I want to fulfill my dream of getting into the cannabis industry. I’d like to be apart of a grow team and I’m starting school soon. I’m wondering what degree I should get and how I can join a real team of hard working people.
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Congratulations,
In my opinion a good hard science based horticulture program is a must.
If I was picking a program today look for a state where growing cannabis is legal.
Shoot for paid internship with a good master grower. There are members on the forum that can direct you to programs.
I know there are scholarships for floriculture programs that are going unrewarded each year.
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There are a few directions you can go to getting into growing commercially!
You can absolutely get an educational background in any of the horticultural arts. This will really give you a good solid starting plate for stacking your experience on!
Now, many of these educational facilities are costly for many new interests, so its not always attainable. This leaves folks in a pickle in making progress in getting into the industry! So, what to do…?
Don’t worry, theres still routes you can take to get around the cost of education and getting into the industry. This is a whole new market with a whole new set of rules when it comes to diving in. Traditional hiring practices cant be applied effectively for employers when this requires a different knowledge base. Growing daffodils is a bit different from cannabis, so theres a lot that needs to be addressed in the interim of fitting personnel to the positions.
If you can start your own independent studies in cannabis, get a strong understanding of applications and methods, principles and start to apply them through your own process or under mentorship, you can build a portfolio that will demonstrate your capabilities.
If you can show a potential employer your capabilities outside of an educational platform, you will be picked up by every employer, any day of the week.
Once you get into the industry, never stop furthering your education and knowledge. Any time i think i have a hold on a topic, something new develops, and its back to the drawing table. Its a rapidly evolving market!
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learn to code. or learn plant pathology. I will have work avail for you
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Learn basic plant philology and some chemistry. Anything STEM related. Queuing therory plays a giant role in greenhouse management. How do I schedule a grow? It’s just basic application of queuing therory. Also if Cannabis goes belly up, everone higher people well versed in logistics and queuing therory in application. All project management is a combination of the two.
Growing is hard science meets practical world.
Programming from a code stand point is more of a commodity. I can get all the coders I need in India and eastern europe. And they only want about .25 cents per dollar a compressible coder in the states. I did this for 15 very long years.
Let us know what you plan.
Also there are often student discounts for the professional organizations.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
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If you can i recommend you to study agronomy and then focus on horticultural sciences. That’s the best formation you can get!
Jules
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My opinion would be hard scince floricultue if you want to grow indoors. Outside is a different set of problems.
Done both. The hard science have served me better. Plant pathology, every class you can, though most are graduate school level classes, I took every plant path class in the catalog. plant physiology a must one full year. Chemistry through organic. Entomology and I took a lot of entomology classes. is as close as I wanted to get to agronomy. And the math to go with. And as much genetic as you can stand. And every class on greenhouse product that is offered. You want plant nutrition thought by a floricultuist. You will get to see living examples of every decency and toxisity you can imagine. In my small fruits class we had to identify 50 apples by taste a 100 apples by sight. Stark Brothers funded the class and anyone who got an A had a job for the summer. I was in school in the summer or in a production greenhouse. Or in gradschool I had a computer scince internship at Delta Log a large vax company with a great intern program.
All I learned in agronomy is I hate true soils. That was a good lesson. I hate corn, soybean, wheat and rice. All other crops I care about are in horticulture. I did learn how to wire a barn and ohms law in agronomy 1, plus how to artificially inseminate a cow (hand on lab) and how to remove stones from a field. (Amfo and a blasting cap), I don’t think the last one is taught anymore.
I think I had at least two classes in every department in the college of agricultural at university of Missouri.
Plus, the agronomist think horticulture is easier. Hah. 
From the voices in my head.
Ethan
I don’t know how is there. Here in Argentina in agriculture engineer university we study all kind of stuff, not only commodity crops, horticulture, floriculture are important too. But if you can make a full career in floriculture/horticulture that would be nice!
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I have a lot of friend who are first, second or third generation horticulture/floricultue families.
You can make money if you think like a finance banker and a work ethic of a farmer. It is very hard work and requires years of planing all stages like you are a sergon.
My favorite grower was born in Korea, best grower I have worked for. Could he grow hard things. He had his BS in floricultue from Korea. Mr. Lee carried, a c blunts modern potting composts in his pocket like a Bible. He would calculate the grow for a year in advance. We tested out everything repeatedly. He grew the best bonsai chrysanthemum, commercially I have ever seen. They got $100 wholesale in 1980 dollars. They grew a limited set of three all pre-order only. It only takes 8 weeks. 
You can make a good living in any segment of the market.
We use to have the Ball Seed alumni association. 3/4 of the people in my generation and before did something for them. I ghost wrote a book on modern sweet pea production.
From the voices in my head
Ethan.