In Cannabis Business Times’ second annual “State of the Growing Environment” Report, research participants indicated that their greatest cultivation challenge is pest and disease management. About a quarter of growers attribute outbreaks to unbalanced humidity, and this year’s report provides insights into how growers are using environmental controls to manage plant growth while preventing and mitigating outbreaks. More data is available in the special report here.
The research results not only help the CBT team produce this report and provide the industry with useful benchmarking data and information about key aspects of cannabis cultivation, but it also helps drive the editorial content in the magazine.
For example, using the results of the study, we developed complementary articles in the report to address some of the key concerns cannabis growers indicated they have. Washington-based Grow Op Farms details its strategy to prevent pest and disease using environmental controls and Portland’s Meraki Gardens explains how a balanced airflow mitigated fungus gnat pressure. How to establish standard operating procedures (SOPs) for an effective integrated pest management (IPM) plan is also addressed in this issue’s Hort How-To column, written by Christine DeJesus.
Getting feedback from research, conversations and interviews with business owners and cultivators is essential to CBT’s mission of providing the most useful and relevant content to help growers solve problems so that they can ultimately produce higher, healthier yields and greater profits.
This information is also useful for planning our highly anticipated Cannabis Conference, which will take place Aug. 24-26 at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. Working in close collaboration with our 2021 Cannabis Conference Advisory Board, in addition to noting your questions and concerns through our conversations and in our research studies throughout the year, helps us better understand what educational sessions we should prioritize. We’ve developed a varied program that includes speakers who are leaders and experts in the industry. At this moment, we are finalizing topics that address the most pressing issues and opportunities facing businesses and cultivators, thanks to feedback from many. Our educational program is now available at cannabisconference.com.
More opportunities for you to contribute to our research reports will be coming up soon. And my email address is always included on this page, and contact information for the entire team is in our masthead. We’d love to hear from you and learn more about your business. The more we know, the better we can accomplish our primary mission and our reason for being here—to serve you.
