As cannabis cultivators, it's important that we continue scaling our business to keep up with the demand of a quickly expanding industry. To remain within our strict cultivation standards, we have to maintain quality while we scale, and this is possible through increasing avenues of efficiency and implementing smart-farming techniques.
Incorporating Smart Farming Technology
Smart Farming technology has made our cultivation efforts much more streamlined. By incorporating the right tools, we can automate many of our otherwise by-hand tasks, saving us time to invest in other areas of our operation. Our irrigation system is automated to allow for efficient watering, and an on-property weather station gives us real-time data about our climate. During the months when we need to operate our light-deprivation cold-frame greenhouses, we have constructed metal arms for easy and quick tarp pulling. Our climate-controlled greenhouse is used for multiple purposes throughout the year, like fresh-frozen production in the winter and as a mother room when we're getting the summer and fall cultivation cycles started. Inside, you'll find a control panel and multiple sensors throughout that maintain an appropriate environment inside for the plants. This technology utilizes timers to operate the shade-cover and works with the sensors to preserve a proper temperature and humidity level. With the extra time automation saves us, we can focus on other tasks and rely on our smart-farming technology to monitor the details.
Gidding Our Farm
Before we start a new cultivation cycle, we assign a grid system to our cultivation areas, allowing us to test our soil more accurately. We send these samples off to the lab and they tell us what nutrients are lacking, then send us the amendments we need to bring it up to par. We use this same system while scouting for pests. Rather than look at every plant, we inspect a plant in each grid cell to determine if any pest pressure is present, saving us time for other tasks around the farm.
Proactive IPM
Another effort to efficiently keep pest pressure at bay is by employing predator bugs, like praying mantises and ladybugs, that naturally eat the pests we don't want on our plants. We additionally use sticky traps to catch little bugs flying under the canopy and follow a spray schedule that uses natural pest repelling ingredients, like certain essential oils. Staying proactive with our sprays is an effective way to keep unwanted pests out of our garden and pest populations from getting out of hand.
Choosing the Right Genetics
Choosing genetics that perform well in our unique microclimate is perhaps the most significant contributor to scaling our operations while maintaining quality. High-output strains produce larger quantities of sellable product per square foot, maximizing our profits while maintaining quality standards. We select only a handful of cultivars each cycle so we harvest batches in the large sizes our clients desire. This approach also allows us to personalize each strain's treatment to fit their needs without taking up too much of our time.
Sticking to a Schedule
We create a schedule of our cultivation operations before the start of each cycle. This prior planning allows us to evaluate our methods and optimize our farm's cultivation by identifying where we have the time and resources to grow our company. Each year, we tackle new growth projects meant to increase profitability for our farm, and without our schedule, we wouldn't be able to do this efficiently or accurately.
Our Cooperative Model
We are a member of the Hive Mendocino cooperative, a cannabis cooperative of Mendocino County craft cannabis farmers. Together, we market our products as a whole, saving us time and money, two resources that support scaling our operations. During times of uncertainty, our cooperative also acts as a shoulder to lean on for intellectual support, keeping us efficient when solving unavoidable issues that pop up along the way.
Scaling our craft cannabis farm is essential for our future success, but so is maintaining the quality our clients have come to love and appreciate. By focusing on efficiency through different mediums, we can achieve our growth goals and continue improving our methods each year. If you're interested in learning more about what cannabis we or our cooperative has available, reach out to us, and we'll send you the full inventory. We are planning our 2021 season, so if you're looking for a proactive way to purchase your best-selling cultivars, ask us about our custom cultivation options.