Custom-Built to Drive Growth

How Massachusetts-based Root & Bloom’s state-of-the-art cannabis cultivation facility outfitted with Fluence LEDs helps the team maximize quality in a competitive market.

Root & Bloom's cultivation facility in Massachusetts launched in 2022.
Root & Bloom's cultivation facility in Massachusetts launched in 2022.

William Windham’s cannabis career started in Colorado, where he cut his teeth in one of the earliest adult-use markets, harvesting thousands of plants weekly in Mindful’s cultivation facility with 80,000 square feet of canopy.

Windham has watched as the industry has evolved and cultivation became more sophisticated, especially when it comes to horticultural lighting.

A decade ago, he used high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halide (MH) lights. Then, when double-ended HPS lights became available, “that was a step in the right direction,” he says. 

They produced high intensities that cannabis plants need to grow to their fullest potential, but they also produced a lot of heat, he says, putting pressure on environmental controls to manage the load and increasing electricity costs.

“And then eventually, the first LEDs honestly that really impressed me were the Fluence lights. Before that, I saw that some lights from other brands could get some good growth, but you weren't driving. You were kind of pulling the plant, and there was a little bit of stretching.”

When light-emitting diode (LED) technology first hit the market, Windham experimented with the lights but wasn’t getting the results he was hoping for. Cannabinoid profiles and flavors were “lackluster.”

“The first round [was] the purple color LEDs. And then I saw all kinds of different versions at that time of people trying to figure out how to get through the canopy and get the intensity down to the plant. The first few generations of lights that I saw just really weren't doing anything,” he says.

Windham pushed for Fluence lights when he was recruited to move east to lead indoor grow operations as VP of Cultivation at Root & Bloom, a Massachusetts-based cultivation company with 20,000 square feet of canopy in a new, custom-built facility.

Cherry Pie Root Bloom

Cherry Pie OG grows under Fluence VYPR LEDs in one of Root & Bloom's flower rooms. Courtesy of Root & Bloom.

Windham was part of the team that provided advice during construction of the grow, which is split into two floors, with one clone room, one mother room, two veg rooms and four flower rooms each, with separate irrigation, HVAC, ductwork and other required systems for every single room. Producing a high-quality, craft product is their priority, and preventing any pest or disease outbreak that would get in the way of that was top of mind.

“If we do have a problem, and the day that it does come, because I'm sure it will, eventually we'll be able to isolate it and eliminate it before it affects the whole [operation],” he says.

And all rooms are equipped with Fluence lights.

“I saw first-hand just how well [Fluence LEDs] were able to push growth and maturity,” Windham says. “I was really impressed with the VYPRs especially, with how much we could push maturity; it was something that I'd never seen before. So, when I heard that [VYPR] was an option here, it definitely got my vote.”

In previous roles, Windham used the lights to improve flower time, trimming the harvest date down by eight days in some cases, “with the same measurable quality,” he says, allowing him to increase output, yield and efficiencies.

Although flowering times can be reduced, that’s not why Windham is using the lights at Root & Bloom. Massachusetts, like many U.S. cannabis markets, is facing price compression – wholesale cannabis is selling, on average, for $2,000 less a pound than it did two years ago. Producing the highest quality plant possible is essential to compete in an oversaturated market.

“Each cultivar is able to achieve the most beautiful expression that it possibly can through the environmental controls and lights that we have here,” he says. “Sometimes that's density, but other times that's terpene and cannabinoid profiles or structure, [not] just density or color.”

Root Bloom Web

Root & Bloom's cultivation facility includes four veg rooms and eight flower rooms. Courtesy of Root & Bloom.

Having eight flower rooms equipped with Fluence’s VYPR series and four vegetative rooms has allowed Windham to really steer and control the crop, which is crucial to an operation that harvests 150 pounds of flower each week.

Root & Bloom has eight cultivars in production at a time, but their strategy isn’t necessarily to go for the most unique or rare varieties to compete.

“Very selfishly, [we grow] what we want to smoke. I personally like the idea of growing the same thing that everybody else has grown and putting ours up next to them and letting the market decide if they don't like that strain, or if they just don't like the way it's been presented to them,” he says. “We want to bring in some cool, unique stuff for sure, but we also want to bring in some heritage strains and some things that people have known for a long time and show them how they can be in a facility like this and with lights like this and … see them in [a new] way.”

By using Fluence LEDs and operating multiple veg rooms, Root & Bloom also can start flowering plants in veg so that they can grow cultivars that previously may not have been viable for a commercial operation, turning them over sooner and vacating valuable space to keep harvest schedules on time.

“If we wanted to grow something that needed 11 weeks to finish flowering, we could, technically, by only giving a week of veg time and inducing flower immediately in that veg room, letting them flower for three weeks and moving them to the flower room,” he says.

Having that flexibility gives them the option to grow cultivars that may not otherwise be feasible and experiment. Fluence LEDs allow a level of control not customarily available. 

“It's like a dream to be able to come in here and play every day,” he says. “I haven't seen anything built with this intention this way.”

Lower heat loads mean increased mechanical efficiencies, and reduced electricity requirements, lowering energy usage and cost, which is crucial under Massachusetts cultivation regulations. The LEDs also have wireless controls tied to each light, decreasing labor input.

“At a facility that I was at between Mindful and [Root & Bloom,] I got to see some trials side by side with a dozen or so different types of lighting, and Fluence won consistently. They're crushing it in here. I love that we don't have to climb up on a ladder to turn a switch to get the lights to change intensity,” he says. “It’s not just that it's more efficient to run the lights because they use less electricity for the same amount of light energy they put out, but also because they put less of a load on our environmental control system.”

Every decision and component of the operation helps them to achieve their ultimate goal – to produce the best cannabis possible in Massachusetts.

“We want to be able to provide a high-quality product consistently,” he says. “Peaks and valleys are not our game, but sustained high quality is what we want to provide, and we think that the market is going to appreciate that and respect that.”

To learn more, visit fluence.science and rootandbloominc.com