“It is of the utmost importance to plan everything in advance, and to do the math,” says Jason Crockett, founder of OG Medicinals and of Crockett Consulting. “There are a lot of mistakes that rookie growers make when entering this industry. There are many aspects to take into consideration when setting up a cannabis grow facility.”
“Thing is, this is a knowledge-based business where there is not much knowledge at the moment,” he points out. “There is so much new stuff coming up on a daily basis that it is almost natural for growers to have difficulties to keep up.” At the same time, there are a number of misconceptions that growers keep following. “First of all, it is important to realize how cash intensive this industry is,” Crockett explains. “To make a generalization, the cost is about $250,00 per square foot. Then, the design of the facility is the next thing to carefully consider.”
Commonly overlooked
“It is crucial to create proper airflow throughout the grow, for instance,” he explains. “To give another example, there is one thing that I have noticed growers tend to overlook: workflow.”
“The space that employees and plant material itself travel across plays an incredibly important role in the overall success of an operation. It is necessary to create enough work space for people to move and carry out their work. I have seen operations where canopy space was maxed out, and people ended up doing stuff in the grow room which shouldn’t be allowed. This leads to so many problems, cross-contamination above all.”
Jason Crockett
“Another thing that I have noticed is that people are trying to grow their plants too big,” he continues. “They increase the veg cycle time, and the flowering time. However, by doing this, you are losing on what the building actually allows you to do, as you are losing harvest by wasting weeks.”
Sharing knowledge
Crockett successfully manages his own cannabis operation through the use of his extensive knowledge. “I have built my own facility and created a successful model,” he explains. “Now, I have also started my consulting company to help people to create SOPs and prevent them from running into those problems I mentioned.”
Crockett’s cannabis operation is vertically integrated. “We do cultivation, processing and dispensing in the state of Michigan,” he explains. “As of now, I personally manage a 12,000 sq. ft. grow facility with an extraction plant within. I run it very easily, and only 8 employees are working there, as a demonstration that with a careful planning, it is possible to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of labor necessary.”
With the widespread lack of education, the future of the cannabis industry seems to be quite uncertain. However, Crockett is sure about the constant development that will keep occurring. “No one really knows what the future will look like for the cannabis industry,” he observes. “One thing for sure is that consumers will keep getting more savvy with regards to the different compounds they want in their cannabis, as well as being more aware of the importance of quality flowers. Education for the customer will be paramount. At the same time, it is of the utmost importance to educate cannabis growers on how to serve these types of customers. And this is exactly my role within this sector.”
For more information:
OG Medicinals
ogmedicinals.com
Crockett Consulting
[email protected]