My father is retired, and used to write oped articles on various topics for publications. He has been following @cbt for several months and thought he would pitch some unique ideas for articles, not specifically about us, but about the industry and business operations (he has been the CFO/CEO of many business around Portland). We got to talking about ourselves and @cbt felt that what we do was unquie enough to warrant a cover story. I can’t wait to see it in print!
I reckon the moral of that story is that if you think you’ve got something that you think is article worthy, you should pitch it to media outlets for the industry. We did a lot of the work upfront with this, and made it as easy as we could for @cbt to write this article. I sent about 4 pages of details on our operations, and my dad sent about the same amount of information on our financials. We then had a 2 hour interview. Then a photographer came out and took some amazing pictures. The whole thing is pretty surreal.
I recently reviewed a layot draft, and I might be a little biased, but the article looks AMAZING!
With outdoor I use a combination of organic (compost), and synthetic fertilizer. The compost is local to keep freight costs down, and the synthetic comes from the local farm store. I test my own soil in a grid and do my best to apply what is need where it is needed. I use standard ag grade 16-16-16 and Urea. When I fertigate, I use either Urea, or 20-20-20 or 10-30-20 (Grow More or Jack’s), depending on soil test results for NPK. I also foliar 0-50-30 mid and late flower, for a PK boost without risking overloading my soil with PK.
With indoor, I blend my own soil with organics and feed soluble synthetics (Grow More and Jack’s) as well. I also add things like K2SO3 (mixed myself), and kelp extract, yucca, and other organic supplements.
For the most part, I try to buy all of my nutrients dry and do the math and mixing myself. The cost savings is tremendous.
Thanks for doing this AMA, @Farmer_Dan. I have two questions. First, I am curious about what happens to your plants once they leave your farm. Do you know what percentage of your crop will be sold as flower, and what percentage will be used to make edibles, what percentage will be used to make concentrates and so on?
The second question is related: are there any differences on the growing end between producing plants for these different purposes? Do you grow different strains for flower versus edibles versus concentrate? Do you use different growing techniques/nutrient regimens for plants intended to become different types of final product?
All of it ends up as hash, where it goes from there, I know not. I could totally find out with seed-to-sale tracking, but it doesn’t truly matter to me and my. Once it leaves the farm, I wash my hands of it and start focusing on the next season.
Good Morning @Farmer_Dan,
I am a big advocate of boot-strapping costs when it comes to cultivation while not compromising on quality. Obvious one of the quickest ways of cutting costs is going from boutique nutrients to buying/ mixing bulk salts. Is this a step that you have done and can you speak to your experience? Blood Meals, Soil Amendments, Trials, Tribulations or Resources would be helpful.
Thank you for taking questions,
I have always treated all.of my plants exactly the same way, if a strain doesn’t fit my schedule, I don’t adapt my schedule and just remove the strain. I have suffered from strain nostalgia before, and it never ends well.
I grow different strains so that Cura has some variety rather than a boat load of one strain. If anything, I would want to just grow my best strain and maximize my yield, and I may do that in the future. I try to make my customer happy, if they want something specific, I would be willing to change. We aren’t there yet, there are still a lot of growing pains to work through, but I see strain requests coming in the future.
Really long answer: Please wait for our cover story @cbt article this July. I don’t want to give away article spoilers, and I think you will find your answer there.
Thank you for understanding. If you would like more specifics after the article is released, please contact me.
Cura uses CO2, then ethanol and cryo to remove waxes, distillation to reclaim ethanol and terpenes, and then THC/CBD distillate is recombined into cartridges. Cura also makes quartz syringes for dabbing, and I believe that they sell bulk to edible makers.
@Farmer_Dan Looks like you’re doing some great work then. From Cura’s website: “Winner of the 2017 Dope Magazine’s Best Concentrate Company.” Big ups for 2018!
Well, that’s all the time we officially have slated for the AMA. I want to thank @Farmer_Dan for all his answers and the time he’s taken today.
Everyone’s welcome to continue posting questions and Dan’s welcome to continue the conversation of course, but if you need to do other things, no problem! You’re off the hook.
I entered this discussion after it was over but I saw a thread on Auto Flower varieties and thought I would add my two cents. New Breed Seeds in Cottage Grove, Oregon breeds exclusively Auto Flower varieties and says a lot of the extract companies are welcoming auto flower crops. New Breed says many growers in Oregon are planting auto flowers between their regular photoperiod flowering variety so that when the regular plants grow so big to start touching the auto flower plants, the autos are ready to harvest and the regular ones start growing into the vacated auto flower canopy space. You grow autos differently. They have to be planted directly in the soil or container that you are growing in–no transplanting. Also NO PRUNING AT ALL!! Any delay in growth slows the plants’ rapid growth down since they start to flower after about 30 days of vegetative growth. They keep growing somewhat while flowering. Most auto flowers varieties are also feminized so all the plants will be females. Check out New Breed Seed’s website for more info. I just harvested 10 days ago an outside sun grown crop called Cloud 9 planted in early April with no light dep. For the home grower they are sort of a novelty but for large commercial growers, I think you will start to see them enter the market more and more as time passes.
