Plants use mineral nutrients, including nitrogen (N), to build and supply their cellular chemistry factories. The weight of dried flower is made up largely of these nutrients, plus oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. This gives rise to a prime directive for the flowering stage: Pour on the nutrients.

In addition to being a building-block material, nitrogen is also a constituent of amino acids, which are at the epicenter of organic processes. Whether amino acids are used to create form-giving proteins for new growth, or being moved to the site of the new growth to deliver their nitrogen cargo, the more amino acids produced (and the faster they are produced), the faster biomass is created. Growers, it seems, are really cultivating amino acids.

Driver or Shepherd?

The direct link between nutrients that are given and weight added makes it clear the grower’s goal is to drive as much nutrient uptake as possible. Anything that impedes nutrient delivery to flowers is counter to that goal. And while many growers are timid when it comes to nutrients, the best-yielding growers we’ve seen are consistently those whose media is crusted with dried salts in late flower.

Nutrients, water and time are the grower’s main tools. But, in a business context, time weighs nothing and costs a great deal, while nutrients add weight and are cheap. Remembering that calcium nitrate in a 50-pound bag ends up as 50 pounds of plant and flower biomass, growers don’t want their plant’s grazing - they want to drive every atom of weight-adding nutrients they can into the plant.

Fast and Slow, Long and Short

When managing nitrogen, it’s important to note that feeding with a lot of nitrogen produces faster-growing plants, often with dense vegetative growth, and a little nitrogen produces a smaller, more compact plant with less foliage. Armed with just this knowledge, growers can develop a nitrogen program that delivers plants with a shape, size and potential to deliver so much more yield in a given flower period.

Take, for example, the vertical-rack grower’s challenge to produce high-yielding plants small enough to fit inside the racks; or the grower who likes long branches for trellising and wants them to be supple; or the team that wants to eliminate netting hassles and wants stronger branches. Low nitrogen and precision pruning, and maybe more time, are possibilities for the vertical grow; higher levels rich in ammoniacal nitrogen during transition can deliver suppleness; and more compact plants can be on lower nitrogen doses during the vegetative period to produce self-supporting plants.

Unique situations aside, nitrogen’s control of growth rate affects every cannabis grower, every day. Rapid growth delivers longer internodes that push the flowering sites at each node farther apart, making it more difficult for buds to coalesce into large colas. The same can be said for bud density, as each flower site sprouts not a fruit, but the miniature version of the larger plant structure, and those buds react to nitrogen and growth rate in the same way the veg plant does.

A grower looking for dense buds and big colas should dial back the nitrogen a bit to shrink the internodes and draw the buds closer together. On the other hand, growing in a region where molds and yeasts can pop up at the drop of a hat, fast growth may be helpful by preventing big colas from forming, thus helping to prevent bud rot.

A grower looking for dense buds and big colas should dial back the nitrogen a bit to shrink the internodes and draw the buds closer together.

A Weighty Supporting Cast

Plants depend on more than nitrogen, and every nutrient they utilize plays a key role in the plant’s biological enterprise. Calcium aids in the growth of cell walls, magnesium completes chlorophyll, sulfur participates in numerous organo-chemical reactions, and potassium regulates internal cellular pressure. These minor elements act as catalysts for chemical reactions essential to plant biology. Along the way, all of these nutrients add up to a lot of weight, and phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are the heaviest.

The obvious question is: How much of each of these nutrients are needed at each phase? A practical place to start is to look at successful nutrient products.

One popular premix product line’s recipes are represented in the chart to the left. Think of it as a feed schedule that has been translated into parts per million (ppm) of each nutrient.

The chart shows the ppm content of the major nutrients in each of the recipes we have tested. The veg recipe is used throughout the veg period; flower weeks 1 through 3 (F1-3) are the transition period; and the F6 recipe is used from week 6 until harvest or flush. Volume is measured in ppm, and the mix is expressed as the ratios of each nutrient to nitrogen. The veg formula mix is 1-.9-1.7. For every 100 ppm of nitrogen, the recipe delivers 90 ppm of phosphorus and 170 ppm of potassium. The veg recipe has high phosphorus levels compared to many recipes we have seen, but this aligns with phosphorus’s association with good root development. While the veg phosphorous and potassium levels are clearly elevated over the early-flower recipes, remember that veg light levels are as little as 50 percent of those in flower. So relative to the photosynthetic potential, the phosphorous and potassium levels in veg are very high.

Instead of varying nitrogen in different phases, this manufacturer uses a relatively constant nitrogen level across the plant’s life. This has to do with calcium, but the effect is that the nitrogen throttle has been opened up wide, and the plant is always capable of rapid growth. (Editor’s Note: Background on this and all aspects of cannabis nutrient management can be found in “Cannabis for Capitalists,” written by the columnists and downloadable from Amazon.) But nitrogen needs help for growth to happen, so the manufacturer in this example manipulates the supply of nutrients to match general needs in each phase. The 175-ppm nitrogen level supports rapid veg growth, super-rapid growth in transition and high yields. Phosphorous and potassium levels in the veg formula support root development and rapid veg growth, and the late flower recipe is where those minerals are poured into the plants. The plumping that happens when high levels of phosphorous and potassium are added shows just how much biomass nitrogen can drive when given access to unlimited supplies. That should inspire experimentation to try to find where the nutrient/yield limit is.

In addition to our suggestion that more is better, we also recommend raising phosphorous and potassium levels in week 4, or even 3, to start adding weight sooner and letting time work its magic. The plants are revved up and ready to go, so why wait? The phosphorous and potassium levels to use depend on the growing scheme. Media growers may want to start low and adjust the levels up until salt crusting appears on the media surface, but hydro growers can blast away.

Finding the exact amount of nitrogen and other nutrients that optimize yield, quality and cost remains a task for growers to perform on their plants under their own circumstances.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, How Do Your Nutrients Flow?

Regardless of the nutrient-delivery system used, yields track to nutrient levels. And the inescapable truth is that all cannabis nutrient systems need to deliver the same nutrient levels to produce the same yields. The ability to understand nutrient uptake allows growers to understand whether or not they can turn up the volume any more.

Finding the exact amount of nitrogen and other nutrients that optimize yield, quality and cost remains a task for growers to perform on their plants under their own circumstances. In finding that answer, growers learn how to get the most out of their nutrient dollar. Both container (media) and ebb-and-flow growers can use labs to understand the uptake of all nutrients or see nutrient buildup that may warrant a change in input formulations. Or when reservoir batches no longer deliver the appropriate nutrient levels, this signals replenishment or a fresh start. Once labs have established details of a system, quick electrical conductivity (EC) measurements and/or on-site tissue analysis are available for day-to-day feedback.

We recommend organic growers develop their systems with the help of media nutrient testing. Insight into nutrient activity in their media is very helpful because the gas pedal for organic growers is bio-activity. The more microbes available to convert organic compounds into plant-available nutrients, the more nutrients can be delivered to the plant. Growers can add or limit enzymes, sugars and other additives that affect the rate of bio-activity, and lab analysis of the media shows them how bio-activity affects nutrient delivery rates. Organic growers are amino acid farmers too; they just start a little further back in the process.

You can’t hide low or high nitrogen. Plants reliably reflect the grower’s timidity or boldness. A veg fertilizer test we monitored included sending media samples to the lab, and the results showed nitrogen levels running at 30 ppm, and magnesium and potassium levels grossly exceeded typical levels for that growth phase. Compare 30 ppm of nitrogen to the 175-ppm veg level we just examined, and you can guess how well the test plants did. After the recipes were tweaked, the numbers fell in line with typical veg levels and growth increased.

Without nitrogen, plants would have everything they need to exist except the life to assemble them. Use it wisely and be rewarded with increased control and higher yields.

As more large-scale greenhouse operations enter the rapidly maturing cannabis industry, it is increasingly important to properly assess the benefits greenhouses may offer your business. Cannabis Business Times reached out to experts in the cannabis and greenhouse industries for these tips – with more to follow in Part II of this special feature in the next issue – on navigating greenhouse options, optimizing structures and preparing for what’s ahead:

Dave Bishop

Sales Director

Conley’s Greenhouse

Manufacturing

Montclair, Calif.

1. Choose the right structure for your location.

“Location is everything. ... In many urban areas, you may be required to have engineered stamped plans in order to build the greenhouse. You can’t just purchase any over-the-counter or catalog greenhouse and expect it to pass the requirements.

“In rural areas, you may not be required to have engineered stamped plans, but you still want your greenhouse to withstand [regional] wind and snow loads. Most greenhouse companies are familiar with what will work in your area. Make sure your provider warranties the house they sell you for snow and wind.”

2. Realize how location affects cooling.

“Many people do not take the conditions of their location into account. For example, in certain areas of Colorado, evaporative cooling is not needed because it rarely heats up to 90 degrees. However, in most of the rest of the state, evaporative cooling is absolutely critical for optimum production because of extreme heat or the solar heat gain in high elevation.

“In areas where temperatures do not reach high degrees, natural ventilation is sufficient. Simply having roll-up curtains to allow air in and ridge vents at the greenhouse peak to allow heat to escape is sufficient. ... In many coastal areas, the humidity level is too high for evaporative cooling to work effectively. A system of cooling air without creating more humidity works in these environments.”

3. Don’t skimp on control systems.

“It’s important to have the correct control system for your greenhouse and well worth the additional money to have all fans, heaters, cooling, lights, etc., working on one controller. Many times, no one will be in the greenhouse. You want to be sure that everything will function properly when no one is there. Additionally, it is well worth the money to have an alarm function on your controller that will alert you on your mobile phone or land line if there is a problem. This crop is one of the most expensive crops grown. It is not worth saving a few dollars to jeopardize [it].”

J. Paul Brentlinger

President and

Co-Owner

CropKing, Inc.

Lodi, Ohio

4. Focus on engineered structures.

“Too many companies are looking to profit off the boom in the industry by selling bent steel without having it engineered for proper wind and snow loads given the area. This has become a game even among some more respected greenhouse companies that apply snow and wind loads based on a heated greenhouse. Non-engineered structures are typically going to be less expensive than a company that employs engineers to design and examine their structures and ensure they stand up to X miles per hour of winds and a certain amount of snow load. A stronger greenhouse means more steel, and that means more money.”

5. Understand the terminology.

“Given the age of this legal industry ... many people confuse the term ‘greenhouse’ and think it includes anything made out of bent steel and plastic cover. When we discuss greenhouses, we’re referring to CEA, or Controlled Environment Agriculture, which indicates we are using additional equipment to apply as much control as possible on the growing environment. These computer controllers can range in price from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands.”

6. Move toward higher-end CEA.

“The reason we go into a greenhouse is because it gives us a level of control. The greater control you have, the more you control variable costs over the years you’re in business. You’ll pay [over time] for buying a cheaper greenhouse because you won’t be able to control your environment. ... Make sure you have the proper equipment, which would include a high-quality environmental controller that can control heat, cooling, humidity, fertigation, lighting and light deprivation. Integrate it, so you can have a dashboard of what’s going on in your environment.”

Paul Golden

CEA engineer

Nexus Greenhouse Systems

Northglenn, Colo.

7. Passive or mechanically operated?

“One of the first questions to ask yourself when choosing a structure is: Do I want a passively designed greenhouse or a mechanically operated greenhouse? … It is essential to take into consideration the variability of weather in the region.

“For example, a passive greenhouse with roof (or side) vents might be appropriate if the grower is building a greenhouse in a dry Mediterranean climate. [But if a region’s outdoor temperature] exceeds the desired greenhouse temperatures, then a passive house is not ideal, and the grower should consider a greenhouse with mechanical cooling. With mechanical cooling, a grower can achieve indoor temperatures below outdoor temperatures when desired. You [can] combine passive cooling and mechanical cooling, but most commonly one system is chosen.”

8. Control humidity.

“Many people improperly believe that roof vents are necessary to eliminate unwanted humidity in the greenhouses. Although roof vents do aid in managing humidity during the day, they are often of little value for dehumidifying when the light deprivation system is closed at night. Light deprivation curtains do not allow moisture to leave the area below the curtain (where the plants are) when they are closed in a passively cooled design.

“It is most important to maintain proper humidity levels during blackout hours to prevent mold. ... Most growers choose to use mechanical ventilation to provide dehumidification to the greenhouses both in the day and night. ... Mechanical venting should be used in combination with heating the replacement air to further reduce the humidity levels.”

9. Control odor.

“If cannabis odors are of concern, then a mechanically cooled greenhouse system prevails over a passively cooled greenhouse system. In particular, a negative-pressure system performs the best. Both positive-pressure and passively vented greenhouses have air (and odors) escaping from multiple locations throughout the structure. Negative pressure greenhouses have all of the exhaust air coming out from a point source (the exhaust fans). It is very easy to odor mitigate the smells of a cannabis cultivation facility if the source of those smells is an exhaust fan. It is very challenging to odor mitigate if the source of the smells is from a set of vents.”

10. Understand the pros and cons of passive versus mechanical ventilation.

“It is important to understand the benefits and downfalls of passive versus mechanically vented greenhouses to avoid the pitfalls with each. Mechanically cooled greenhouses do use slightly more energy than a passive greenhouse, but far less energy than a warehouse. Many passive greenhouse systems were not designed with cannabis in mind. Mechanically vented greenhouses offer a greater degree of control and are easier to odor mitigate.”

Chris Dayboll and Leigh Coulter

Sales Representative, Cannabis Division/President GGS Structures, Inc. Vineland Station, Ontario

11. Understand license parameters.

“Determining the total square footage is normally based on the [state cultivation] license, which either allows you to grow a certain number of plants or gives you a square footage allowance. If you are in a state with license by plant count, then you need to think about how you are going to space your plants. If you have a square-footage allowance, remember that is the square footage of the canopy, so a 30,000-square-foot license will generally build around a 40,000-square-foot greenhouse, factoring in aisle space and other working areas.”

12. Optimize harvesting; eliminate inefficiencies.

“You want to determine the veg/flower balance to optimize harvesting, and [whether] you will be moving plants from veg room to flower room or ... are going to eliminate the operating inefficiencies of transporting plants by investing in rooms that will convert from veg to flower and back to veg as your cycle demands. Note that if your license is by square footage, you will likely want to go with moving plants since you can significantly increase plant density in veg rooms. Generally 20 to 30 percent of the space is in vegetation. In a greenhouse, rooms are called zones, and they are easily achieved by constructing inside walls between the post lines.”

13. Get the total picture.

“Look at the design layout of the greenhouse, which is the style of greenhouse, overall length, width, and the size and shape of the zones inside. For this, it is important to work with a greenhouse manufacturer that has lots of experience with cannabis. ...

“[Avoid] falling victim to the cookie cutter ‘this is a cannabis greenhouse’ mentality. There is no one-solution-fits-all in greenhouse cultivation. There are certain elements in every greenhouse growing cannabis, however. The size, layout, style of greenhouse, choice of heating and cooling systems, and structural load-bearing considerations are all factors of where you are growing and how you are growing.”

14. Let features simplify growing.

“Within the greenhouse structure design, there are a few features that can make it easier for growers:

• Square and rectangular post material is easier for construction than round shapes, which require clamps for connections. Sidewalls and inside walls connect easier to the flat surface of a square post.
• Hot dipped galvanized steel is the industry leader for corrosion protection.
• Because light deprivation is so important for getting the most out of your cannabis crop, it is an advantage to have a flat energy truss below the gutter for the light deprivation curtain to attach straight across. Curtains can be installed on an angle, but if the greenhouse is designed with a flat surface for the curtains, it is better. The truss below the gutters also leaves the attic area in the peak open, which helps with ventilation, and increases the amount of light that gets to the crop.
• Pick roof and sidewall glazing materials that maximize the natural light within considerations of budget and any code requirements.”

Nic Easley

Chief Executive Officer

3C Comprehensive Cannabis

Consulting

Denver, Colo.

15. Embrace the lessons of agriculture.

“When looking into greenhouse cultivation, many growers came from small cannabis [with] illicit market experience, which they scaled and ramped up into legal production in warehouses. They’ve never done good agricultural practices (GAPs) or good manufacturing practices (GMPs), or even best management practices (BMPs) for greenhouse cultivation. I’d … look to outside agricultural experts and industries, other than just thinking we’re going to grow in a greenhouse just like we grew in a warehouse, and it’s going to be the same. That’s absolutely not the case – for how you cultivate plants in vegetative state, how you train plants for maximum canopy control, or how much soil, water and nutrients are required for adequate production and growth.

“... If you embrace the lessons of agriculture … versus just the cannabis industry, it will make your cannabis operation that much stronger, more productive, compliant and profitable. Focus on looking for time-tested ag wisdom, and [merge it with] the best of cannabis knowledge … to make cannabis agriculture your new focus.”

16. Know your location and match it.

“When it comes to agriculture, location is everything. Let’s say you’re trying to put a greenhouse in the bottom of a valley that doesn’t have a very good sun window, for example. In the northern hemisphere, we need to have a great south-facing exposure. If you don’t have that and you put it down in the shaded valley, you’re going to be losing an hour of your direct sun in the morning and an hour of direct sun in the evening. So you want to make sure you have that great active solar window.

“Match your greenhouse design to the climate that you’re building in, instead of trying to take your plan and your idea, and force it on a location. It’s just not going to work unless you build that building specifically for that agricultural zone, knowing the frost-free days, and knowing that with light deprivation and light augmentation, how much light needs to be augmented in the morning or in the evening in the winter time, as well as how much needs to be limited at summer solstice in the morning or the evenings.”

17. Don’t overlook the potential of a greenhouse.

“When I say the term hybrid, four-season greenhouse, I mean that’s a greenhouse that does light augmentation in the winter. Then in the summer, there are automated curtains that close and limit the light when the days are really long. Also, there are systems that control ventilation, light intensity, heated floors and CO2 enrichment. These are done from computer programs and sensors that monitor and control these items for you.

“I’ve seen greenhouses built where they’re just hoping to do their summer crops and just do light deprivation because they don’t want to have the additional cost of light augmentation. But light augmentation would give them an extra two-plus harvests over just doing light deprivation alone. So they’re not looking to fully capitalize on these four-season models. They’re concerned about the cost of heating and additional technology, and think that it’s going to cost more, but that’s just a common misconception.

“The right technology – not just more technology, but appropriate technology – goes a long way in cannabis. They’re overlooking the true potential of a greenhouse by just looking at it as a summer hoop house or a summer flowering greenhouse versus a hybrid, four-season greenhouse.”

18. Don’t be left behind.

“If you’re looking to stay profitable, if you’re looking to stay relevant, if you’re looking to produce the highest-quality [product] for patients or for adult-use consumers, greenhouse and eventually outdoors will be the way this is done. Indoors is just temporary while the industry establishes because the industry came from an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality. The only reason we know how to do indoors is because we went inside to hide, and to most growers, that is all they knew. ...

“The average cost nationwide to produce a pound of indoor finished product, all in – that’s marketing, branding, security, compliance, nutrients, every cost included – is about $983 for an indoor pound. Greenhouse is anywhere from a little below $100 to $215, depending on methodology and location. Prices are going down because there are more and more large-scale producers that are producing and flooding the market with an abundant high-quality supply. If [growers are] not looking to greenhouse and thinking about scaling up [their] operation and redesigning, it’s just a matter of time until people get put out of business unless they embrace agriculture and refine their methodology.”

Tom Vezdos

Vice President

Commercial Division

Rough Brothers, Inc.

Cincinnati, Ohio

19. Don’t try to apply indoor concepts.

“Many growers try to take what they know and how they grow indoors and apply the same concepts to a greenhouse. For example, they try to create small rooms or segmented zones in the greenhouse because they’re used to growing in a building that has rooms. They don’t realize it adds a lot of cost to your greenhouse design by breaking it up and forcing those zones to occur when it’s not really needed. When they go to a greenhouse, they need to think large-scale, wide-open – which makes it much more cost effective.”

20. Understand solar energy variables.

“Indoor growers sometimes struggle with understanding the amount of solar energy that’s given by the sun and how that affects plants. They’re used to very steady-as-she-goes light. They turn the lights on; it’s constant at 8 a.m., and it’s constant at 5 p.m., all the way through the day.

“[With a greenhouse], at peak times, they need to make sure to provide enough nutrients and water to accommodate that higher spike in solar radiation or higher photosynthesis. They have to account for both seasonality and the times of the day.”

21. Know your system limitations.

“Growers need to understand good, better, best systems in greenhouses and how they affect crop quality. If they try to take a design out of the Southwest and put it into the Southeast or the Northeast or the Northwest, it doesn’t work the same. Remember, a greenhouse uses the external environment to help manage the internal environment. If you don’t know your external environment and what its effects are going to be, it’s going to create some chaos inside — if you’re trying to lower humidity in a greenhouse, for example, but the humidity outside is just as high as inside.

“There are different systems and different levels of systems that can handle all these issues. They become more costly the more control you want to have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year.

“Often the greenhouse structure is only 25 percent of the total cost of a cannabis facility. The environmental systems will be the majority of your costs, not the structure.”

About the Author: Jolene Hansen is a freelance writer based in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. A former horticulture professional, she is a frequent contributor to the Horticulture Group publications owned by Cannabis Business Times’ parent company, GIE Media.

The cannabis industry is growing up. As businesses expand and scale production, leading cultivators continue to adopt best practices commonly seen in more traditional agricultural and manufacturing operations. Cannabis Business Times recently spoke with several leaders in their respective markets to find out which business decisions had the greatest impact on their growth, as well as the lessons they learned along the way.

John Knapp

Founder and CEO

Good Meds

Denver, Colo.

1. Best Decision: Bring extraction in-house.

In early 2016, John Knapp decided to bring his company’s extraction process in house. Previously, Good Meds was outsourcing extractions for its various wax, shatters and oils to a third-party processor.

“We were spending, depending on the month, between $40,000 and $60,000 a month on our processing fees,” he says.

Knapp made the move after the City of Denver decided not to extend a moratorium on issuing extraction licenses. Prior to the measure, Knapp was looking at $250,000 to $300,000 to purchase a license from an existing operation.

Once he was up and running, Knapp cut his monthly extraction costs to about $10,000.

“That has helped us grow that line of business substantially,” he said. “Before [extracts] were about 30 percent of our revenue, and now it’s about 60 percent of our revenue.”

Since bringing the extraction process in house, Good Meds has doubled its profit margins and boosted yields, as well as quality, Knapp says.

2. Lesson Learned: Find the right consultant and vet them properly.

Unfortunately, for Knapp, bringing extraction in house was initially a struggle.

Good Meds hired a consultant who sold the company equipment that didn’t perform up to Good Meds’ standards, Knapp says, which caused start-up delays and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in additional processing fees.

“It really slowed our growth on that product line, so we’re still in a battle with them to get some of the money back that we paid,” Knapp says. “Even just recently, we found out that when the weather got cold that they didn’t properly set up the furnace that was part of our extraction booth, so that shut us down for another three weeks.”

Knapp advises that growers do their homework when seeking a consultant.

“Get references and make sure they are who they say they are because there are a lot of people in the industry who claim they’re experts, but they don’t have the experience to say they are true experts,” he says.

Aaron Justis

President

Buds & Roses Collective

Studio City, Calif.

3. Best Decision: Focus on quality over quantity.

Buds & Roses Collective has 26 High Times Medical Cannabis Cup awards, according to the company’s president, Aaron Justis. The accolades are a reflection of the company’s focus on quality, he says, which is a leading factor in their success.

For Justis and his business partner, Tyler Wadleigh, cultivation is a labor of love. “It just so happens that myself and my partner, who runs the grow, love high-quality cannabis,” Justis says. “We’re just focused on cultivating the best cannabis we can.”

Bringing high-quality cannabis to market starts with the application of plant-based nutrients, Justis says. The company also tests leaves to determine nutrient levels in the plants, and tests the soil to see what nutrients are, or are not, available in the soil. “We also do runoff tests, which tells us what nutrients are falling out of the pots when we feed. We use all of this data to readjust the feeding in order to have the healthiest plants,” says Justis.

The team also observes the plants throughout their life cycles and tries to acquire the best and rarest genetics, he says.

The company doesn’t use pesticides, which leads to lower yields (plants are killed off if affected by pests), but this pays off with higher profits and a better customer experience, Justis says. Buds & Roses can charge up to 50 percent more per pound for certain flowers than the average-priced cannabis in California because of the quality, he says.

“That’s a key to our success, and we’ve been able to not always have as much product as [other] people, but have the highest of quality, and we get top dollar for our product,” Justis says.

4. Lesson Learned: Focus on yields per square foot and study basic manufacturing practices.

“When it comes to cultivation, and you’re building out your grow, you want to build your facility so it’s efficient for your needs,” Justis says. “A lot of people talk about how much yield they got per light of cannabis, and it’s really about how many dollars you’re pulling in per square foot, per year in your facility.”

While Justis initially measured yield per light, he says that focusing on square footage maximizes use of floor space.

“That was the only thing we thought about for years – a pound and a half per light, etc., but that means nothing if you’re not flipping the rooms, re-harvesting and doing it over and over again, as many times a year as possible,” he says.

Measuring per square foot helped Justis realize where inefficiencies were occurring, and he responded by reconfiguring rooms so there was always adequate space for clones, vegetation, harvesting, drying and curing, he says.

“You need to plan accordingly to be as efficient as possible, so you’re not having a room that’s not used because it’s waiting,” Justis says. “It’s basic manufacturing production rules that go way beyond cannabis, and you want to study those.”

Tim Cullen

CEO

Colorado Harvest Company

Denver, Colo.

5. Best Decision: Create a test room.

Don’t be afraid to experiment, says Colorado Harvest Company’s Tim Cullen.

Cullen has a 1,000-square-foot room dedicated to experiments, which can range from testing new lights to nutrients or environmental controls. Cullen applies some of the skills he possessed as a former biology teacher to identify new approaches to cultivation.

“I’m comfortable doing the scientific method and taking the time that it takes to perform and test certain variables,” he says.

As of January, he has been testing different methods to improve utilization of square footage in the rooms, including the use of rack systems that are on casters.

“We’re doing different experiments with the layout of the rooms, and if we can get good results out of those, we’ll change the entire grow,” he says.

One experiment that produced positive results involved testing different lighting systems. Through the test, Cullen discovered he could produce an extra half-pound of dried, cured flower per light. After a year-and-a-half of testing, Cullen replaced his entire lighting system with a double-ended Gavita bulb and hood.

“I like to think of [cultivation as] similar to how physicians and attorneys do their trade,” Cullen says. “Nobody ‘does’ law; they ‘practice’ it. That’s exactly what indoor plant production is, too. It’s a practice – not an exact science. There are always things that can be done to increase the production.”

6. Lesson Learned: Avoid too many cooks in the kitchen, and learn to scale with a personal touch.

“When you have too many people who all think they have the right answer, you end up with other issues like the infighting, and people are not excited about coming to work anymore,” Cullen says.

Instead, Cullen identified one highly qualified leader and then hired others who buy into that person’s system.“It’s much easier to run a facility when one person is clearly in charge,” he says.

Having quality people in place becomes increasingly important as a cultivator scales up, he adds. Knowing how to grow a few plants in your basement doesn’t make you immediately qualified to produce at a commercial level, Cullen says. “It’s much more difficult at a larger scale to produce that same quality of product,” he says.

Growers need to understand how to handle larger volumes of plants, Cullen says. Still, no matter how much automation is in place, plants still need the hands-on care to ensure a high-quality product, he adds.

“Think of them as little people,” he says. “If you walk into a room and you think it’s too hot, it’s too hot for the plants. If you think it’s too cold, it’s too cold for the plants. So being able to provide that same level of care to a large number of plants is a lot of it.”

Will Denman

President

Solstice

Seattle, Wash.

7. Best Decision: Learn from other industries.

The cannabis industry is still relatively new, which creates challenges for growers who are trying to adopt best practices. Denman and his partner, Alex Cooley, realized their operation would benefit if they built their team with professionals from similar industries.

“We’re industrializing cannabis,” Denman says. “That means we have to think about what this looks like in 10 years and start making decisions based on that vision today. People who bring experience from other industries that have gone through … that process have an easier time digesting that. This mindset has completely changed the way we look at and measure the business.”

Solstice has a full-time staff of 71. Key personnel include employees with experience in the alcohol and horticulture industries.

“The key was shifting the mindset from needing team members who had great cannabis experience to targeting individuals with experience in similar areas, like plant sciences for production staff and alcohol for sales staff,” Denman says.

8. Lesson Learned: Get help and build the right team.

In the early years, Denman and Cooley tried to do everything themselves. They quickly realized that trying to run a commercial-scale grow operation with two people wasn’t feasible.

“We built our first facilities, kept the books, grew the plants and sold products into dispensaries,” he recalls. “We kept our support staff relatively small.”

The pair then decided that to scale production they needed to build the right team. “It can be tough and expensive to find good people, but when you do, they’re game changers,” Denman says.

They focused on building a “dream team” and wooed top talent by offering attractive benefit programs and incentive programs. “What you realize once you’ve brought on a few talented people is that you weren’t nearly as good as you thought,” he says. “It’s humbling and reassuring all at once. The team we have today is the main reason for our success.”

DNA Genetics exemplifies the modern cultivation business — one that was attracted to the industry out of a love for the plant and now carefully balances the culture of the cannabis community with a hugely successful, global business. Since opening in 2003, the company, owned by brothers Don and Aaron, has grown to approximately 40 employees and has operations in California, Amsterdam, Canada and Chile.

DNA has a track record with which few can compete — including more than 150 awards for their genetics and induction into the High Times Seed Bank Hall of Fame in 2009. And recently, the duo has been forging a new track, not only with their thriving seed company, but through a consulting business that has already landed them a partnership with Canadian cannabis titan Tweed, Inc. (a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation).

“We have added an award-winning global powerhouse in breeding and genetics, acclaimed for the unique strain profiles their cannabis possesses," said Tweed President Mark Zekulin in a press release announcing the partnership in October 2015. According to the release, “The only place where Canadian patients will be able to acquire true, certified DNA strains grown to DNA standards will be Tweed.”

Here, Don and Aaron are interviewed by one of the most well-known names in cannabis cultivation, Mel Frank. Frank has nearly five decades of cultivation experience, is an internationally recognized marijuana book author, publisher and photographer, and has been contributing original articles to cannabis magazines since 1976.

In this revealing interview, Frank talks with Don and Aaron about the origins of and current state of the international seed market, genetics and the future of patents in the industry, why the hype around THC is misguided, an announcement the team makes publicly here for the first time, and more.

Mel Frank: From my understanding, the commercial seed industry began in earnest in Amsterdam in the early ’80s when Skunkman Sam brought seeds of five California cultivars to Amsterdam. Sensi Seeds was the main beneficiary and became a huge company. It's rumored they were bringing in $50 million to $60 million a year in seed sales.

I know the five strains my colleague Skunkman Sam brought, and for almost 30 years, a large majority of the cannabis seeds sold had genetics inherited from those five — namely, Skunk #1 and Haze, which were Skunkman's, my Afghani #1 and Durban Poison, which I donated, and Hindu Kush from another breeder.

Don: Before Sam came to town with his varieties, Amsterdam was predominantly known just for hashish and exotic hashish from all over the world. Amsterdam wasn’t an herb culture until Skunkman brought his seeds.

Aaron: And that brought the new culture, that of smoking and growing high-quality marijuana, to Europe.

Frank: When and where did DNA Genetics begin?

Aaron: We really began as DNA in Amsterdam [in] about 2003.

Frank: But the seed industry was well-established by then.

Aaron: Yes, very well-established.

Frank: How did DNA become as successful as it has, given that you came late to the plate?

Don: It’s funny because we felt we did come late, but in some [people’s] perspective now, we’re considered old-school or OG. ... And perspective is everything because it's another generation, and the whole industry has blossomed in the last 10, 15 years.

It’s been crazy in the last five years, and it’s propelled everything in a way where we’re looked at as old-school among hundreds of new seed companies. So I guess it does make us one of the originals, but we weren’t one of the original originals (laughs).

Aaron: What made us different is, just like Sam the Skunkman, he was a California guy, and for some reason, I think there's something about us Californians, we love our cannabis. And when we grow, first it's for ourselves, and I think that’s the mentality Don and I came to Amsterdam with — that is, we’ll bring our love for the plant, and the Dutch will see that.

We felt that the cannabis scene was way behind California compared to its reputation and the way it actually was. Those were two different things, and we felt we could make a big change there, and we did. We showed the quality of what us California boys could do.

Don: Sam the Skunkman came to town in the ’80s, and then we came to town in the early 2000s, and we had our varieties, but they’re different than Sam's. There’s still a place for the Hazes and the Skunks, and they’re still used in a lot of our different crosses, but it's evolving. And I think we were the next generation, carrying the torch, so to speak.

Frank: I think that some of your success comes from the fact that what is being sold from DNA is what it’s supposed to be and, with no regulation, a lot of [other business’s] seeds sold are falsely labeled with popular names. But you guys have credibility. DNA must have won hundreds of Cannabis Cups. Do you know how many you've won?

Don: I would say somewhere between 150 and 200. We stopped entering cups ourselves as a company.

Frank: But you see your strains entered by other people?

Don: Well, that’s it. In the beginning, we wanted to win as much as we could. … And then once you've won everything, what's better as a genetics company or breeder than to be at a competition and have somebody else win with a strain that they grew with seed from your company?

Frank: I think that’s the epitome of it. It's when somebody else does it with your genetics.

Tangie is so well-known, and you’ve got Lemon Skunk, LA Confidential, Chocolope and loads of others that are industry standards. But I think that your presence at cups also helped your success. You’ve put yourselves out there.

Aaron: Back to what you said earlier about quality and our reputation. Our biggest thing has always been quality. We don’t care about being sold out. We don’t care about the bottom line. ... What matters most is making sure that we give our customers quality products.

Frank: And now that the industry is becoming commercialized and facilities are being built that cost millions, it doesn’t matter how much money is invested if you don’t start with good seed. For any grower, genetics has to be their first consideration before any seed is sown.

In this industry, there are three kinds of seeds: regular seeds, which yield approximately equal numbers of males and females; feminized seeds, which yield all females; and the autoflower seeds.

The autoflower market doesn’t seem to be strong in the United States. Apparently in Europe it is, and I can understand the benefit of autoflowers in that you can grow several crops a year easily because the plants are going to start flowering in a matter of what, six to eight weeks, no matter what the photoperiod is.

Don: In Europe there’s a huge market for autoflowers for exactly [the reason] you said. You can get several crops a year. …

Autoflowers also are valuable for starting by new cultivators because tons of people are curious about growing, and autoflowers are easier with such a short growing period.

Frank: What proportion of the market is feminized seeds? Don't they cost about twice as much as regular seeds?

Aaron: We’ve always charged more for our regular seeds than we did for our feminized seeds. Because if we sell you a pack of regular seeds, you'll grow them and find a male and a female, and you’ll never come back to DNA again; you might even start your own seed company.

Frank: [Laughs.] That’s what I always thought about the seeds. I just didn’t understand how it was sustainable. But one big advantage you guys must have ... is that don’t you use certain males that you keep for propagating? You know that this male is always going to produce an excellent cross.

Aaron: Yeah.

Frank: It’s harder to find a good male than it is a female, right?

Aaron: Absolutely, because males are trial and error. Sometimes when you’re doing breeding, maybe the first male you used wasn’t the best, and then you have to find a better one. Males are the hardest and, yes, you hold on to your prize males for breeding F1s. F1s to me are everything. So as the breeder, I have the original parents. Nobody else has what I have.

“… People are all hung up on these THC percentages, but they don’t take into account stuff that they’re not measuring, the mixtures of terpenes and terpenoids that affect the taste, psychoactive high and medicinal properties.” — Don, DNA Genetics

Frank: So what proportion of the global market breaks down in terms of autoflower and feminized, and standard seeds? And I know that you use retailers and don't sell to any place that's not legal.

Don: I would say 90 percent of the seeds we sell globally are feminized and 5 percent are autoflower. Here in the States, it seems that people gravitate more toward regular seed.

Frank: So it seems then that Americans are more willing to try their own breeding and find a special phenotype.

Don: Yeah, it’s a different environment. People in the States are risking a lot. So they’d rather be more creative and have a chance to maybe keep a male, or do their own crosses, or try to find something special. In Europe, it’s a different mentality. Except for hardcore growers who still want to breed, the majority don't want to.

Frank: What do you think about the emphasis on THC quantities, where I see these unbelievable figures and claims that everything is over 20 percent, up to 30, and that's what people base their choices on?

Don: Fourteen percent is pretty much the standard, and people are all hung up on these THC percentages, but they don’t take into account stuff that they’re not measuring: the mixtures of terpenes and terpenoids that affect the taste, psychoactive high and medicinal properties.

I think the California market is the most sophisticated in the world … where most consumers are well-aware of the drippings, and of course fragrance and flavor, and how much they have to do, ultimately, with the high, whereas some of the newer markets are still absolutely stuck on what percentage of THC is claimed.

I mean, you don’t ever go to a bar and say give me the ... highest-percentage whiskey you have. That's being ignorant.

Frank: That's a good analogy because that does happen in the cannabis industry all the time, where [people] go into a dispensary and say, oh no, I just want the one with the highest THC.

Don: It’s a problem rampant throughout the industry. It'll take some time for the industry to reeducate and begin to say, ‘I don't care how strong the whiskey is. I want something that tastes good, something I enjoy,' just like wine or cigars or any other connoisseur product, and that’s what cannabis is.

Frank: I think the connoisseur-quality flower business will be here for a long time. It'll just be a smaller piece of the pie.

Don: Absolutely.

Frank: One thing I wanted to ask about is your relationship with [Dave] Crockett and Crockett [Family] Farms.

Don: [Crockett] is a friend and our business partner, and he has a whole bunch of great stuff [genetics], and he needed a platform and … an industry launch, and he could have done it all by himself, but it might have taken him longer. So we teamed up and kind of gave him his breakthrough in Europe and also gave him a global platform, but then his genetics speak for themselves.

Crockett Family Farms is its own thing, and DNA is its own thing. … But we share a lot, and we do a lot of projects together. We started a consulting company together. And this would be the first time we have said publicly that Crockett and DNA have a consulting company.

Frank: What do you consult on?

Don: On everything. For example, Aaron and I have been consulting in different legal markets for a while now, and some of the markets need everything — I mean everything. But some just need a … few adjustments.

We can consult from making a few tweaks up to full licensing deals with genetics and strain verification [to] full builds of greenhouses and construction, and design. Everything.

We’ve been approached at our European branch by companies in Australia, India, Macedonia. A lot of countries are getting involved in legal cannabis and its medicine.

With Crockett, another head is better than two, so we put our three heads together, and then we have our fourth partner Nick [Luhowy], who is known as Phenotype Farmers. All together we have a pretty dynamic group.

By the end of the year, we should have around 15 U.S. employees and our first contract, an exclusive contract in California. So we’re definitely excited about this because, for us, consulting is easy. It’s not new information. We already know it.

Frank: As it is now, it's very difficult practically and legally to actually trademark or patent cannabis cultivars. We can identify cultivars with certainty by their terpene profiles, and that's one tool breeders will use to claim ownership. But trademarks and patents in this industry are a mess because of the [federal] illegality of it all, and because so much is now in the public domain. Have you talked to your lawyers or thought about [this] and what it’s going to be?

Don: It’s an interesting time because nobody knows exactly where to invest their energy because everyone’s afraid. At least we are. We’re afraid of making bad decisions or of Monsanto or another company coming in and just absorbing the whole industry.

We did something with genetic sequencing a few years ago where we genetically sequenced the first cannabis strain with a gentleman named Kevin McKernan from, what was the name of his company?

Frank: Medicinal Genomics?

Don: [Yes.] That would be a way, but it’s way too expensive, and no one would be able to tell exactly that it's my strain.

Frank: Well, genetic sequencing has become much, much cheaper in the last few years, where whole sections of genetic sequences can be done at once, cheaply, rather than trying to wade through genes one at a time.

Don: Totally, but they are putting markers in now as well — so they’d put a marker within their own genetics, and that’s the patent. All that stuff is a little bit scary to us.

Because you don’t really know what can happen. I think it comes down to brand and branding, and you also have the community. The cannabis community is a unique association. … We’re coming out of the dark, just now getting legitimized. We still don’t have banks and business legitimacy. But I don’t see a situation where all of a sudden this community is just going to buy into [a] Monsanto's [hypothetical] brand of Kosher Kush or Chocolope, when DNA is right here saying that’s our Chocolope.

Maybe in 10 or 20 years from now it’s going to be those who dug deep who are going to survive, but that’s why you make your partnerships and, yes, where you don’t sell your soul.

Frank: I think [there is] one thing that protects the public from monopolized genetics — to get great seeds out there so that once out, the genie is out of the bottle. Great seeds are in peoples' hands, [in the public domain].

No big company will ever be able to monopolize good genetics. ...

But on the other hand, for companies like DNA, yeah, I think that Big Agra and Big Pharma are going to be formidable competition, and one thing that will help DNA’s longevity is simply that you’ve branded yourselves very well, and are well thought of in the community, and that should carry you for a long time.

Don: Well, we just want to keep doing what we say and say what we're doing.