Botanica cultivates about 20 different flower varietals at its 3,000-square-foot indoor facility in Tucson, Ariz., and it has relied on ARBICO Organics’ beneficial insects since its launch in 2015.

“We love being able to use beneficial predators,” says Botanica’s cultivation manager, Mariah Peters. “We are an organic grow, and we try to stay away from any kind of synthetic pesticides [and] fertilizers. We just want to create a healthy ecosystem, so having ARBICO there helps. It also feels great to work with a company that shares our values of environmental stewardship and striving toward an organic product.”

Botanica uses a variety of ARBICO products as the foundation of its integrated pest management plan. These include green lacewings, beneficial nematodes, ladybugs, Neoseiulus californicus, Encarsia formosa and other types of broad predators to control pests and diseases. Botanica receives weekly shipments from ARBICO to help boost predatory mite numbers and minimize the risk of infestations.

Recently, Botanica noticed the very beginning stages of spider mite activity and contacted ARBICO, who recommended that they use persimilis, which eliminated the threat and prevented any decline in quality and crop loss.

In addition, Botanica has never experienced any serious infestations of damaging pests or diseases, which Peters credits to ARBICO's preventative beneficials and fungicides.

Since no natural predators exist indoors, ARBICO’s products help Botanica create a healthy environment. “Having happy, healthy plants and creating a healthy ecosystem with bugs there [is important],” Peters says. “So, just having happy, healthy plants helps increase our yield and the quality of our products without having anything synthetic on any of our plants. We really take a lot of pride in that.”

Cultivating healthy, organic plants not only allows Botanica to increase yields, but also to sell more products, and ARBICO’s products help increase the company’s profitability through the prevention of crop loss and decreased time spent mitigating pest issues.

“If we can keep the beneficials in there and keep the plants healthy, then we don’t run the risk of having to get rid of a whole crop because … russet mites or broad mites come in [and] just wipe out everything,” Peters says. “I feel like if we have a good natural defense, it just helps increase the profitability and the quality across the board.”

Smart Cannabis and Next Generation Farming Founder, President and CEO John Taylor had tried just about every nutrient product over the years. Yet, when it came to growing cannabis, one company’s product suite consistently produced far greater results: Dyna-Gro®.

After seeing the success, Smart Cannabis/Next Generation Farming partnered with the nutrient solutions company in 2018 with a promise to use and test Dyna-Gro products in its own research greenhouses in conjunction with Next Generation Farming’s SMART App, which allows growers to operate and monitor their smart greenhouse and add Dyna-Gro products remotely. The agriculture technologies and services company even goes a step further by selling and recommending Dyna-Gro full nutritional solutions, such as Foliage-Pro® and Bloom™, as well as its supplemental nutrient formulas, Pro-TeKt® and Mag-Pro® to all its cannabis cultivation clients. “Knowing we’re advising our cannabis growing clients to use the very best nutritional [products], in conjunction with knowing that the Dyna-Gro team is excellent to work with, is a win-win for us,” Taylor says.

There is always risk associated with closely tying your brand to another: If one screws up, it reflects poorly on both. That was never a concern for Taylor and Smart Cannabis, as he explains: “Associating with top-quality products and services is a minimum standard for our overall operations. Including Dyna-Gro nutrients is a natural fit because we only want to affiliate with the best. Knowing [Dyna-Gro is] fastidious when it comes to quality and consistency assures us that they are the best solution for our clients’ current needs.”

If proof is needed, Taylor says, “We’ve never heard a complaint about Dyna-Gro nutrients. In fact, responses have always only been positive.” According to Taylor, use of Dyna-Gro nutrients, especially when used with the SMART App, have increased cannabis yields (and therefore profits) for his clients. “The combination of technology and science-backed nutritional [solutions] produced by Dyna-Gro results in an automatic win for our clients,” he says. But “even without our tools, yields increase. It isn’t just an increase in yields that we’ve experienced, but also an improvement in the quality of crop yields,” which has also, in turn, led to an increase in potency and quality of the company’s extraction products.

Sometimes, though, the best way to increase profits is simply to pinch your pennies. Dyna-Gro’s nutrient solutions help Taylor with that also. “Our own data shows that Dyna-Gro nutrients consistently produce better yields," adding that Dyna-Gro's program is "a more natural cultivation method and saves money,” he says.

Outside of producing highly effective nutritional solutions, Taylor lauds Dyna-Gro for its highly personal customer service approach. “The entire team at Dyna-Gro encourages feedback, is open to ideas, offers feedback constructively and is motivated to be helpful and productive. This never waivers. Dyna-Gro is immediately responsive and always helpful,” the CEO says.

For more than 35 years, Dyna-Gro, touted as The Nutrition Solution®, has been a perennial leader, providing growers with complete, easy-to-use, cost-effective, liquid nutrient concentrates. Its formulas, which contain the 17 essential macro and micro mineral elements plants require for optimal growth, has made the company “one of the most respected names in organic nutrients for horticulture, agriculture and cannabis production,” Taylor says.

Transitioning from single-ended lighting fixtures to double-ended technology can increase yield in an indoor cannabis cultivation facility by about 50 percent, according to Sevan Derohanian, owner/operator of Commercial Grow Supply.

Since converting to Nanolux DE double-ended technology in all its flower rooms in 2015, the company, which operates its cultivation business out of Sun Valley, Calif., as LAHC Collective Inc., has effectively doubled its yields, Derohanian says.

The vertically integrated cannabis operation is headquartered in Clarita, Calif., and Commercial Grow Supply also offers consulting services and operates a hydroponics store. The company replaced the single-ended technology in its grow with Nanolux’s 1,000-watt double- ended fixtures and increased production from 1.5-2 pounds per fixture to 3-3.5 pounds per fixture, he says.

“Coming into the double-ended technology with Nanolux, they provided us with a superb fixture [and] amazing design, … [and] the fixture gives us a much better spread, much more uniformity throughout the crop itself,” Derohanian says.

The double-ended fixtures are also smaller and cost less to replace on an annual basis to remain in optimal condition, he adds. “Where we sit today, our ballast stays the same, our reflector and our bulb changes annually, we are as optimal as optimal gets throughout the years, and for the minuscule cost of $100 annually versus $130 just for bulbs [with single-ended fixtures].”

As Commercial Grow Supply adds an additional 44,000 square feet of indoor cultivation space to its current 28,000 square feet of canopy, Nanolux’s technology has helped decrease its initial investment due to these decreased costs, Derohanian says. More importantly, he adds, are the increased yields and, therefore, increased profits.

“We’re taking the same floor space, same layout, same square footage, and doubling the yield within that same canopy space,” he says.

In its vegetative space, Commercial Grow Supply has implemented Nanolux’s 630-watt ceramic metal halide (CMH) fixtures, which have produced a similar increase in growth, Derohanian says. It has also led to a 37-percent decrease in utility consumption, he adds, as less wattage gives off less heat, which means the company uses less HVAC to maintain the room’s temperature.

“So, in all of our new builds, we’ve saved a significant … amount of initial investment when it comes down to our air conditioning needs and our overall annual electrical consumption,” Derohanian says.

Commercial Grow Supply also uses Nanolux’s lighting controller technology, which allows growers to place a chip in each fixture to control the lighting cycle via Bluetooth or WiFi.

“They have actually improved it significantly by giving the ability [to use] an online app [and] wireless technology, [so there’s] no more running wires in between each fixture, which we would call ‘daisy chaining,’” Derohanian says.

Commercial Grow Supply passes its Nanolux success story on to its clients at its hydroponic garden supply store, he adds.

“I’m happy my cultivation facilities are doing grand, but I’m able to pass that technology over to our clients, which in turn, brings us success through our hydroponic space, as well,” Derohanian says. “We envision our clients are doubling their yields [and] decreasing their monthly overhead, and that’s due to Nanolux.”

When Buzz Pinkham’s wife found relief in cannabis during her battle with breast cancer, Pinkham applied his 40 years of horticulture experience to growing medical marijuana and immediately liked the results of using PittMoss soil mixes.

Pinkham, who holds a degree in plant and soil science from the University of Maine, discovered PittMoss’ products at an industry trade show, and was drawn to the sustainability of using recycled paper in growing media. He also suspected the living soil mixes would allow cannabis plants to better express their cannabinoid and terpene profiles as compared to artificial mixes.

Pinkham operates Pinkhams Plantation Garden and Landscape Center, 12,000 square feet of greenhouse growing space in Damariscotta, Maine. The company grows about 1,000 square feet of cannabis outdoors, as well as 1,400 square feet indoors. Pinkham began incorporating PittMoss growing media into 25 percent to 50 percent of his soil mix, and saw it helped with water management.

“It’s hydrophilic [water-loving] instead of hydrophobic, like many of your peat mixes,” he says. “So, watering is such a joy. You put water on it, and it just soaks it up like a sponge.”

With peat-based mixes, the Smart Pots in Pinkham’s outdoor grow would quickly dry out, he says. “With PittMoss, with the initial watering, it seemed that it held a lot more water, yet it maintained aeration, which allowed great root development. So, it seemed to be a great match for the pots in that it just didn’t dry out as fast.”

Pinkham also uses different PittMoss blends in his greenhouse space, as well as his indoor cannabis grow.

“It seems to have a lot of benefits, and I’m just trying to find how to apply it to my situation,” he says. “Everybody grows differently ... but for somebody looking to tweak their mix, I think the water benefits are great.”

If a plant does begin to wilt, Pinkham adds, PittMoss seems to reduce the permanent wilting point. If he puts water on a wilting plant growing in PittMoss soil, it bounces back, whereas it may not recover with other mixes.

Although PittMoss products may be more expensive than some other soil mixes, their benefits continue to pay dividends throughout the growing cycle through improved water management, rooting and overall performance, Pinkham says. Lab testing on the company’s plants have also shown fuller cannabinoid and terpene profiles, he adds.

“It allows biology to take place in the soil, to a great extent, to allow those things to happen,” Pinkham says.

And while his background in plant and soil science has always left him wanting more out of his growing medium, Pinkham has finally found effective soil mixes in PittMoss.

“I think being a soil geek or knowing about soil is almost a detriment because I’m never really satisfied. I’m always looking to cope with what I have,” he says. “I’ve found PittMoss, and that’s been exciting using it and seeing what it can do.”