{"id":4798,"date":"2021-09-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmhhcnRmb3JkYnVzaW5lc3MuY29tL2FydGljbGUvaGVyZXMtYW4taW5zaWRlLWxvb2stYXQtd2hhdC1pdC10YWtlcy10by1ncm93LW1hcmlqdWFuYS1vbi1hLWNvbW1lcmNpYWwtc2NhbGXSAQA"},"modified":"2021-09-20T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T07:00:00","slug":"heres-an-inside-look-at-what-it-takes-to-grow-marijuana-on-a-commercial-scale-hartford-business-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=4798","title":{"rendered":"Here’s an inside look at what it takes to grow marijuana on a commercial scale – Hartford Business Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dressed in medical scrubs and a hairnet, Curaleaf Senior Cultivation Manager Adam Raleigh surveyed a sterile, brightly-lit \u201cflower room\u201d filled with rows of maturing cannabis plants, as the overwhelming smell of marijuana created a thickness to the air.<\/p>\n

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Equipped with millions of dollars worth of lighting, temperature control and other infrastructure, the Massachusetts-based company\u2019s Simsbury grow operation is a well-honed modern manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n

Raleigh said all the high-end equipment Curaleaf uses allows the company to specify and automate the grow process in order to ensure quality while producing at scale.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The equipment] affords us the luxury to make sure we\u2019re giving commercial-sized cannabis the attention that it deserves,\u201d Raleigh said. \u201cWhen you have the tools at your discretion, it does give you the biggest opportunity for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curaleaf is one of four cannabis producers in Connecticut currently serving the state\u2019s medical marijuana market. But with recreational pot use now legal in the Constitution State, the number of cannabis manufacturers is all but certain to grow, as behemoths like Curaleaf and smaller producers enter the nascent adult-use market.<\/p>\n

An inside look at Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury operations demonstrates to prospective cannabis growers and investors that producing marijuana is an intensive process, requiring high levels of knowledge and a plethora of infrastructure and equipment. It also underscores the challenges that smaller producers will face, in terms of being able to finance the purchase and fit out of a cultivation facility, in trying to enter the state\u2019s recreational market.<\/p>\n

\u201cStanding up a grow facility, we\u2019re talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, depending on how big you want to go; and it\u2019s going to take probably close to two years,\u201d said Patrik Jonsson, Curaleaf\u2019s regional president of the Northeast.<\/p>\n

Offbeat vibes<\/h4>\n

When you first walk into Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury grow facility, the building\u2019s front offices have the look, feel and smell of a standard-issue office building with white, fluorescent lighted hallways leading to an office with a grid of desks in cubicles. Employees and visitors have to pass through locker rooms and change into scrubs, masks and shoe covers in order to avoid accidentally carrying in contaminants.<\/p>\n

The long, white-tiled hallways lead to areas that warehouse equipment and house growing plants. There\u2019s another area where workers process, distill and cook cannabis edibles. It has a unique hospital\/Costco\/Willy Wonka\u2019s Cannabis Factory juxtaposition.<\/p>\n

Offbeat vibes notwithstanding, Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury operation is a serious one, producing cannabis for about 20% of Connecticut\u2019s medical marijuana patients.<\/p>\n

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Brendon Lasky<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

The key factors to a successful cannabis harvest that growers must control are water, temperature, light, humidity and carbon dioxide, Jonsson said. He estimates the cost of such controls at about $650 per square foot of a grow facility.<\/p>\n

Jonsson said Curaleaf learned the importance of these factors the hard way at the company\u2019s first grow facility in Webster, Mass. Curaleaf launched that site in the summer of 2017, harvesting just three pounds that October. In those early days they ran into several issues.<\/p>\n

For example, when they loaded as many plants as possible into two grow rooms, the HVAC system got overwhelmed and couldn\u2019t control the extra humidity, which can create a breeding ground for mold and fungi. Additionally, the plants\u2019 girth depleted the room of carbon dioxide that\u2019s key to a flower\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, Raleigh said, Curaleaf\u2019s grow rooms are now equipped with heavy-duty HVAC systems and CO2 tanks, which are monitored by a censored control system that adds heat, cooling and carbon dioxide as needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re constantly injecting these rooms with CO2 so that they can photosynthesize and they can make the carbohydrates and sugars that they need to create these medical-grade flowers,\u201d Raleigh said. \u201cEnvironmental control is of the utmost importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to climate controls \u2014 which are set at tropical conditions for early-stage plants, and cooler temperatures for mature ones \u2014 light is a crucial factor in a successful grow, Raleigh said. Growing plants need 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness each day, he said.<\/p>\n

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HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER<\/p>\n

Equipment in the irrigation room of Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury cultivation facility.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Precision is key<\/h4>\n

Massachusetts-based Green Meadows, which grows and sells cannabis to the medical and recreational markets in the Bay State, operates a cultivation facility in Southbridge, Mass., about half the size of Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury operation, said CEO Bob Patton. The company controls the same elements as Curaleaf \u2014 i.e. temperature, light, etc. But Green Meadows only uses LED lights, whereas Curaleaf uses a mix of LED and more traditional high-pressure sodium lights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two schools of thought on lighting,\u201d Patton said.<\/p>\n

LED lights are more expensive to install, but use less electricity and could lead to different state tax rebates, depending on where a facility is located.<\/p>\n

Jonsson said Curaleaf is working to increase its use of LED lights to reduce the company\u2019s carbon footprint, but it isn\u2019t ready to rely on them entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur stance in general is LED lights are great, they\u2019re the future, but … [the technology is] not there yet,\u201d Jonsson said.<\/p>\n

Maintaining a solid water and fertilization system is also something that can make or break a harvest, Patton said. Green Meadows\u2019 \u201cfertigation\u201d system runs fertilizer-containing water to all plants, and is controlled by the same automated system as the lights and HVAC, he said.<\/p>\n

Curaleaf\u2019s Simsbury facility has an irrigation room filled with huge sealed plastic drums holding fresh water that feeds into nutrient tanks, and then drips into plants via the system\u2019s irrigation line, said Brendon Lasky, a cultivation manager.<\/p>\n

Green Meadows\u2019 equipment and infrastructure cost about $350 per square foot, Patton said. While the six-month-old company is much smaller than Curaleaf, it produces about 80 pounds of cannabis per week, which is a larger operation than what smaller craft-cannabis companies may do.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible to establish a small grow operation for less money, Patton said, but growing cannabis at a high volume is an intensive and pricey proposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can generally say a grow with a couple hundred square feet of canopy can probably work on a simpler system,\u201d Patton said. \u201c[But] we\u2019re talking here about producing quality cannabis at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dressed in medical scrubs and a hairnet, Curaleaf Senior Cultivation Manager Adam Raleigh surveyed a sterile, brightly-lit \u201cflower room\u201d filled with rows of maturing cannabis plants, as the overwhelming smell of marijuana created a thickness to the air. Equipped with millions of dollars worth of lighting, temperature control and other infrastructure, the Massachusetts-based company\u2019s Simsbury grow operation is a well-honed modern manufacturing facility. Raleigh said all the high-end equipment Curaleaf uses allows the company to specify and automate the grow process in order to ensure quality while producing at scale. \u201c[The equipment] affords us the luxury to make sure we\u2019re… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/heres-an-inside-look-at-what-it-takes-to-grow-marijuana-on-a-commercial-scale-hartford-business-journal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}