticide Regulation.
Organic Certification
1. Assuming the cooperation of federal agencies, your micro-business may be able to obtain organic certification from the Department of Food and Agriculture sometime before 2020.
Appellation of Origin
1. Under future regulations, your cannabis may get certified as coming from a distinct geographical area, just like fine wine.
Local Laws
1. You do not need to prove that you have a local permit to operate your micro-business before applying for a state license issued under AUMA. But your business will still need to comply with local laws to keep its doors open.

Legal Protections for Cannabis Micro-Businesses

As the holder of a marijuana micro-business license authorized by AUMA, you will be safe from adverse criminal and administrative legal action by the state authorities, so long as you strictly comply with both local and state laws. When it comes to the federal authorities, on the other hand, your micro-business may be vulnerable to raids, property confiscations, and criminal prosecution. The Department of Justice generally allows medical marijuana businesses to operate without interference, but with a license authorized by California’s recreational cannabis law, your micro-business may be targeted.

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Brett Furst has over 10 years of experience covering all aspects of the industry, including cultivation, manufacturing, consumables, retail, and more. He has also worked as a teacher for 5 years allowing him to educate prospective clients in a way that helps them retain the information.

Watery Choices

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Dr. NPK of Elite Garden Wholesale examines water sources, purification methods, and why they matter.

Disclaimer

This article has been republished with permission from Elite Garden Wholesale. The original article can be found here.

As a chemist, one of my favorite jokes to hear (No, it’s not the “Oh, you’re a chemist? Can you make the Breaking Bad blue stuff? Har har har") is the one about people “banning” dihydrogen monoxide because it’s a chemical. In case you missed it, “dihydrogen monoxide” is water! The good ‘ole H₂O. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it! Today’s post is about water and the choices we have as growers in deciding what water we would like to use to grow our crop.

Why Should I Care About the Water?

Hydroponic growers are a subset of farmers; the difference is that we lack soil when producing our crop. This provides us with many advantages (more direct uptake of nutrients, arguably fewer bugs, clearer visibility to root zone), but one of the main drawbacks when using soilless systems is that any mistakes made tend to be amplified. When I grow tomatoes in my backyard using soil, I have a vibrant ecosystem taking place in the soil that acts as a buffer of sorts: the soil maintains a dynamic, regular system that is hard to perturb. Often, over-fertilization is self-limiting in soil; excess nutrients will merely persist in the soil. Only extreme over-fertilization can be herbicidal due to toxicity.

Soilless media users tend to have a much more difficult time hiding their mistakes. To be clear, when I say “soilless”, I am ultimately referring to any media that does not add any nutritional content to the plant; thus, coco and other nutrient/water-absorbing media are considered “soilless.” If you over-feed or under-feed your plants, that protective soil buffer is essentially gone, and you risk killing all your plants. Because it is so important to monitor precisely what you are feeding your plants, you absolutely need to know what is in your water, regardless of the type that you choose. In my opinion, there are certainly advantages to some types of water compared to others.

Water Sources

Option 1: Well Water

Well water isn't the greatest option that you have. As you can see in the diagram below (taken from epa.gov), well water is coming directly from the groundwater source. The main issue with well water is that it contains a large number of inorganic and microbiological contaminants.

According to the USGS Water Science School, groundwater (and thus well water) can contain the following contaminants:

Residual pesticides
Toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, antimony, chromium, lead, and more.
Chloride which can kill beneficial bacteria
Sodium which stunts plant growth and can accumulate in sump
Industrial chemical runoff which includes plasticizers and volatile organic compounds

Overall, we strongly recommend not using well water.

Option 2: Tap Water

For the personal and recreational grower, sourcing appropriate water can be challenging. After all, why not use the hose and set up to use tap water? Tap water is very cheap, but it certainly has its drawbacks. Additionally tap water is not as bad as well water because it is groundwater that has been filtered at a water treatment facility. Here are some of the reasons you may not want to use tap water:

You have zero control over what the municipalities provide you. Your water composition could change from week to week; this will throw off your EC values and nutrient elemental composition.
Although typically devoid of microbiological contaminants, tap water will likely contain various water treatment residuals (chloramine, for example).
Tap water is usually very “hard”. This additional sodium, calcium and magnesium can impact your hydro system, causing calcium overload (which leads to cloudy sumps) and nutrient lock out. Sodium is also very dangerous in high concentrations to your crop.

Despite the above drawbacks, tap water is still significantly better than well water.

Option 3: DI Water or RO Water

My favorite options for hydroponic growing are RO water or DI Water. Deionized water (shortened to DI water) is purified through a filtration system that performs cation and anion exchange to yield high purity water. In general, DI water contains less than 50 ppm contaminants. DI water is not distilled water; distilled water is usually purer but it is purified in a different manner (Distillation, who woulda thunk it?).

Reverse osmosis, as you can guess, is the opposite of osmosis. Osmosis is the flow of molecules of water to higher concentration from lower concentration. Reverse osmosis, therefore, is when water molecules flow away from higher concentrations, which is the opposite of its normal flow. From a grower’s standpoint, reverse osmosis means we take “concentrated water” (which has lots of contaminants) and remove the contaminants by pushing the water through a semi-permeable membrane. What results from this is super high purity water (and a pile of contaminants). This is clearly what we want as growers! The main drawback of this process, however, is that a good deal of water must be wasted when purifying. On average, an RO system “loses” about ¾ to ½ of all the water that goes through the RO system. However, technology is constantly improving RO systems, and water waste will continue to be minimized.

Nutrient Considerations when Using Pure Water

My final ranking for water sources is the following:

RO/DI Water
Tap Water
Well Water (Recommended: last resort)

Fortunately, the Elite Nutrient line is fortified with stable minerals that resist the various issues found in water sources. Elite Base Nutrient A and B are perfectly pH balanced and can tolerate a wide range of tap and well water hardness. If you are using RO or DI water, consider supplementing your nutrient regiment with Elite CalMag, which supplies vital secondary nutrients such as Ca, Mg, and Fe to your water. The result is pure water that is devoid of dangerous elements that contains important secondary nutrients!

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About the Author

Dr. NPK has been in the chemical formulating business for over 9 years. With a Bachelors in chemistry from UCLA and a Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Irvine, he has always had a passion for chemical formulation. Over the past several years, his focus has narrowed towards the research and development of products that are optimized for cannabis. He assisted in the development of the Elite Nutrient line and takes great pride in the products he created and uses himself. He has made it his mission to cut through all the pseudoscience available on the web and to educate readers on the science behind growing top-shelf bud.

Lighting and Lighting Controls in a Greenhouse – Part 1

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Disclaimer

This article was originally written and published by Argus Control Systems Ltd. The original article can be found here.

It all begins with light.

The job of a greenhouse is to provide a structure for growing plants that is transparent to sunlight, yet sufficiently enclosed to reduce convective heat loss (the exchange of air between inside and outside). Some of the solar radiation traveling through the covering material produces heat, and some of it is used for plant photosynthesis, resulting in the production of useful biomass.

What is Light?

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye.

The radiation that we perceive as sunlight, or the visible spectrum, is a small fraction of the total electromagnetic spectrum that includes gamma rays, x-rays, and radio waves. Violet colored light rays at about 380 nm (nanometers) are the shortest wavelengths that humans can perceive in appreciable amounts, and red light wavelengths at about 720 nm are the longest.

Solar radiation consists of a vast spectrum of electromagnetic wavelengths at various intensities. Visible light from the sun appears white due to the mixing of wavelengths that our eyes perceive. However, when passed through a prism or a mist of water droplets in the air, light waves become organized or refracted into visible bands of color producing a rainbow effect.

Since human eyes can only perceive a small part of the total emission spectrum, we are largely unaware that objects all around us are continually emitting radiation. As the temperature of an object increases, the spectrum of radiation emitted by it shifts to include shorter wavelengths. Eventually, when sufficient temperatures are achieved, we perceive a ‘glow’ as the emitted radiation shifts into the visible range.

How Does Light Affect Plant Growth?

It’s important to remember that humans perceive light differently than plants. We have the strongest response to light in the green/yellow part of the spectrum (about 600nm).

For photosynthesis, plants respond strongest to blue and red light, and to red and infrared light wavelengths for photoperiod growth responses and germination control. The intensity, duration, direction, and spectral quality of light radiation that plants receive has an effect on photosynthesis, flowering, climate response (temperature and water loss), and plant shape (photomorphogenesis).

To humans, plants appear largely immobile. Therefore, we tend to regard them as passive organisms, at the mercy of their environment. They are in fact, very active and adaptive in their response to their environment and environmental change.

Since natural sunlight is a highly variable phenomenon, plants have evolved mechanisms to measure and cope with the various fluxes and cycles in natural light characteristics. In response to light conditions, they can control their rate of evapotranspiration and water uptake, their internode length, their leaf size, count, orientation, and chloroplast density, as well as determine the optimum timing for flowering and other physiological processes.

They can also determine the direction of light, and are able to orient their leaves and growth habit to take optimum advantage of the sun angle. Some seeds require specific light conditions to break dormancy (photodormancy) and germinate.

Greenhouse raised plants often look quite different from genetically identical outdoor specimens. This is due in part to their response to climate differences, including the quantity, quality, and duration of light they receive.

High Intensity Radiation Effects

Photosynthesis

Within the chloroplasts of plant cells, light energy is used to convert atmospheric carbon into carbohydrates in a process called photosynthesis. It takes surprisingly little sunlight, about 80 – 110 watts per square meter to achieve full photosynthetic output on a typical leaf surface in direct light.

However, since most growing plants consist of a canopy of leaves in which some of the uppermost ones receive full sun and the rest receive a mixture of direct and reflected light, higher light intensities (often in excess of 500 watts per square meter) help to ensure that all leaves approach their maximum photosynthetic potential.

Temperature and Water Loss

Less that 5% of the total sunlight energy that a plant receives is used for photosynthesis. For example, most plant leaves appear to be green since they only absorb up to 60% of spectral green light.

Under full sunlight conditions, this unused radiation tends to generate potentially damaging heat at the leaf surface. Luckily, plants have a number of strategies for this. They are capable of dissipating heat by several means, including reflection, transmission, convection, radiation, and evaporation.

Of these methods, evaporation is the most effective and elegant. Up to 90% of the available sunlight energy is used for evaporation. By evaporating water from their leaves, plants accomplish two things.

First, the process of evaporation cools sun-heated surfaces, and second, the upward movement of water needed to replace the water lost through evapotranspiration provides the means of transport for dissolved nutrients entering the plant by way of the roots.

As a rule, the greater the radiation level, the greater the rate of evaporation, although the vapor pressure deficit (humidity level of the air relative to the plant surface) has a contributing effect. However, there is a point under high light conditions, when the plant must evaporate more than it can physically extract from the soil and transport to the leaves.

Faced with a potential loss of cell (turgor) pressure the plant must close or partially close its stoma to conserve water and prevent wilting. This effectively shuts off the flow of carbon dioxide and the assembly line of photosynthesis slows down. Beyond this point, increases in light levels and the resulting increase in leaf temperatures can further decrease or stop photosynthetic output, and, if wilting occurs, permanent damage to plant tissues may result.

It is interesting to note that over time, plants can increase their capacity to cope with light related heat stress. They can produce more roots to better extract water for transpiration, and the leaves can change physiologically in their tolerance to strong sunlight. In greenhouses, we often witness this in spring crops, or propagated cuttings raised under low light levels.

During the first few days of bright sunshine, crops may wilt, or sustain sunscald injury before they can acclimatize to higher light levels.

Low Intensity Radiation Effects

Plants are capable of detecting more than just the intensity of incoming light. By sensing the duration of the lighting period and the relative intensities of some low intensity wavelengths, many species time their growth phases in concert with the seasons.

Plant species are conveniently categorized as day neutral (unresponsive), short day (for flowering), and long day (for flowering). In practice, the photoperiodic response is rather more complicated than these three simple groupings imply, and it is often influenced by other coincidental factors such as physiological maturity, temperature, nutrient availability, and moisture.

Photoperiod Effects

The photoperiod response in plants is triggered by changes in a protein receptor pigment called phytochrome. The phytochrome molecule can exist in two forms, one that absorbs red light, and another that absorbs far-red light. In the red light phase (r form) the absorption of red light converts it to the far-red form (f form).

Once in the far-red wavelength, far red light and metabolic conversion will convert it back to the r form, as will metabolic conversion. The wavelength of light therefore, allows phytochrome to act as a chemical switch. Phytochrome shifts back and forth between states, depending upon which light wavelength predominates (there is more red light during the daytime, and more farred light at dusk, dawn, and during the night period). This allows plants to ‘sense’ whether it is night or day, and to measure the length of the night period in order to time seasonal processes such as flowering.

Since plants are very sensitive to small amounts of red and far red light, artificial manipulation of photoperiod responses can be accomplished using relatively small amounts of artificial light. Ordinary incandescent lights are often used for night break, or long day lighting. They emit sufficient quantities of red light to maintain day length sensitive plants in their long-day physiological state.

Similarly, black cloth applications to simulate short days must be sufficient to screen out almost all of the red light (usually below 1 foot-candle).

Photomorphogenesis and Phototropism

In addition to the phytochrome dependent photoperiod response, many plants use specific wavelengths and light intensities to properly orient their growth patterns. Photomorphogenesis describes the effect of light upon plant habit and shape, and phototropism describes the ability of plants to orient their parts towards or away from light sources.

Recently, the effects of blue wavelengths have been studied in relation to these responses, since the standard high pressure sodium lamps used in greenhouses and growth rooms are somewhat deficient in blue light.

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Lyme Disease and Medical Cannabis

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In this contributor article, Amy Zukeran of Amy’s Cannabis Garden explores how cannabis can be used to help treat Lyme disease.

Ah, the great outdoors! Fresh clean air, a freshly rolled blunt, and the sun gently caressing your face. Every step is an adventure as you hike deeper into the woods. But there is something small and fast stalking you through the grass and you better do something about it. Ticks love tall grass, and it’s even better to hitch a ride on you, the human. And these ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease to the tune of 30,000 new infections every year in the U.S.

Borrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease and is carried by the Ixodes genus of ticks. The disease is especially prevalent in the Northeastern U.S. though it occurs in half of the 3,110 counties in this country. This bacterium can switch modes, which makes it difficult to detect and kill. It has a double membrane envelope and tends to hide in deep tissue. It can also change shapes to disguise its identity.

Left untreated, 60 percent of patients develop pain and swelling at joints after a few weeks. This pain can last for days or months and is known to move from one side to the other.

Stages of Infections

Initially, an infection may seem like the flu – fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, headaches, body aches, and muscle stiffness. Check the bite site. If there is a bullseye marking circling the bite, get thee to a doctor. This is early stage and antibiotics can help.

In the second stage of the disease, heart and nervous system problems can arise. Ten percent of sufferers will experience abnormal heart rhythms. A stiff neck and severe headaches may be an indicator of meningitis so visiting a doctor is highly advisable. Also, there may be abnormal sensations in limbs that can last days to months and shifts from one joint to another.

The third stage can result in motor and sensory nerve damage and brain inflammation. Studies have shown that Lyme disease patients have a higher rate of anxiety and depression. There’s also a host of possible symptoms such as changes in mood or sleeping pattern, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and memory loss. Serious cognitive problems.

Cannabis and Lyme Disease

So where does medical marijuana fit into this miasma of symptoms? Most of this early research is based on anecdotal evidence and the reader is reminded that we are all different physiologically when it comes to drug sensitivity. ”Low and slow” is the way to go when first experimenting with cannabis.

Smoking is not the most efficient delivery system of all the healing chemicals in cannabis but it is useful for its anti-nausea, pain relief, mood stabilizing, and appetite stimulating effects. The best way to get the most benefit from cannabis is to eat it.

Cannabis oil is a concentrate from marijuana created through an extraction process. It typically has a good balance of THC and CBD, which most experts agree work synergistically to achieve optimal effects.

THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, is the compound in cannabis that imparts the “high”, cerebrally stimulating quality. CBD, or cannabidiol, is the compound that has the muscle-relaxing, pain relieving, and anti-seizure qualities. CBD is also great for latter stage symptoms as pain, spasms, nausea, headache, and peripheral neuropathy.

Currently, CBD paste is being studied for its antibiotic characteristics by an undisclosed university in the U.S. All five major cannabinoids have been shown to kill MRSA, the highly infectious hospital-borne illness.

Medical Marijuana -- Useful Qualities

In Shelly White’s book, “Cannabis for Lyme Disease and Related Conditions,” she enumerates the benefits of medical marijuana for chronic diseases:

Cannabis molecules are antimicrobial and show anti-parasitic activity.
Cannaflavins, compounds found in most plant life, are more effective than aspirin as an anti-inflammatory.
THC also has medicinal qualities. It can act as an anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, anti-epileptic, appetite stimulant, blood thinner, anti-cancer, glaucoma reducer, and pain reliever.
Stimulates dopamine and serotonin release that increases pain relief and improves outlook
Decreases brain inflammation called Lyme encephalitis
Prevents cell damage and known as a powerful antioxidant
Improves anxiety and depression moods by activating serotonin receptors
Muscle relaxant, DNA protectant, and anti-arthritic
Effective for migraines; brain fog, and insomnia

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About the Author

Amy was born and raised in the Puna Bud Capital of the World -- Hawai'i. She is genetically programmed to write and also explore medical cannabis so visit her blog. Mahalo Nui Loa!

Largest Cannabis Producers in North America (2018)

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Growers Network is committed to spreading knowledge about all aspects of the commercial cannabis industry, including growing, dispensaries, extractions, and more. In this article, Growers Network explores some of the largest cannabis growers in North America as part of an ongoing look at the commercial cannabis industry as a whole. If you would like to read last year's article, check it out here.

If you feel there is a grow operation that is not listed but belongs on the list, or if any information is inaccurate, use the information below to contact us. We intend to keep this list updated through 2018 with the biggest cannabis operations!

To skip to any section within this article, click the links below:

Selection Criteria

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Current Largest by Region

Largest Overall

Resources

Comments

Do you want to learn how to grow cannabis? Check out Growers Network University!

Selection Criteria

When we first started this project back in late 2016, we considered many criteria, including wet and dry biomass, raw weight per yield, number of plants, number of different strains, THC content, and more. During our research and initial contact phases, it became clear that most companies are not willing to divulge the majority of this information, assuming they even measured it. Some of these measurements are also hard to measure objectively and verify.

In the end, we decided that square footage was the most objective means of measuring these grow operations' capacities. While we recognize that some grow systems and growers have the potential to increase their yields without changing their size, we also realize that when talking about commercial volumes of cannabis, most differences tend to average out.

Additionally, we also recognize that the cannabis industry is in a massive period of growth. As such, we have separated the data into two formats: Current Square Footage and Future Square Footage. In both the table and written sections below, we have made sure to delineate the difference. All "Future Square Footage" that is listed is predicted in the 2018-2019 years, as projections beyond that point become unreliable.

Ranking and Placement Parameters

You may be wondering... why didn't we place XYZ Company on the list?

The simple answer is that we may not have been aware of said company's size. We've reached out to as many growers as we reasonably could, but there are many growers who we are unaware of. If you are familiar with such a company, and they are interested in having their presence listed here, please let us know by emailing us at hunter@growersnetwork.org.
Another reason may be that a company simply refused to participate. As a courtesy, we reached out to as many growers on this list as we could for their input. Some companies declined to be involved in this list. Some simply did not reply with the information we needed.
Some companies are not legally allowed to divulge information about their growing facilities. This depends on the locality, of course, but we respect their legal concerns. Other companies worry about the federal government's stance on cannabis.

If you feel our information is inaccurate or our rankings are wrong, please contact us!

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Largest Overall

Current

Editor's Note: These are the top ten largest licensed producers overall in North America.

#1 - Los Sueños Farms

1,428,000 sq. ft

Los Sueños Farms is a 36 acre, mostly outdoor grow located in Colorado. 43,500 square feet are greenhouses, the rest is outdoors. It’s currently one of the largest grows in North America.

Website: https://lsf.farm/
Phone: 719-766-9093
Email: info@lsf.farm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lossuenosfarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lossuenosfarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/los_suenos_farms/

#2 - The Green Organic Dutchman

620,000 sq. ft

The Green Organic Dutchman (shortened as TGOD) is a Canadian Licensed Producer growing out of Quebec. According to their investor information, they currently are growing on 620,000 square feet and are expanding to reach 970,000 square feet. Their website also states that they can produce 116,000 kg of cannabis per year.

Website: https://tgod.ca/
Phone: (905) 304-4201 or 1-844-GREENMED
Email: info@tgod.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TGODH/

#3 - Canopy Growth Corporation

598,000 sq. ft

Canopy Growth Corporation is a major player in the Canadian Cannabis Industry. It has major investment backing and owns the rights to several cannabis producers, including Tweed, Spectrum Cannabis, and Bedrocan. Based on information in their investor center, they currently are growing with 598,000 square feet, and are planning to expand to 1,268,000 square feet.

Website: https://www.canopygrowth.com/
Phone: 1-855-558-9333
Email: invest@canopygrowth.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tweedinc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/canopygrowth?lang=en
Instagram: https://twitter.com/tweedinc?lang=en

#4 - Copperstate Farms

348,000 sq. ft

Copperstate Farms is a large grow with a lot of potential to grow, located in Snowflake Arizona. As far as we know, they are currently operating 5 acres of former tomato greenhouse, with the potential to expand up to 40 acres of greenhouse. Contact information for Copperstate is limited.

Website: https://copperstatefarms.com/

#5 - Supreme

304,920 sq. ft

Supreme is the holding company for 7 Acres, a Canadian Licensed Producer. Unsurprisingly, 7 Acres actual grow space is, you guessed it, seven acres. Seven acres is 304,920 square feet. Investor information did not indicate any intentions to increase in size.

Website: http://www.supreme.ca/
Phone: 416-630-7272
Email: info@supreme.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSupremeFIRE/

#6 - MedReleaf

265,000 sq. ft

MedReleaf is a Canadian Licensed Producer based out of Ontario, Canada. According to their investor information, they are in possession of 265,000 square feet of growing space, with no plans to expand currently.

Website: https://medreleaf.com/
Phone: 1-855-473-5323
Email: askus@medreleaf.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medreleaf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/medreleaf

#7 - Village Farms International

250,000 sq. ft

You may be wondering why we’re listing a vegetable producer on this list. According to a recent press release, they are finishing a 250,000 square foot joint cannabis grow. They are also planning on expanding from 250,000 square feet to 1.1 million square feet.

Website: http://villagefarms.com/
Phone: 604.940.6012
Email: lawrence.chamberlain@loderockadvisors.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/villagefarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/villagefarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/village_farms/

#8 - Organigram

227,500 sq. ft

Organigram, a Canadian Licensed Producer, has two facilities measuring 227,500 square feet, according to their investor page. Their investor deck says that they have plans to expand to 428,725 in the coming years.

Website: https://www.organigram.ca/
Phone: 1-855-961-9420
Email: info@organigram.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverOGI/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/discoverOGI

#9 - Harvest Inc.

208,000 sq. ft

Harvest Inc. holds shares in several dispensaries and cultivation sites around the country, and they own 3.3 acres of outdoor grow and 65,000 square feet of indoor grow spread across a few facilities, according to a press release.

Website: https://harvestinc.com/
Email: askme@harvestinc.com

#10 - GrowHealthy

200,000 sq. ft

GrowHealthy is a Florida-based company, and, according to their website, has over 200,000 square foot of growing space.

Website: https://growhealthy.com/
Phone: 863.223.8882
Email: info@GrowHealthy.com

Near Future

Editor's Note: These are the top 10 predicted largest licensed producers in North America for 2018-2019.

#1 - Palo Verde Center

2,400,000 sq. ft

Recently we received word of a new 2.4 million square foot grow based out of Blythe, California. They directly sent us an email containing blueprints for the facility and their intentions to complete it this year.

Website: https://www.paloverdecenter.com/
Phone: 720-544-2833
Email: info@paloverdecenter.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paloverdecenter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paloverdecenter/

#2 - Copperstate Farms

1,700,000 sq. ft

Website: https://copperstatefarms.com/

#3 - Los Sueños Farms

1,428,000 sq. ft

Los Sueños Farms is a 36 acre, mostly outdoor grow located in Colorado. 43,500 square feet are greenhouses, the rest is outdoors. It’s currently one of the largest grows in North America.

Website: https://lsf.farm/
Phone: 719-766-9093
Email: info@lsf.farm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lossuenosfarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lossuenosfarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/los_suenos_farms/

#4 - Canopy Growth Corporation

1,268,000 sq. ft

Website: https://www.canopygrowth.com/
Phone: 1-855-558-9333
Email: invest@canopygrowth.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tweedinc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/canopygrowth?lang=en
Instagram: https://twitter.com/tweedinc?lang=en

#5 - Village Farms International

1,100,000 sq. ft

Website: http://villagefarms.com/
Phone: 604.940.6012
Email: lawrence.chamberlain@loderockadvisors.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/villagefarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/villagefarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/village_farms/

#6 - Aphria

1,000,000 sq. ft

Tying for 6th with Americann is Aphria. Aphria is a Canadian licensed producer currently operating 100,000 square feet, with plans to expand to 1,000,000 square feet.

Website: https://aphria.ca/
Phone: 1-844-427-4742
Email: info@aphria.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aphriaMMJ/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AphriaInc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aphriammj/

#6 - Americann

1,000,000 sq. ft

Tying for 6th with Aphria is Americann. As far as we are aware, they don’t have grow space online yet, but have made headlines whilst building a million square foot grow.

Website: http://americann.co/
Phone: (720) 536-8375
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ameri-Cann-Inc-366768066814086/?fref=nf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ACANINFO

#8 - The Green Organic Dutchman

970,000 sq. ft

Website: https://tgod.ca/
Phone: (905) 304-4201 or 1-844-GREENMED
Email: info@tgod.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TGODH/

#9 - Aurora Cannabis

943,000 sq. ft

Aurora is well known for making headlines on being one of the first to announce its plans for a million square foot grow. According to their investor presentation, they should currently be working with 143,000 square feet with plans to expand another 800,000 square feet in the future, totalling 943,000 square feet.

Website: https://auroramj.com/
Phone: (844) 928-7672
Email: clientcare@auroramj.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurorammj/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aurora_mmj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurora_mmj/

#10 - Maricann

942,000 sq. ft

Maricann is a Canadian Licensed Producer based out of Ontario, Canada. According to their investor deck, they have a grow facility currently measuring 106,838 square feet, with plans to expand it all the way up to 942,000 square feet. They also have a grow facility in Germany that measures close to 800,000 square feet.

Website: https://maricann.com/
Phone: 844-627-4226
Email: clients@maricann.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaricannInc?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maricanngroupinc/?hl=en

Current Largest by Region

Canada

Editor's Note: These are the top ten current largest licensed producers in Canada. With the coming legalization of adult-use cannabis in Canada, we expect large grows to continue springing up.

#1 - The Green Organic Dutchman

620,000 sq. ft

Website: https://tgod.ca/
Phone: (905) 304-4201 or 1-844-GREENMED
Email: info@tgod.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TGODH/

#2 - Canopy Growth Corporation

598,000 sq. ft

Website: https://www.canopygrowth.com/
Phone: 1-855-558-9333
Email: invest@canopygrowth.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tweedinc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/canopygrowth?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tweedmainstreet/?hl=en

#3 - Supreme

304,920 sq. ft

Website: http://www.supreme.ca/
Phone: 416-630-7272
Email: info@supreme.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSupremeFIRE/

#4 - MedReleaf

265,000 sq. ft

Website: https://medreleaf.com/
Phone: 1-855-473-5323
Email: askus@medreleaf.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medreleaf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/medreleaf

#5 - Village Farms International

250,000 sq. ft

Website: http://villagefarms.com/
Phone: 604.940.6012
Email: lawrence.chamberlain@loderockadvisors.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/villagefarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/villagefarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/village_farms/

#6 - Organigram

227,500 sq. ft

Website: https://www.organigram.ca/
Phone: 1-855-961-9420
Email: info@organigram.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverOGI/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/discoverOGI

#7 - Aurora Cannabis

143,000 sq. ft

Website: https://auroramj.com/
Phone: (844) 928-7672
Email: clientcare@auroramj.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurorammj/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aurora_mmj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurora_mmj/

#8 - Maricann

106,838 sq. ft

Website: https://maricann.com/
Phone: 844-627-4226
Email: clients@maricann.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaricannInc?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maricanngroupinc/?hl=en

#9 - Aphria

100,000 sq. ft

Aphria is a Canadian Licensed Producer based out of Ontario, Canada. According to an article out of CBT, they are currently working with 100,000 square feet. Information is otherwise hard to come by.

#10 - Delta 9 Biotech

80,000 sq. ft

Delta 9 Biotech is a Canadian Licensed Producer based out of Manitoba, Canada. According to their investor deck, they are currently growing in an 80,000 square foot facility, with the potential to expand to several nearby buildings should demand increases.

Website: https://www.delta9.ca/
Phone: 1-855-245-1259
Email: info@delta9.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delta9biotech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Delta9BioTech

Eastern US

Editor's Note: These are the top largest licensed producers in the Eastern US.

#1 - GrowHealthy

200,000 sq. ft

GrowHealthy is a Florida-based company, and, according to their website, has over 200,000 square foot of growing space.

#2 - Revolution Enterprises

151,050 sq. ft

Revolution is a cannabis brand based out of Illinois, and, according to several news sources and their website, they have two growing facilities, measuring roughly 75,000 square feet each. There are no current plans to expand their facilities as far as we are aware.

Website: http://www.revolutionenterprises.co/
Phone: 312-881-4250
Email: info@revolutionenterprises.co
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/revolutioncanna
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RevolutionCanna

#3 - Vireo Health NY

40,000 sq. ft

When we last spoke with Vireo Health NY, they let us know that they have a growing facility measuring 40,000 square feet with plans to expand another 20,000 square feet.

Website: https://vireohealth.com/ny/
Phone: 844-484-7366
Email: support.ny@vireohealth.zendesk.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VireoHealthNY/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vireohealthNY

Western US

Editor's Note: These are the top ten largest licensed producers in the Western US.

#1 - Los Sueños Farms

1,428,000 sq. ft

Los Sueños Farms is a 36 acre, mostly outdoor grow located in Colorado. 43,500 square feet are greenhouses, the rest is outdoors. It’s currently one of the largest grows in North America.

Website: https://lsf.farm/
Phone: 719-766-9093
Email: info@lsf.farm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lossuenosfarms/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lossuenosfarms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/los_suenos_farms/

#2 - Copperstate Farms

348,000 sq. ft

Website: https://copperstatefarms.com/

#3 - Harvest Inc.

208,000 sq. ft

Website: https://harvestinc.com/
Email: askme@harvestinc.com

#4 - Glass House Farms

200,000 sq. ft

Our first Canna Cribs article was about Glass House Farms, and while we spoke with them, they let us know that they have 200,000 square feet of grow. Check out the article to read more about them.

Website: https://www.elitegardenwholesale.com/
Phone: 1-844-51-ELITE
Email: info@elitegardenwholesale.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elitegardenwholesale/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elitegarden/

#5 - Reef Dispensaries

165,000 sq. ft

We interviewed Reef Dispensaries not too long ago, and they let us know about their facilities, measuring around 165,000 square feet. Check out our article on them to learn more about them!

Website: https://reefdispensaries.com/
Phone: (702) 475-6510
Email: info@trykecompanies.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reefaznv/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@reefdispensarie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worldofreef/

#6 - LivWell

162,000 sq. ft

LivWell is a well-known chain of dispensaries primarily located in Colorado. According to information they shared with us, they have growing facilities totalling up to 162,000 square feet.

Website: https://www.livwell.com/
Phone: 720-548-2635
Email: info@livwell.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivWellEnlightenedHealth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/livwellcannabis
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livwellcannabis_/

#7 - Green Man Cannabis

128,000 sq. ft

Green Man Cannabis is a Colorado-based chain of dispensaries, with production facilities measuring 128,000 square feet, according to information we received directly from them.

Website: http://www.greenmancannabis.com/
Phone: 720-382-5950
Email: heyyou@greenmancannabis.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenmancolorado
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenManGanja

#8 - Grow Op Farms

110,000 sq. ft

Grow Op Farms is the holding company responsible for brands like Phat Panda, Sticky Frog, and Hot Sugar. They confirmed with us that their growing facilities measure 110,000 square feet in total.

Website: http://www.phatpanda.com/
Phone: (509) 981-9409
Email: josephdesantis@growopfarms.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phatnsticky/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phatpanda/

#9 - Colorado Harvest Company

62,000 sq. ft

Colorado Harvest Farms, surprisingly based out of Colorado, has a grow operation measuring 62,000 square feet according to information they sent us.

Website: http://coloradoharvestcompany.com/
Phone: 303-319-4330
Email: ann@coloradoharvestcompany.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coloradoharvestcompany
Twitter: https://twitter.com/co_harvest

#10 - Essence Vegas

54,000 sq. ft

Essence is a chain of dispensaries located out of, you guessed it, Vegas. According to a news article about them, their grow facilities measure 54,000 square feet.

Website: https://essencevegas.com/
Phone: (702) 978-7591
Email: info@essencevegas.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/essencevegas
Twitter: https://twitter.com/essencevegas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/essence_lasvegas/

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