
Name: Marco Malatrasi
Location: Tampa Bay, Fla.
Title: Director of Production, Fluent
One word to describe your cultivation style: Flexible
Indoor, outdoor, greenhouse or a combination: Indoor and greenhouse
Can you share a bit of your background and how you and your company got to the present day?
From a very young age, I recall running around the family garden. Growing up with a family of green thumbs instilled a passion for plant life and taught me the importance of agriculture and the impact that it has on so many parts of our lives. The combination of math, chemistry, biology and other sciences all meeting in agriculture was incredibly fascinating to me.
In high school, I did some volunteering at local permaculture farms to continue learning and working on my passion, and eventually went to school in Colorado to study watershed management. When I got out of school, I started working in controlled environment agriculture, specifically with strawberry farms. The global strawberry market is massive, and I was lucky enough to cut my teeth in an industry that taught me a ton of transferable tactics and skills.
I got my start in cannabis in 2013 when I moved to Denver. I was looking for my next gig when a hydroponic job popped up on my radar. I truly started at the bottom of the hierarchy, literally hand-watering plants every day. It was a great entry into the industry because I was starting to learn and understand the standardization needed to grow cannabis at scale. The Colorado adult-use market was still in its infancy, so many operators didn’t have the capital to fund these huge spec-built facilities we see today. It forced people to get creative and utilize old manufacturing facilities and warehouses. We had to be flexible and adapt [to] what was already there.
I worked my way up through the industry, helped with a few startup cannabis projects in various states and other countries, and eventually made my way to Florida, where I’m now working with Fluent in one of the largest and fastest-growing medical cannabis markets in the world. I joined Fluent at a pivotal time for the company–new leadership had just been appointed and many operational changes were being made. I was tasked with improving Fluent’s core value stream: cultivation operations. I knew I couldn’t come in and change the world in a single day, so first and foremost, I tackled the low-hanging fruit that was contributing to low quality and low yields. We systematically implemented processes that I knew would work at scale and continued to optimize, all while keeping the trains running on a day-to-day basis. After two years of optimization, we’ve built the systems, processes and [an] all-star team of cultivators needed to get [us] to the next level.
What tool or software in your cultivation space can you not live without?
I couldn’t live without my PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) and water meters.
Light really is the “macronutrient” and principal driver for plant growth, so it’s important to know the quality of light in your cultivation spaces.
I use my water meter in a different way than most; I use it for sap analysis. I’ll take a bunch of leaf stems, squeeze the juices out, and measure nitrates, calcium, potassium and other levels and ratios present in the plant tissue itself.
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your business in the last six months?
Battery-powered data loggers. Generally, they’re cheap sensors that allow us to monitor environmental conditions like temperature and humidity in areas of our facilities that are not picked up by our environmental control systems–like the end of the row on the grows’ south side wall or inside a cure barrel. I use them everywhere and can’t get enough of them.
What cultivation technique are you most interested in right now, and what are you actively studying (the most)?
Right now, I’d say I’m most interested in genetic plasticity and epigenetics, or, in other words, studying and analyzing the things that make one batch go well and another not so well. If we intentionally trigger a plant through, let’s say, drought, does that potentially activate the epigenome for that plant to produce larger trichomes to stave off expected environmental conditions? Can I get the same result through selective cloning or breeding? And how many iterations does it take to get that “genetic switch”?
We’re also actively studying the ripening curves of each of the varieties we run. We’re looking at what week flower is best to harvest and measuring the various characteristics like trichome color and other points of reference against HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) testing. We’re also studying whether flushing the plant towards the end of the cycle yields qualitative results and pinpointing the best dry and cure times to give our consumers the best quality product. Our goal is to put quantifiable data and hard science into theories that have been present in cannabis cultivation for generations and implement what actually works.
Right now, we are in the most challenging time to date for plant-touching businesses, as price compression, competition from the illicit market, high taxes, and more continue to be a challenge. How can cultivation teams respond to these retail/wholesale market pressures?
When it comes to industry-wide challenges, there’s only so much we can do as cultivators. In times like these, it’s important for us to put our heads down and grow the best quality cannabis possible. Putting quality to your name builds brand loyalty and allows you to stand out from the pack–alleviating some of the pressures from price compression and illicit market competition.
Batching, sequential harvesting and post-harvest processing are a few other important things to dial in during hard economic times. It’s important to look at your batch size and adjust the frequency of harvesting based on your needs. Flexibility is really important. As growers it can be easy to overlook post-harvest. It’s important to look at the time spent on certain product streams. For instance, if a batch is set to go to post-harvest processing, your ROI (return on investment) may be lower compared to other necessary action items in the grow.
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
In my early days in Florida, we implemented a mid- to late-flower foliar spray that caused us to fail TYMC (Total Yeast and Mold) testing. The spray was a biorational–full of microorganisms, fully organic and non-chemical–but because it was grown on spent fermentation media it got flagged. I love that Florida has really high standards for testing, and this became a favorite failure, as it forced me to look beyond what worked in other markets. I improved my internal quality system and continued to innovate cultivation and post-harvest processes. Through those optimizations, passing TYMC testing became almost an ancillary effect, as focusing on “growing good weed”; ensured success on the COA (certificate of analysis). If a new process incurs an extra cost, fair enough, let’s dial in our operational efficiencies to cut costs in other areas. You [should] always be improving your methods.
What advice would you give to a smart, driven grower about to enter the legal, regulated industry? What advice should they ignore?
I have a few nuggets of advice. Understanding the regulatory landscape and consumers in the respective market is critically important. What kind of market operates at your local level? Is it medical, adult-use or something in between? How many cultivators are there, and how does each supply the market? It’s important to ask yourself these kinds of questions.
Be informed by data and be sure to extract value from the whole of that data set. I’ve seen people conduct data analysis only to leave out key metrics to justify a certain process or procedure. Data is impartial and mathematically agnostic, so it should be used to understand and convey the full scope in an unbiased way.
My last piece of advice is to seek out and take time to listen to the quiet voice of experience. Be informed by data and science and utilize the shiny, new tech available, but also be sure to listen and learn from those who have been around the block and may have grown without the tools we have today.
Ignore the noise and the self-doubt, and don’t let what the competition is doing distract you from your craft. Cannabis is a unique plant. There’s a ton of good ways to grow it. Create a plan, stick to it, and make small adjustments along the way to achieve your goals.
How do you deal with burnout?
Be led by your other passions. It’s easy to define yourself as a cannabis grower or professional and become absorbed by that, but I think it’s also important to make time for other things like family, friends, nature or whatever hobbies or passions that define you as a person.
How do you motivate your employees/team?
Full transparency and ample learning and growth opportunities. I let my teams see as much behind the scenes as possible and keep them informed on KPIs (key performance indicators) and other metrics that leadership uses to measure our success. Everyone’s perspective is valuable.
Fluent has a fantastic program that reimburses employees who complete continuing education courses. We value the growth of individuals on our team and provide the tools for them to grow as professionals.
What keeps you awake at night?
Infrastructure failure. We’ve built systems to account for problems that can arise overnight, but mitigating these failures can be really expensive and the make-or-break kind of stuff for a business.
What helps you sleep at night?
Good infrastructure! Operators sometimes inherit equipment without knowing its operating history, and that can be risky if not sufficiently assessed. Knowing that we’ve got a good system in place, secure communications, and properly serviced equipment helps me sleep at night. Infrastructure is truly a double-edged sword; it works both ways.
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