Cannabis cultivators sink enormous amounts of time, money and effort into their high-value crops. These investments require the right skills, techniques and inputs—light, CO₂, water and nutrients—to pay off.

In this report, you’ll learn how professional growers use nutrients to maximize plant potential, and thereby grow their businesses, in three main ways:

• Increasing yields. We’re talking volume here—scaling production for more sales. To achieve this, you can either grow more plants or make each plant more productive. Or, ideally, you can do both! A powerful bloom booster—in addition to the right lighting, CO₂ enrichment and other cultivation techniques—is crucial for getting the biggest yields possible, resulting in more dry weight per plant.
• Improving quality. You can demand top dollar only if you offer a product unequaled in the marketplace. Your customers value flavor, fragrance, color and, above all, potency. Once again, a superior bloom booster and other flowering supplements, including both a premium plant tonic and an aroma and resin enricher, are what you need. You also need a brand you can trust—nutrients low in heavy metals and other impurities.
• Safeguarding against losses. Your investment and care could get squandered without grow-room hygiene. The roots are especially vulnerable, so inoculate them! If beneficial microbes get a foothold early in your grow, they’ll help to fight off the bad stuff. Other supplements can help your crops stand tall and fight off upper-plant diseases. Finally, deficiencies and burn must be guarded against.

Our mission at Emerald Harvest is to help growers achieve simple, easy success through our streamlined product line. To that end, we’ve positioned ourselves to know all we can about the industry, our products and growers’ needs.

These efforts are made knowing that, in a changing industry, there’s always more to learn. That’s why we chose to support this original research by Cannabis Business Times. Emerald Harvest shares CBT’s mission of educating growers to help their gardens—and businesses—thrive.

We hope you’ll find this report as interesting, informative and helpful as we have.

Our best wishes for your success!

2019 is closing out with the introduction of the cannabis industry as a national player that is on the same level as top Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sectors. Consistent, accessible, approachable products across a raft of formats, tailored to any need or mood-state, are pushing cannabis to the next level.

Here are some of the biggest trends we saw in 2019 and what we can expect in 2020.

Adult-Use Legalization Goes National

2019 witnessed booming markets and market shortfalls as various states sought to pass bills or open adult-use sales, while legalization efforts have sped up considerably across the country. Illinois became the first state to pass adult-use legalization and regulation through legislation, as new Gov. J.B. Pritzker made good on a 2018 campaign promise.

Michigan set up regulations for adult-use and launched sales Dec. 1. Three Ann Arbor dispensaries raked in $221,000 in sales the first day alone, according to The Detroit News.

Massachusetts also opened its doors to adult-use with relative success, while conservative stalwart Oklahoma made the cannabis newswire by opening an extremely relaxed medical market. Oklahoma accepted more than 200,000 patients (which equates to about 5% of the state population) to its program and thousands of dispensaries in what has become one of the hottest markets in the county.

New Markets Same as the Old Markets?

Many long-time industry folks will watch and nod as these new markets encounter the various pitfalls of adult-use legalization: supply shortages, licensing delays, late regulatory changes, and other well-established bugaboos.

That said, there is evidence to suggest that these new markets, and others coming, may not look like the early West Coast openings. Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut met late this year to discuss a bloc legalization strategy focused on common taxation and cooperative regulatory structures. Other states have began to explore possibilities outside of dispensary retail, with Pennsylvania floating a bill permitting delivery on day one, and possible regulatory structures matching its state-run beverage alcohol program.

Meanwhile, Utah abandoned its attempt to establish state-run medical outlets, speaking to the need of legislators and regulators to tailor the rules to their constituents and circumstances.

Products Grow Up

More broadly, the industry saw seismic shifts as technology advancements push edibles to higher levels. Edibles took a huge step forward this year as buzzwords like “nanotechnology,” “bioavailability,” “rapid-onset” and others signaled a maturation in the format. Addressing key weaknesses inherent in edibles, firms have pushed advancements in consistent products with clear and reliable dosages, all of which boost the format as flower share declines continued.

Edible gummy packs have become two of the top three units in sales in California and will hit new market shelves with fully formed, approachable product lines.

As the industry grows and reaches new consumers, it is imperative that new products allay consumer concerns and meet them in new occasions and need-states.

Andy Seeger is the Cannabis Research Manager for Brightfield Group, where he performs quantitative and qualitative analyses of the U.S. medical and adult-use markets.

Many cannabis cultivators refer to the crops in their massive plant canopies as their “babies.” This idea was noted in the December 2017 issue of Cannabis Business Times in a report about plant nutrition: Just like children, cannabis plants depend on the right balance of essential nutrients to grow to their full potential.

And just like children, cannabis needs the right environmental conditions, too. CBT’s 2019 “State of the Cannabis Nutrients Market” includes exclusive research about nutrition best practices and how growers manage this important aspect of cultivation. In addition, the report features a look into how Grow Op Farms’ Mojave Morelli oversees the Washington company’s growing operation, and some of his suggestions for plant health go beyond the nutrients themselves.

His seven tips start with the foundation of the facility: Establish and maintain a clean environment for your cannabis crops. “The majority of sites we visit have deficits in grow-room sanitation,” Morelli says. Nutrition cannot solve sanitation problems or wipe away dust on lights and other fixtures.

Regular CBT columnist Kenneth Morrow echoes Morelli’s advice, kicking off his article, “Cultivation Essentials: 17 Tips for Success” with a reminder about the importance of proper quarantine practices and grow-room hygiene. “Everyone knows, has read or has been told many times over to quarantine clones before introducing them into a pest- and disease-free environment. But I still hear about very large-scale facilities being infected with broad or russet mites due to the introduction of infected clones. Some growers and facility employees also don’t completely decontaminate themselves or change attire after working in a quarantine environment.”

These suggestions from Morelli and Morrow are just a few of the 61 key takeaways you’ll read in CBT’s “Annual Tips Issue.” During the past four years, industry experts have shared more than 400 tips in our December issues, with ideas and advice to help cultivators improve their businesses. But the idea of establishing a clean growing environment stood out, as this was noted several times throughout the issue, including in an article about how to identify cannabis pests.

Your business can use this information and the other tips and research published in this edition to make 2020 its best year yet, and CBT is thrilled to play a part in that. Happy holidays, and see you in 2020.