Zoë Therapeutics is a giant in the Oregon hemp scene, producing seeds and seed starts for other hemp farmers, as well as smokable flower for sale to consumers. The latter products are especially popular, with retailers buying up Zoë Therapeutics’ full supplies even before they are harvested.
“We've established [relationships with] big clients, here in the U.S. and internationally, that we produce seeds for,” says Zoë Therapeutics' CEO Chris Shirley. “We've produced some of the best indoor hemp flower in the country. … We have it pre-sold before we even harvest.”
Meeting those quality and volume demands takes a team effort, which is why Zoë Therapeutics partnered with Green House Feeding to supply the hemp company with all the nutrient solutions it needs for its combined 44,000 sq. ft. of controlled environment production space.
Zoë Therapeutics uses products from Green House Feeding's mineral line, including its Grow and Hybrids nutrient feedings during vegetation and flowering, respectively. The farm supplements those nutrient feedings with varying rates of added calcium (required for company's using a reverse osmosis (RO) system) during all stages and Booster PK+ during flowering.
“With Grow, we get a good growth rate on the plants, and I also get good established cuttings from our moms,” Shirley says. Having a higher clone success rate helps reduce labor on managing unproductive clones, he adds.
“With Hybrids and Booster, I’ve seen the rate of growth and the trichome development increase tremendously. It really gives it a nice yield and dense flower. And the denser the flower, the heavier the weight, and the heavier the weight, the more profitable you can be," Shirley says.
He also points to Green House Feeding’s experience and customer service as two of the main factors that led Zoë Therapeutics to choosing the nutrient company as a partner. “[They have] a ton of experience and years of growing behind them … [and] can contribute to whomever that is interested in using their feed lines.
“When you're spending the types of monies that are spent with certain companies, … having a real person to be able to contact and bounce ideas off of or discuss different growing situations that the vendor could help shed light on, I feel is very important,” he adds. This expertise will be especially helpful when Zoë Therapeutics launches THC products (produced under an Oregon Liquor Control Commission license) later in 2021.
Green House Feeding’s products also require fewer system flushes to clean out lines and tanks, Shirley details, again reducing labor. The nutrients “leave hardly any residue in any mix tanks and in the lines."
For these reasons, and more, Shirley says that since securing Green House Feeding as a partner, “we haven't gone away from it since.”
