Cocaine dealers can’t claim deductions on their year-end tax forms—that should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, the same holds true for cannabis companies. Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, enacted by Congress in 1982, states that deductions and credits are not allowed for any expenses paid during the tax year for business activities that involve the sale of controlled substances, which includes cannabis.

Until the federal government removes cannabis from the list of Schedule I substances, cultivators will need to find other ways to reduce their tax burdens. Below is a recap of some key points addressed by Rachel Gillette, partner and chair of Greenspoon Marder’s Cannabis Law Practice, and Dean Guske, CPA, Dean Guske & Co. Inc., during a panel discussion at the 2019 Cannabis Conference.

1. Keep a good accounting system.

“If you don’t have a good accounting system, you’re not going to be successful in trying to ... maximize your deductions,” Guske says. 280E has less of an impact on growers than it does on retailers, he says. “The vast majority of your expenditures incurred that go into that product are direct expenses, and they go right into the cost of goods sold[, which are allowable deductions under 280E]. Compare that to a retailer, who the vast majority of their expenditures are selling expenses, and selling expenses are not qualified to go into cost of goods sold.”

2. Understand how 280E impacts your business.

[Cannabis business owners] “need to know in real time what is going to be a disallowed expense that they are potentially going to have to pay tax on because one of the worst things that can happen to a cannabis business is come Tax Day, April 15, they do not have their correct amount of estimated taxes that have been paid or they do not have enough money set aside to pay their tax bill,” Gillette says. “That happens very, very often, and oftentimes, it happens as a result of cannabis business owners not knowing what their disallowed expenses are or the dollar amount of their disallowed expenses, and therefore, the taxes due based on disallowed expenses at the end of the tax year. So, it becomes a big surprise, and they haven’t planned accordingly. That is the biggest problem that I see that faces especially smaller businesses in this industry.”

3. Be honest.

Cultivators should track all inventory and be mindful of potential penalties. “If you fail to report your income by 20% or more, you’re going to get a substantial understatement penalty,” Gillette says. “It is a huge penalty. So … you need to make sure you’re reporting all your income correctly.”

4. Hire a bookkeeper.

“I need to be able to see [the expenses] to prepare a tax return,” Guske says. “If the inputs are terrible, ... I’m going to give you a call [and say] what’s this? What went in here? All those sorts of things that I need to be able to file an accurate tax return. So get yourself a bookkeeper. Pay for it; it’s worth it.”

5. Understand corporate business structures.

S corporation, C corporation or LLC? That’s a question many cannabis companies must answer for themselves to minimize their tax burden. It’s a complex decision that may require outside consultation to make the best decision. For instance, there are situations where a company would not want to be an S corp vs. an LLC. A cultivator with multiple partners who are operating different parts of the business, such as accounting, sales and cultivation, may not want to be an S corp because all three owners would be required to pay themselves a reasonable salary, Guske says. The salesperson and administrator/accounting salaries are non-deductible to the S corp; the employee-owners, however, must claim the salaries as income and pay taxes on it, so the owners are paying taxes twice on the same dollars. “If you just elected to be an LLC, there’s not a requirement for us to pay ourselves a salary at all,” Guske says.

Editor’s note: For more in-depth insights into navigating 280E, check out CBT’s free webinar.

Jonathan Katz is managing editor for Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary magazines.

Standing in the Beaumont Room at the Yale School of Medicine on Nov. 8, flanked by school officials and medical researchers, the significance of what was transpiring in front of Rino Ferrarese and Tom Schultz was not lost on them. It was a moment the duo had been waiting and preparing for since they first chatted with each other about launching a medical cannabis operation in the Constitution State back in 2013.

They were there that morning, in front of 40 or so members of the media, the medical community and state and regulatory officials, to announce that CTPharma, the company they co-founded, received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin clinical trials on cannabinoid medicines in partnership with the Yale School of Medicine. The first phase of this Investigational New Drug (IND) study focuses on safety and dosing in treating symptoms related to stress and pain relief. These randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled (RDBPC) studies now allow CTPharma to put its products through the scientific gauntlet.

“Phase I of an FDA study is relatively straightforward,” Schultz explains. “You’re trying to prove some form of safety and efficacy.”

From those early days in the state’s legal medical cannabis industry, CTPharma’s focus has been on obtaining this FDA approval to commence human studies. “To date, there hasn’t been an American company who’s been able to cultivate flower, harvest it, extract it, process it into a pharmaceutical dose, and get it through the FDA, approved in an IND protocol, and then into healthy human volunteers for a safety and efficacy study,” Ferrarese told Cannabis Business Times after the press conference. “That’s a triumph. Today will be a historic day in the annals of cannabis history.”

Now that the company has the government go-ahead to begin its research, Schultz says it feels like “we’ve crossed the starting line.”

(Editor’s note: Tom Schultz and Rino Ferrarese are CBT columnists.)

Preparing for the Race

As former executives in FDA-regulated industries, both Ferrarese and Schultz are well-suited to navigate this opportunity. Ferrarese has experience as a compliance officer working under the guidelines of Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) for the production of prescription, over-the-counter (OTC) and homeopathic human drug products. Schultz operated the last significant producer of witch hazel, Dickinson Brands Inc., until he and Ferrarese launched CTPharma.

The intent with launching a medical cannabis cultivation operation was never simply to cultivate: Research was at the forefront of their minds from day one. However, Schultz says, “when we were awarded a license [in 2014], there was no research authorized by the state’s cannabis statute. We [could] ship product for consumption to six dispensaries, but if Yale School of Medicine, to whom we were speaking, wanted to do research even in a test tube, [they] couldn’t do it. It was illegal, even in Connecticut, to ship [cannabis] to them.”

The duo knew early on that rules would need to be rewritten for them to get started on the work they wanted to complete. The CTPharma co-founders spent the better part of the business’s first two years working with regulators and elected officials (some of whom were present for the Nov. 8 announcement) to pass research-enabling legislation. Two-and-a-half years after obtaining their license, Ferrarese and Schultz helped create Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Research Program.

Under the state’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP)’s supervision, hospitals, higher education institutions, medical cannabis producers and dispensaries can register to conduct research “intended to increase knowledge or information regarding the growth, processing, medical attributes, dosage forms, administration or use of marijuana to treat or alleviate symptoms of any medical conditions or the effects of such symptoms,” according to the DCP’s website. This program explicitly allows CTPharma to work with groups such as Yale School of Medicine on research once the study has been registered.

Another two-and-a-half years of working for federal approval and a “significant” six-figure investment brought CTPharma to the launch of its IND studies. The company is starting with two studies focused on both safety and efficacy. During the eight-week study period, participants cycle through four of six product formulations (including a placebo) in alternating weeks—one week on one formulation, one week off any formulations, then another week with a different formulation, and so on.

“Once we can prove safety, now we can get more focused on exactly what we can do with this medication,” Schultz explains.

Back to School

CTPharma selecting Yale School of Medicine as its research partner is a product of proximity and familiarity: Yale is in Connecticut, and Schultz is an alum. The third component that made the partnership attractive was mutually recognized expertise.

“[Yale] recognized the potential for cannabinoid research before anything was even authorized in Connecticut,” Schultz says. For example, while CTPharma was working to have research legislation enacted in 2016, CTPharma and Yale co-sponsored a symposium on cannabinoids in medicine. Looking back at the event, Schultz says, “we had honestly the cutting-edge researchers in the world speak at Yale and talk about exactly where research in cannabis was at that time.”

What Yale saw in CTPharma was the company’s “pharmaceutical production orientation,” Schultz says. Many of CTPharma’s employees come from a pharmaceutical background, both in OTC and prescription medications. A handful of others come from the supplement and food industries. He adds that “from [Yale’s] point of view, … we have the capacity to produce cannabinoid medication in the same way that a pharmaceutical company would produce it.”

A good example is the products CTPharma intends to use in its IND studies: Instead of smokable flower or dosed vape pen cartridges, the company offers formulated tablets to patients involved in its research. Dosages can vary from 10 mg THC:40 mg CBD to 30 mg THC:40 mg CBD. Tablets as a delivery mechanism for these cannabinoid medications were chosen not by haphazard choice, but by slow, deliberate study.

“We did membrane permeability studies, which were designed to determine how much the body uptakes,” Ferrarese explains. In other words, “if you provide 10 milligrams of medicine in a tablet and you swallow it, how much of that 10 milligrams is getting absorbed into the body in a way that the body can utilize it as medicine, and how much is getting discarded and passed into your system as waste?”

One of Ferrarese’s main criticisms of most cannabis studies done to date is the lack of available information about the quality and consistency of the product used. Additionally, combusting or heating cannabis will change its phytochemistry. For example, Ferrarese says, “if you heat [cannabis] … you can have terpenes volatilized, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. So you have to be very careful with the cannabis medicine.”

CTPharma spent time and resources on stability studies—research on its products and how they change over time in different conditions. Thanks to those efforts, Ferrarese says, “we know exactly what happens to our tablets if you heat them up too much, what happens if they freeze, what are the optimum storage conditions.” This work was all done “just to make sure that when the patient takes medicine, that we know what the patient can expect and we can better understand the results we’re getting,” he continues.

All of these studies and tests were conducted by CTPharma in a formulation lab and an analytical lab that Ferrarese describes as “[rivaling] any mid-level biotech company operating in America today.”

State of Control

Another big part of CTPharma’s pharmaceutical approach is its almost neurotic data collection. “In the FDA world, if you didn’t document it, it never happened,” Ferrarese says. That’s why one of the first significant cultivation investments was for a proprietary environmental control system (ECS), and the company hasn’t operated a day without one.

Since the cultivation operation’s launch in 2014, four sensors in every cultivation room have taken snapshots every 30 seconds; throughout the facility, temperature, humidity, CO₂ levels, and lighting are all measured twice per minute.

It was the co-founders’ experience in FDA-regulated industries that told them data-tracking would be crucial to their goals of setting up clinical research studies; they both learned how important ongoing process control and the creation of reproducible products are to the FDA in its role as a consumer protection agency.

The data CTPharma had been collecting before it began its FDA application “was relevant and very interesting and important to the FDA because they wanted to see that we operated in a state of control,” Ferrarese explains. As CTPharma went through its IND study application, Ferrarese estimates that roughly a month was spent answering the agency’s data requests, with new ones coming almost daily.

In addition to stability data on final products and formulations, the company documents everything in the cultivation areas. This includes “watering, taking clones, what time the lights came on and off, all the way through … how much did Blue Dream yield this year compared to when we grew it last year,” Ferrarese says.

The indoor cultivation operation is also designed to maximize control and minimize any unexpected outcomes: Peat moss and Pro-Mix make up the growing media, while a mix of different fertilizer inputs gets pumped through drip irrigation lines. In vegetation, double-ended metal halide lights are the company’s preferred choice. For flowering, double-ended HPS lights are what CTPharma feels give it the most control.

But both Ferrarese and Schultz are quick to point out that it’s not the company’s approach to cultivation that they believe sets it apart from other licensees in the state, but its overall pharmaceutical approach. They add that retained samples and stability testing are a safety precaution: if a patient comes to them complaining of poor product quality or that their medicine made them sick, CTPharma can trace the batch number and investigate what might have happened. That historical data also can be used as evidence to defend the company in case of a lawsuit.

Research Potential

Now that the company can begin its research projects, the co-founders expect to see a jump in the company’s value—and revenue. “If we are intelligent about the way that we work on research, then it dramatically enhances our value as a company,” Schultz says.

The first hurdle is the first phase of the IND study, which looks at safety and efficacy. Schultz isn’t worried about that first jump, given the anecdotal safety of cannabis in the U.S. (As the old industry saying goes, the only way cannabis will directly kill you is if a 60-pound bale of it falls on your head.)

Part of what CTPharma is studying in this first phase are stress and pain. Depending on the results, stress studies could transition into PTSD in phase two, and the pain research could be refocused on opioid replacement. “In any case, we see the possibility in phase two to begin to address specific problems, let’s say, for which the solutions could have very substantial economic value—and … human value,” Schultz says.

The real risk, Schultz believes, is in doing the actual research with “no guarantee that some bureaucrat somewhere won’t have a negative attitude,” and simply dismiss the work, he says. “But we think that there’s enough momentum behind the industry today so that the positives that are obviously there can overwhelm the negatives. We have faith that the plants we grow and the products we produce have the potential to really help people with disease problems.

“Either that’s a good judgment or not, but we have faith, tremendous faith, that our capacity to help people is really there.”

But CTPharma is not pinning its future on research alone. As part of a bid to be competitive in the long-term, the company is moving to a new, 173,000-square-foot facility by Q2 2020. This new site not only will increase the canopy capacity to roughly 80,000 square feet, but will also permit the addition of an on-site commercial bakery, among other new features.

Schultz says the canopy expansion will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase doubling current capacity to 20,000 square feet. “We are the smallest … producer in Connecticut, and obviously that next facility is quite large and will allow us to do a lot of things that we can’t currently do and will provide for any future space that we may need,” he says.

And while CTPharma might be the first U.S. cannabis company to get approval for an FDA study, looking forward, the co-founders know they won’t be the last.

“[Nov. 8 was] a historic day, and we’re proud to be that company that did this, and we expect that you’re going to start to see more and more companies reaching this sort of achievement,” Ferrarese says. “But in order to do it, they’re going to have to have all the things lined up that we had: the CGMPs, the partnerships with academia, and the right professionals in place within the organization.”

Schultz puts it a little more simply (and sarcastically): “This is really easy: All it takes is two and a half years to get the enabling legislation passed so we can do research, and then another two and a half to get through the FDA.”

Brian MacIver is senior editor for Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary magazines.

Growing legal cannabis for profit means that cultivators must maximize yield, maintain quality, prevent pest infestations and operate at peak efficiency to be able to offer competitive prices while maintaining or increasing profit margins. If investors are involved, they, of course, want a maximum return on their investments. Cannabis Business Times asked cannabis growers from three states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — to describe how they set themselves up to maximize yield and remain competitive.

CannaMan Farms Vancouver, Washington

Brian Stroh received one of the first licenses issued by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board for CannaMan Farms, a 1,500- to 2,000- square-foot facility in the northeast part of Vancouver, Wash. In March 2014, Stroh started cultivating cannabis on two acres of property that gives CannaMan Farms space to expand — not that expansion is on Stroh’s immediate radar. Instead, CannaMan Farms focuses on consistent growth of exceptional cannabis flower. Here’s how and why they do it.

1. Have a growing strategy that matches your business goals. Sea of green (SOG) is CannaMan Farms’ preferred cultivation method. Stroh says it yields a quality flower in a short growing period. “To me, it was an obvious choice because you produce single cola plants as opposed to large plants with a lot of larf,” he says. “A lot of people grow large plants because that’s what they are used to doing, but I don’t see that as the most viable way of producing usable flower.” In his experience, a quarter to a third of a large plant has inferior-quality flower. That strategy works for growers with ancillary lines that can use lower-grade flower, he says. CannaMan Farms doesn’t ignore yield, but Stroh says their status as a small, Tier 1 grower means every pound they produce must be top-quality cola.

2. Sweat the small stuff and remain consistent. Many ways exist to increase yields, but, in a regulated system, it’s difficult to do it consistently on a large scale. Stroh says disappointing yields are rarely caused by a large, egregious event. “It’s the culmination of many, many small inconsistencies or things [like watering, adding nutrients or spraying] that didn’t get done precisely right,” he says. “Those are the things that add up and really eat into your yields.” Inconsistency doesn’t just harm output; it can also affect product quality. At CannaMan Farms, Stroh emphasizes baseline scientific methods that can be repeated to increase yield and improve quality. “Everyone has ideas,” he says. “But when you start throwing tips and tricks at your grow, you don’t really know what’s working.”

3. Appreciate the fact that growing cannabis is a process-driven business, like any other. Stroh believes too many people look at cannabis as a new, unique industry. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. Like every other business, without a process-driven environment, the product may not meet requirements, which can jeopardize a harvest or diminish its market value.

Another business challenge: closing the gap between sales and production, when you can’t produce enough to meet demand. “If you spread yourself too thin, and you start trying to suddenly ramp up production, you’re going to push your yields. And how are you going to do it?” Stroh asks. “Are you going to throw the kitchen sink at it and hope? Or are you going to do it little pieces at a time? If you do it the correct way, you’re going to have to tell somebody that you’re not doing business with them.” For many people, saying no to business is a problem.

Shango Premium Cannabis Aurora, Oregon

Nestled in historic Aurora, Ore., is one of the newest Shango Premium Cannabis grow facilities. The 10,000-square-foot operation 25 miles south of Portland was purchased by the Shango brand almost a year ago. Although the location grew cannabis before the acquisition, head gardener John Hinkson says the affiliation with Shango has removed a lot of the guesswork.

With operations in Nevada, Oregon and Washington, Shango is a data-driven business that invests in learning how to grow various strains and how to optimize conditions to support yield. “We’re set up for success because Shango has done a lot of research and development on genetics, and we’re able to control our temperature, humidity, CO₂ levels and air flow to a tee,” says Hinkson. Below, he shares four fundamentals of smart growing.

4. Find strains that thrive in similar conditions. Since the Shango product is distributed to a wide variety of patients and consumers at nearby dispensaries, a diversity of plants is important. “We try to find similar strains that can handle all the same conditions, so we can have multiple strains in the same room and still get the same yields,” says Hinkson.

5. Start small when making changes. Hinkson says many industry newcomers don’t understand the fickleness of cannabis. “When we’re going to use a new product, for example, we always do a test run on three to five plants,” he says. “We take pictures, make notes and try to notice if there are any adverse effects on the plant. If we were to lose a few plants, it’s not a big deal.”

6. Remember that automation isn’t everything. Most problems that affect the health of cannabis will show within a few hours. Hinkson says it’s easier to see what a plant needs when you get up close and personal. “I feel that the physical, one-on-one connection to your plants, going into the rooms, working with them ... has a positive effect,” he says. Through anecdotal experience, he has learned that the less time he spends in a grow room, the lower the yields when all other factors are equal.

7. Perfect the grow environment first. For better yields, slow down and make sure every condition in your grow environment is perfect before you put the first plant in the room. “Your vegetative stage is a key stage,” says Hinkson. “If you’ve got a poor veg, your yields are not going to be good.”

Smokey’s 420 House Garden City, Colorado

Inside a concrete and corrugated metal building in Garden City, Colo., are three rooms where Smokey’s 420 House grows 18 strains of cannabis for two medical dispensaries and a retail store. The former artist’s studio was modified extensively to meet state regulations for cultivation.

“Since I came on board 18 months ago, our No. 1 mandate has been preventing contamination,” says master grower and grow operations manager Scott Brady. To keep things contaminant-free, Smokey’s eliminated products with paper backing, wood products or drywall, and replaced them with more washable surfaces. Smokey’s also adopted SOG growing methods. Everything is moved and cleaned at once to maintain an immaculate growing environment.

In an industry ripe with regulatory changes, Smokey’s experience with construction, process documentation and quality improvements has provided a good foundation for their expanding business. Here, Brady shares a few hints for getting the most out of a harvest.

8. Have standard operating procedures (SOPs). One careless person can carry powdery mildew on his shoes and jeopardize an entire harvest. Smokey’s addresses this by using SOPs designed to keep workspaces and floors clean. That’s why Brady emphasizes the importance of hiring people with strong work ethics and perfectionist tendencies. When employees are properly trained to develop and observe SOPs on everything from spraying to cleaning, they can have a positive effect on quality and yield. At Smokey’s, written SOPs ensure that everyone follows the same practices every time, Brady says.

9. There are no shortcuts to better yields. “I wish there was a magic bullet that would give us another 5 to 20 percent yield ...,” he says. Being ready to respond to all the variables is perhaps the only universal cultivation rule, in Brady’s opinion. He is an advocate for tending every plant to evaluate its needs.

10. Identify strains with common growing schedules. Smokey’s cultivates plants with three distinct gestations: eight weeks, nine weeks and 10 weeks. Brady and his team are always looking for new strains and have discovered many nine-week strains with similar needs, which could result in healthier plants and better yields. “I’m considering growing all nine-week plants, so we can lose a week of gestation and gain an extra harvest at the end of the year,” he says.

11. Keep fastidious records. Smokey’s tracks temperature, humidity, CO₂ and other factors three times a day. Those records help them understand how small changes affect the grow. Example: Smokey’s experimented with lighting and found a Gavita bulb that offered a slightly bigger lighting footprint than a typical 1,000-watt high pressure sodium bulb without harming yield. “We’re using that data to find the sweet spot for lighting in each room,” Brady says.

Crystal Hammon manages Leading Reads, an Indianapolis company that helps companies create original online content and build relationships with their customers and friends. An aficionado of vintage fashion, Hammon mines the fullest meaning of the word “vintage” at her blog, Dressed Her Days Vintage.

As most cannabis cultivators will attest, managing a successful growing operation requires monitoring several variables and tracking each closely. The key is achieving a constant balance; even just a few degrees in temperature, too much water or too little of an essential nutrient can throw an otherwise healthy plant off course.

“Besides genetics and environment, there is no other greater controlling factor than nutrients,” says Mojave Morelli, director and head of cultivation for Washington-based Grow Op Farms, also known as Phat Panda. “Without regular additions of bioavailable macronutrients N-P-K, you are guaranteed to produce a less vigorous plant yielding far less mass than a plant that has a constant source of food.”

And yield is the most important metric to growers when selecting a nutrient line for their cannabis cultivation operation, according to data from the 2019 “State of the Cannabis Nutrients Market” study. Morelli says he’s seen yield increases of 5% with effective nutrient programs.

In addition to yield, Morelli says the correct balance of nutrients can result in increases in carbohydrates, electrolytes and resin production, in addition to more powerful aromas and a boost in the amount of extractable oil.

Morelli manages Grow Op Farms’ 90,000-square-foot canopy, which includes nine greenhouses, 52 bloom rooms and 140 production strains. Tracking, testing and carefully recording this data is essential for a grower of any size, but especially when working with a large facility with multiple genetics. Ensuring the plants have the food they need is priority No. 1.

Here, Morelli shares seven tips for managing a successful nutrient program, including how to sidestep factors that can derail cultivation operations and how to avoid the most common pitfalls even seasoned growers face.

1. Establish and maintain a clean environment for your cannabis crops. In order for a nutrient program to succeed, cultivators and staff must start with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for proper grow-room hygiene. “The majority of sites we visit have deficits in grow room sanitation,” Morelli says. These include staff wearing outside shoes and clothing in grow rooms and not properly washing their hands when entering and exiting the facility.

Keeping floors swept and free of debris is important, but light fixtures, fans and HVAC systems also must be kept clean and dust-free. “The biggest problems I see across the board are cultivators not building systems for killing harmful bacteria like E. coli, listeria, salmonella, bile-tolerant bacteria, yeast and molds. We also see a lot of air handling equipment and duct work that isn’t being cleaned, ever, nor deodorized.”

2. Choose your nutrient supplier carefully and do your homework. Ask potential companies to provide information about purity, ingredient sourcing, manufacturing practices, shipping and storing practices, Morelli says. Make sure they are using only the highest quality inputs and providing consistent solutions.

“We do a lot of fertilizer trials at Phat Panda, and I can attest to the inconsistency of particular formulas being sold on the market. The last thing a cultivator should be doing is having to worry if they are giving their plants a complete dietary package.”

If growers aren’t sure what an ingredient is, Morelli advises to ask the supplier and do background research. Also, investigate what grade of raw inputs are being used. “Try and find products that use the highest-grade pharmaceutical or equivalent materials,” he says.

3. Use a nutrient with a balanced ratio of inputs. Morelli says though price is important, consider other factors, including ingredients, inputs and the company’s track record. “Don’t just go with a nutrient line because of the price point or [because the company offers] new-to-the-market products,” he says. “We see lots of reformulations after products are released onto the market. Stick with manufacturers who have experience and a proven track record of delivering high-quality inputs.”

4. Mix and apply nutrients and supplements correctly. “I see a lot of growers brewing teas with bat guano and other manures incorrectly,” Morelli says. “These concoctions are watered into the soil and often sprayed on the plant itself. Once product is sprayed, it can be a hotbed for bad bacteria [such as those listed earlier.] These bacteria, which are harmful to humans, can persist from a vegetative stage through the end of flowering and even remaining after drying and curing.”

5. When problems arise, diagnose and simplify. When cannabis shows signs of stress, it’s often something other than nutrients affecting crop performance, Morelli says. Many problems stem from imbalances in environmental conditions or improper irrigation. Check lighting, temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit and CO₂ first before investigating a nutrient program, and keep detailed cultivation records.

“Never make too many [nutrient] changes cycle to cycle,” Morelli says. “The fewer number of variables you have to sort through [the better] when diagnosing plant issues and getting your genetics dialed in. Preventing these issues requires a diligent eye in the garden. Constant contact with the plants will enable you to make quick, corrective decisions to lessen any stress points that can have lasting effects.”

In addition, new plants should be quarantined off-site for two weeks before being introduced into the growing operation.

6. Maintain a healthy root zone. Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to discern whether plant pathology is a result of root-zone failures or nutrient problems, Morelli says, so getting ahead of any problems is key. If the root zone fails, the plant stops functioning and will produce a “dismal crop of mediocre flower at best,” Morelli says.

“Inoculate and don’t over or under water. Use strain-specific microbes and bacteria, as these products often have higher [colony-forming units] than large complex biopacks.”

7. Don’t overcorrect for pH. A proper pH balance is essential because it affects nutrient availability. Because growers know how crucial this factor is, Morelli says many overcorrect when they see any slight changes in levels. “One of the biggest mistakes [that] new and old growers alike [make] is chasing incoming pH and outgoing pH,” Morelli says. “We’ve found that we grow a much healthier, happier plant when we allow our nutrient solution to move a few points in either direction without correction over a 24-hour period. Reading runoff and adjusting according to the results is also problematic as it can be difficult to discern what the results actually mean.”

Plants can readjust their own pH if they aren’t getting the right balance of macro and micronutrients, he adds. Correcting the situation before plants have a chance to adapt can lead to problems, such as nutrient lock out.

Michelle Simakis is editor of Cannabis Business Times and sister publication Cannabis Dispensary.