Many states have had a hard stance on cannabis, and Nevada was surely one of the toughest. When things began to change around the year 2000, a grassroots but lively medical cannabis market started to thrive. Things changed again in 2013, when the legislature wanted to set up a more professional, commercial framework for cannabis. Christopher Wren, co-founder of Planet 13, had been an active part of the legacy market and the grassroots medical cannabis movement up until then. He recognized an opportunity in the new commercial setting of cannabis; however, the upfront investment was obviously going to be substantial. "You'd need something around 10 million dollars to set up a legal cannabis operation," he explains. "The amount of building requirements, licensing, equipment, you just were not going to bootstrap it. You had to come prepared."
Working in a quality control management position at a material processing plant, Christopher was very much aware of what it meant to run a compliant business, and what it took. As he set out to find someone to join him in his legal cannabis venture, he made contact with one of the plant's customers, who had some capital and connections to get the cannabis business started. "I showed them a jar of my cannabis flowers and told them that I was going to take that to Amsterdam and win the Cannabis Cup." And that's exactly what happened. With multiple wins under his belt, Christopher came back to the state and founded MM Development Company, which would later go public and eventually become Planet 13.
© Planet 13
Early beginnings
Unlike many players in the early cannabis industry, Christopher knew that growing cannabis at scale was going to be a different game than what he was used to. "We needed automation; we needed data management to be able to always be on top of what is going on in the grow and control it." He started looking for suppliers, companies that would provide him with the equipment he needed. However, just coming out of the illegal days, many companies back then didn't want anything to do with cannabis. "I remember a guy at a water treatment plant who told me: 'Ain't none of your dope water going into my pipes,'" he says with a chuckle.
Then he found Agrowtek, an automation control and fertigation systems manufacturer. "I reached out to them, and I was a bit hesitant at first, was being kind of vague about what my business was." That's when Mike Sacomano, founder of Agrowtek and Planet 13 partner, cut to the chase and told him: "Got a weed grow?" He flew to Christopher in Nevada to see what he had going on, and together they set up the plan to make the Planet 13 grow as efficient as Christopher wanted. "We bought our first GC-Plus system and put it in our grow. Since day one, we have been fully automated, logging data every day, and making informed decisions. Collaborating with Agrowtek allowed us to come out of the gates with good cannabis and repeat it. We built our cultivation right to grow quality cannabis, and without much marketing back in the day, we built a name for ourselves."
Controlled chaos
Planet 13's cultivation might look sleek and high-tech from the outside, but underneath the surface is a system that's been tested and retested more times than anyone can count. "We run double stack in veg and single stack in flower," Christopher says. That awareness comes from his early days, when plant counts were limited and ceilings were built high to accommodate the classic HPS lighting setups. "We started with HPS, big, hot, and intense. That's what the facilities were designed for. But we've been switching to LEDs, especially on new builds."
© Planet 13
Switching didn't just mean buying new lights, it meant figuring out which spectrum profiles actually worked. "Some LEDs just don't hit the THC levels we want. There's something about how they affect the plant's metabolism, not just intensity," he explains. "We ended up going with Scynce Dragon LED lights because we wanted full tunability." Agrowtek even built a new module specifically to let Christopher's team control Scynce's spectrum recipes from within their system. "We didn't want three different controllers fighting each other. Now it's all under one roof."
The grow runs on coco coir as the medium, IPM is fully organic, no chemical pesticides, no spraying flower, and definitely no post-harvest radiation. "We don't nuke our weed," Christopher laughs. "We just treat it right."
Building the blueprint
Not every Planet 13 facility started from scratch. Their Florida and California sites were acquired, then retooled to fit the same approach. "In California, they were already growing great flower," he says. "We kept the bones, just swapped out the media and nutrients." Florida's a greenhouse operation for now, but future indoor builds are already specced out to run full Agrowtek systems. "We bought a hodgepodge in Cali and replaced everything. That's the beauty of Agrowtek, it's easy to lay over a building that's already running. Plug it in, get full control, full data logging, and you're good."
That reliability has made Agrowtek more than just a vendor. "They've saved us more than once," Christopher says. "We've called them at midnight, told them we tried something new and something blew up, and they were right there. No upsell nonsense, just solid support. Quality product, quality people." The partnership's been strong enough that they even shared a booth at MjBizCon and co-starred in a CannaCribs episode.
© Planet 13
Post-harvest matters
Christopher's obsession with control doesn't stop when the plants come down. "Back in the day, in the early medical cannabis market or in the legacy one, you'd leave your cannabis out overnight, it's done. The humidity here in Las Vegas is literally 0%." That memory stuck. So when it came time to design the facility, he built a post-harvest zone as its own climate-controlled world. "People thought I was an idiot for adding humidity to the dry room, but we were the first. It's what saves the flower."
Using Agrowtek sensors, his team controls foggers, dehumidifiers, and HVAC systems to keep the harvested flower in a tight humidity range. "It means you don't have to rehydrate your buds. You don't lose aroma from overdrying. And we never mix wet and dry product in the same room. That's just asking for mold."
© Planet 13
It's the people
For all the tech and automation, Christopher is quick to credit the team. "You can build a beautiful grow, write up all the SOPs, but if your people don't know what good cannabis looks like, it's pointless," he says. "Cleanliness, care, and timing are everything. You don't rush it. You don't overpack rooms. You don't microwave your weed just to get yield. You treat the plant with respect. That's where quality comes from."
He compares cultivation to archery. "Once you shoot, the arrow is flying. You can't control every gust of wind, every twitch, but you can control how you prepared. What matters is what you do every single day. And if you've got the right people and the right system, then the plant can do what it's meant to do."
For more information:
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