At the medical cannabis indoor facility in Macon, Georgia, the Fine Fettle team is busy tending to their plants across the three flower rooms that compose this grow. Cultivation is currently in week 7, and there won't be long before a new harvest is ready it leave the facility. Garrison Fairfield is the Head of Cultivation, having previously worked in the California's medical cannabis market. He explains that the team is currently evaluating the genetics in their facility to identify the best-performing plants. Once selected, the best genetics will be kept and propagated for future production cycles.
As clean as a hospital
Being a medical cannabis grower, it's no surprise that Fine Fettle pays a lot of attention to keep everything as clean and sterile as possible across the facility. Staff wear medical-style scrubs to reduce the risk of contamination, following a protocol similar to that of a hospital environment. This is a necessary practice to prevent unwanted guests into the grow, such as yeast, mold, and pests from outside.
As the flowering plants approach harvest, the team is busy defoliating fan leaves to prepare for the final stages. However, it's not yet the time to collect flowers, as there are still a couple of weeks to go, before plants are fully ready for to be harvested.
Environmental controls are finely tuned throughout the plant's life cycle. Garrison explains that they prefer to keep temperatures a little cooler during flowering. On the other hand, during the vegetative stage, temperatures and humidity are kept slightly higher. Toward the end of the flowering cycle, both are lowered - partly to mimic the seasonal transition from summer to fall and partly to reduce the likelihood of mold or other issues.
Drying and post-harvest
Overseeing facility operations is Will Kacheris, National Director of Facilities and General Manager of the Macon building. With a background in lettuce and tomato dating back 15 years, Kacheris transitioned into cannabis through sales before joining Fine Fettle. He's been with the company for five years, helping to bring the Georgia facility online room by room, from cultivation to extraction - and soon, the kitchen. Post-harvest, the team moves whole plants to the dry room, hanging them intact for about ten days. Once dried, the buds are removed from the racks and processed into finished product, which then enters the curing phase. Daily "burping" - opening the totes for around an hour each day - encourages airflow and enhances the flavor and aroma of the flower.
Extraction at Fine Fettle involves removing unwanted elements like lipids and chlorophyll, leaving behind pure THC. The process includes running biomass through a column with solvent, distilling off the solvent, and refining the result in a vacuum oven to produce a golden, concentrated product made exclusively of THC.
Product development is led by Tyler Cooke, Head of Product Ideation & Manufacturing. His focus is on creating new delivery methods for medical cannabis to address various patient needs. In the kitchen, the team produces a variety of items including topicals, capsules, troches, pressed pills, tinctures, and transdermal patches.
For more information:
Fine Fettle
finefettle.com