Despite a cool, wet start to the growing season, the pot plants were already chest high by mid-July at WeedMD Inc.’s (WMD.TO) farm in southwestern Ontario, a region better known for producing fruit and corn than cannabis.
WeedMD is one of 13 Canadian pot companies that have been granted outdoor cultivation licenses in an industry that predominantly grows in greenhouses or warehouses. It has planted 21,000 plants on 27 acres that formerly grew asparagus, and expects to harvest more than 25,000 kilograms (55,000 pounds) of dried pot from its outdoor operations this year, more than half its total production.
The amount of outdoor-grown cannabis will make up a small portion of the market this year -- less than 10% of the cultivation licenses granted in Canada are for outdoors -- but many more are in the pipeline after the Canadian government changed its rules last year to allow pot farms.
The appeal is clear: growing outdoors can cost as little as one-fifth that of greenhouse production and it can be marketed as being grown “au naturel” under the sun. It can also carry higher risk from pests, pesticides and weather.
“Growing outside is a dream,” said Derek Pedro, chief cannabis officer at WeedMD, during a tour of the farm in Strathroy, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Toronto. He said the natural changes in light and temperature outside result in “bigger, tastier, denser” buds with a better high than the same strain grown in a greenhouse.
As recently as a year ago many companies were disparaging outdoor-grown pot.
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