Marijuana Business Magazine May-June 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | May-June 2019 130 it filled a year ago. The operation recently opened a 13,000-square- foot propagation greenhouse range to more than double its clone- production capabilities. The new facilities include all concrete floors that are easily sanitized and reduce the risk of introducing pathogens—compared to dirt or gravel floors—as well as new glass roofs and rolling benches with bottom heat and pressurized fog systems. Additionally, the entire greenhouse operation completed an electrical upgrade this spring, taking it from a 600-amp service to a 1,600-amp service, Stephenson said. “That will allow us to have proper lighting, airflow and environment for the mother stock plants (and) clones and to help us increase the yields when we grow indoor flower,” he said. In the propagation area, GGS uses sensors to measure relative humidity and maintain an 80% vapor pressure deficit to promote root growth and woody growth for upright, healthy plants. Temperature is kept at 75 degrees, and light is restricted to prevent plant stress. Once the clones have established roots, they are moved from the propagation greenhouses to the main greenhouses. The new rolling benches allow three times as many plants to be moved at a time, increasing efficiency and enhancing lean flow. While the temperature is maintained at 75 degrees, humidity is reduced to prevent powdery mildew. Plants are lit with supplemental high-intensity discharge (HID) lights and fertilized heavier to allow them to bulk and green up. Growing Organic GGS is placing an emphasis on growing hemp clones organically so it can be a compliant source for cur- rent and future customers seeking organic certification. At the end of January, the opera- tion received its new Ellepot system, an integrated propagation method that creates biodegradable plugs, and the operation is now growing all its clones in Ellepot plugs versus the Oasis foam it was using. While the system doesn’t neces- sarily have a speedier rooting time or efficiency advantage, Stephenson said customers wanted to order organically grown young plants for compliance with organic labeling, but the foam inserts didn’t qualify. The Ellepot machine wraps GGS’ organic growing media blend in organic, biodegradable paper, sealed with hot glue in a sausage-like roll, then cuts it and punches the plug into a 72-cell tray and automatically dibbles a hole for the cutting or seed to be placed. Because only two pesticide products are available for hemp— azadirachtin and pyrethrins—GGS maintains organic production by using an arsenal of beneficial insects and biological control agents (BCAs) to control pests. Stephenson said he advises customers growing indoors to do the same, but there are outdoor cultivators who employ beneficials and BCAs as well. “We introduce predatory wasps for aphid control and predatory mites for spider mites, thrips and fungus gnat control,” Stephenson said. “We apply nematodes to the soil for fungus gnat and shore fly larva. We introduce ladybugs on a weekly basis, and they’re generic overall control, because they’ll eat anything, but they eat aphids primarily.” Once hemp plants are harvested and the flowers are separated from the stems, GGS either donates green stems to local goat farms for feed or puts them on the compost pile to create mulch that’s reintroduced in the hemp fields to enrich the soil. Growing media from mother plants Business Strategies | Cultivation Staff from Tagawa Greenhouse Enterprises already were familiar with taking cuttings when Greenhouse Growing System got started. Photo by Kate Lavin