In this episode of Hustle & Grow, our host Baylee Sweet will be taking us to meet some of her friends at The Peoples Indoor Garden a mom and pop sized indoor grow operation in Shelton, WA near the city of Olympia. This farm is the proof of why some things are grown better in small batches, some of their cannabis tests at over 30% THC. Since they don’t have tons of cannabis to deal with, they are able to hand trim, and hand package every bud that’s sold. They also show us how they use the Futurola Knockbox, an automatic joint roller, to bring a high end, but affordable product to the market.
FLOWER ROOM
This flower room is set up to do less plants with big yields. This is a throwback to the medical marijuana days in WA, where the number of plants you could grow was limited. The solution to this that many growers came up with was to just grow the plants they could have to be really big. Growing huge plants is the opposition to the “the sea of green method” where a grower will grow more small plants, with small yields but in a shorter amount of time. Sometimes with hundreds or even thousands of plants in a room this size. One of the advantages to the big plant method in the recreational cannabis world is less data entry. For every plant you legally grow in WA under I-502 your supposed to use a tag to identify that plant, so it can be tracked in WA states SEED TO SALE software system by the farm growing it.
Another technique that we noticed was being used is called “lollipopping,” and it is when you remove all of the foliage that grows around the stock of the plant. There are a few advantages to this one being that the light is better able to be focused on growing the buds at the top of the plant instead of the under canopy, where buds don’t grow very large anyway. Another advantage of lollipopping is that the air is better able to move underneath the plants while they are growing, as well as keeping the area above the soil or growing medium exposed for easier cleaning of dead leaves and such to keep away bugs. As with any method to growing there is opposition to this method as well, some growers will tell you to never do this, so we will leave it up to you to your own best judgement what is right.
For these plants they are using dirt to grow their plants instead of a hydroponic growing method. Using soil allows for more of a buffer when your using nutrients. Many of the nutrients that are used are high in acidic or Alkaline so getting the perfect PH level is crucial when growing. There is less room for error when you’re doing this with a soil less medium such as rock wool cubes, there is no dirt to soak up your mistakes. On the flip side, some of the highest testing cannabis comes from hydroponic grows where there is no dirt being used, just nutrients and water being pumped right into the plant. There is even a method called aeroponics that’s even trickier to master. The main principle behind how aeroponics works is that it grows plants which are suspended in a partly closed or fully enclosed system. With the roots being suspended, as a nutrient-rich water solution is sprayed or misted onto the roots, this method is not recommended to be done by beginner growers.
The grow lights they are using are air-cooled reflectors with High Pressure Sodium bulbs for flowering. The grow lights design is to have an air duct hose hook right into both sides of the light with a piece of glass keeping the heated air inside the lights housing to be carried off to another room by the ventilation. This makes for less heat in the flower room. The air is then all pumped into another room and then out of the building after its filtered through a charcoal filter to eliminate most of the garden’s odors. As with anything else, some growers don’t like the cleaning maintenance, because if this glass gets dusty, and is not cleaned routinely you can lose up to 15-20% of your lights output.
FLOWER ROOM
This flower room is set up to do less plants with big yields. This is a throwback to the medical marijuana days in WA, where the number of plants you could grow was limited. The solution to this that many growers came up with was to just grow the plants they could have to be really big. Growing huge plants is the opposition to the “the sea of green method” where a grower will grow more small plants, with small yields but in a shorter amount of time. Sometimes with hundreds or even thousands of plants in a room this size. One of the advantages to the big plant method in the recreational cannabis world is less data entry. For every plant you legally grow in WA under I-502 your supposed to use a tag to identify that plant, so it can be tracked in WA states SEED TO SALE software system by the farm growing it.
Another technique that we noticed was being used is called “lollipopping,” and it is when you remove all of the foliage that grows around the stock of the plant. There are a few advantages to this one being that the light is better able to be focused on growing the buds at the top of the plant instead of the under canopy, where buds don’t grow very large anyway. Another advantage of lollipopping is that the air is better able to move underneath the plants while they are growing, as well as keeping the area above the soil or growing medium exposed for easier cleaning of dead leaves and such to keep away bugs. As with any method to growing there is opposition to this method as well, some growers will tell you to never do this, so we will leave it up to you to your own best judgement what is right.
For these plants they are using dirt to grow their plants instead of a hydroponic growing method. Using soil allows for more of a buffer when your using nutrients. Many of the nutrients that are used are high in acidic or Alkaline so getting the perfect PH level is crucial when growing. There is less room for error when you’re doing this with a soil less medium such as rock wool cubes, there is no dirt to soak up your mistakes. On the flip side, some of the highest testing cannabis comes from hydroponic grows where there is no dirt being used, just nutrients and water being pumped right into the plant. There is even a method called aeroponics that’s even trickier to master. The main principle behind how aeroponics works is that it grows plants which are suspended in a partly closed or fully enclosed system. With the roots being suspended, as a nutrient-rich water solution is sprayed or misted onto the roots, this method is not recommended to be done by beginner growers.
The grow lights they are using are air-cooled reflectors with High Pressure Sodium bulbs for flowering. The grow lights design is to have an air duct hose hook right into both sides of the light with a piece of glass keeping the heated air inside the lights housing to be carried off to another room by the ventilation. This makes for less heat in the flower room. The air is then all pumped into another room and then out of the building after its filtered through a charcoal filter to eliminate most of the garden’s odors. As with anything else, some growers don’t like the cleaning maintenance, because if this glass gets dusty, and is not cleaned routinely you can lose up to 15-20% of your lights output.
PROCESSING ROOM
WA has setup a system in which there are more licensed producers, and processors then there are retail cannabis stores, and since licensed producers, and processors are not allowed to retail their own products in WA state they are forced to use these retailers.
To put this in perspective if we applied this to another industry like beer for instance, this would be like if there were more companies making beer then we have stores that can sell beer. This system has allowed only the strong to survive since there is not enough room for all of them to be succeeding.
The Futurola Knockbox is revolutionary in its ability to roll hundreds or even thousands of joints in a single day by one person.
We thank the crew as we say goodbye to our new friends at The Peoples Indoor Garden if your in WA or plan to visit you can look for them in stores around Olympia, Shelton, and Tacoma.