Marijuana Business Magazine - February 2018

D windling supplies triggered by overwhelming demand is a common challenge that cannabis businesses face in new markets. Partnering with other suppliers, stretching your available product and trimming your storefront’s operating hours can help keep your store’s doors open. When Alaska’s Pakalolo Supply Co. opened its Fairbanks retail shop in October 2016, it limited the amount of adult-use product that customers could buy so that it could sell to more people. And because there were no edibles on the legal market at the time, Paka- lolo co-founder Keenan Hollister said, the company stocked its menu with pre-rolled joints, trim joints and do-it-yourself edibles kits for customers to make marijuana-infused cookies using trim byproduct at home. Pre-rolls were important to keeping a full menu, and with trim joints, it was critical to advertise them as such, Hollister said. During the first three months of retail operations, Pakalolo’s store- front was open 3-8 p.m. six days a week. But New Year’s Eve was a record-setting day that drained supply. That caused Pakalolo to shorten its hours of operation to week- ends only and gradually add hours and days back to the schedule as more product became available. During that period, Pakalolo part- nered with newly licensed cultivators and expanded its own grow capacity to get back to seven-day-a-week storefront operations. Now, with a steady supply, Pakalolo has eliminated trim joints from its menu. But it continues to sell its specialty pre-rolls, including a palm leaf-wrapped joint with Pakalolo-grown strains. Pakalolo is also ramping up its cannabidiol offerings, with two CBD-rich strains and plans to launch concentrates made with those products. – Joseph Peña KEEPING THE DOORS OPEN compared with an average of 1%-3%, with 3% being an impressive high. “We’ve noticed our terpene counts have gone through the roof,” Hollis- ter said. “In some cases, the terpene numbers from our bud are the num- bers we’re seeing in concentrates.” For example, Pakalolo’s Alaskan Blueberry – a CBD-rich strain that typi- cally tests at around 8% THC and 12% CBD – notched a 7.75% terpene count when it was last tested, which is higher than the cannabis and most concen- trates sold in Alaska, Hollister said. ‘Living Ecosystem in Each Soil Bed’ Early in its cultivation strategy, Pakalolo experimented with growing plants in individual reusable, breath- able plastic bags made from recycled material that sat on 4-foot-by-8-foot tables. But the team realized cultiva- tors were spending too much time moving the plants into larger bags and recharging the soil with new nutrients. It also took weeks for the nutrients to break down and benefit the next round of plants that were placed in the soil. That’s when Pakalolo’s team dis- covered “True Living Organics: The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors” by the cannabis guru known as The Rev. The book inspired Pakalolo’s no-till farming method and is required reading for the company’s growers. The team also studied additional material on natural growing and soil science by horticulturists Ed Rosenthal, Jorge Cervantes and Jeff Lowenfels, a fellow Alaskan. The no-till method is exactly as it sounds. After the cloning stage, plants are moved to 4-foot-by-4-foot soil beds that are approximately 2 feet deep. Nine plants live in each bed through their vegetative and flowering stages, and the soil isn’t tilled. The plants grow in a fungi-dom- inant soil, alongside rye grass and Pakalolo Supply Co.’s cannabis grows in a fungi-dominant soil, alongside rye grass and clover, with earthworms providing additional nutrients. Photo by Robin Wood, courtesy of Pakalolo Supply Co. 84 • Marijuana Business Magazine • February 2018