How Cultivators Can Secure Market Share as Demand for Clean Weed Grows
/According to the Los Angeles Times, “Clean weed is about to be everywhere.” Why? The answer is simple. “Consumer demand has turned out to match – if not exceed – expectations.”
In other words, cannabis cultivators who aren’t already making necessary changes to grow the clean cannabis that consumers demand (and demand is projected to grow significantly in the coming years), then they’re missing a very big – and possibly critical for survival – opportunity.
What is Clean Weed?
Clean weed has not come into contact with any chemicals. A wide variety of chemicals can be introduced in the growing and manufacturing of cannabis, including inorganic substrate, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, chemical solvent extraction, and more. If cannabis comes into contact with chemicals at any time during the growing and manufacturing processes, it’s not clean.
Today, many conversations about clean weed focus on the extraction process and the need for cannabis manufacturers and processors to shift at least some of their processes to solventless extraction. However, “clean” weed actually begins at the cultivation facility.
Keep in mind, there is a difference between organic and clean. Most organic farming is done outdoors with soil, compost, and so on. However, the plants may not be clean. That’s because plants can be unclean in other ways, such as pests and pathogens. To be truly organic and clean, plants must be chemical, pest, and pathogen free.
To Grab Market Share in the Clean Market Segment, You Have to Switch Your Substrate
Cannabis cultivators who want to participate in the clean movement will most likely have to switch the substrate they’re using in their controlled environment facilities if they’re not already using bio365 soil (all bio365 substrates are 100% organic and clean).
There is one key reason that a substrate switch will be necessary – substrates from most manufacturers are not organic.
For example, Grodan’s Rockwool is not organic because it’s made through a synthetic chemical process. Therefore, Rockwool is synthetic, not organic.
OMRI, a third-party nonprofit organization that is accredited to ISO 17065 standards by the USDA Quality Assessment Division, says in its OMRI Generic Materials List, “Rockwool is synthetic and thus prohibited for use in organic agriculture.”
Specifically, OMRI uses National Organic Program rules in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations to determine if the manufacturing process causes Rockwool to be synthetic. Three questions are asked to make the determination, and if the answer to just one of the three questions is “yes”, then the substance is synthetic.
The questions are:
Does the substance contain any synthetic substances not on the National List?
Has the substance been transformed into a different substance via a chemical change?
Are any important functional properties of the substance altered by the manufacturing process?
OMRI determined that the answer to question #1 for Rockwool is maybe, and the answer to #3 is yes. Therefore, “Rockwool is classified as synthetic and thus, prohibited for use in organic agriculture.”
That means cultivators who grow their cannabis plants in Rockwool substrate will not be able to have their crops certified as organic or clean, and they will not be able to get into the clean cannabis market at all.
This will be crucial when cannabis is legalized at the federal level and the USDA jumps in to create organic certification standards for cannabis. We’re already seeing state laws about chemicals being applied more strictly and harshly for the cannabis industry than the food industry, so it’s not a big leap to assume cannabis will need to be organic and cleaner when federal legalization happens.
To Grow Organic, Clean Weed You Must Use Organic, Clean Substrate
Unlike our competitors’ substrates, all bio365 soil products enable organic production of cannabis. Not only is bio365 soil organic and clean, but we also have a 41-step quality process that ensures the quality of our soil is consistent from one bag to another, one palette to the next, and so on.
It’s challenging to grow organic in controlled environment spaces, but you can do it with bio365 soil. In fact, you’ll also lower costs, improve plant health, and boost crop yields when you switch to bio365 soil. Request a free trial, and we’ll prove it to you.
You can start capturing a share of the growing clean weed market segment now if you switch to bio365 soil, particularly if you grow in a controlled environment. Now is the time to act before your competitors do! Contact us to switch to bio365 soil, so you can grow clean cannabis.