Responding to commercial growth in the medical cannabis cultivation sector requires a responsive mentality and responsive growing systems. 420 Cannabis Kings of Oklahoma have such qualities and hardware in abundance.
Skilled, creative, passionate growers, they’ve needed all their faculties and the most instinctive equipment they could lay their hands on in order to keep pace with developments in legalisation. In Oklahoma the progress from medical legalisation to commercial output and end-user availability has been incredibly rapid. On the back of a June 2018 referendum victory retail outlets were establishing within four months. Within a year Oklahoma regulators had approved more than 7,300 business licenses in total, including nearly 4,300 grower permits.
In order to ensure their high-fidelity, medical cannabis has the place in the market that it deserves 420 Cannabis Kings have had to expand. For smaller, locally-owned, quality-orientated growers like Cannabis Kings, establishing a place in the market is essential. The incursion of mass producers, and a proliferation of inferior start-ups, has necessitated spring-heeled growth in order to secure a means of production that can adequately serve Cannabis Kings’ loyal customers.
The Kings kindly sat down and outlined the exact details of their expansion with APUSA’s Manny Pelaez; “We currently house 3,000 sq. ft. utilizing over (252) pots. We have a 1,500 sq. ft. expansion opening November 1, 2019 which will use an additional (144) pots. In addition, we have another facility opening December 1, 2019 that will house another 9,000 sq. ft. grow and will utilize approximately (864) pots.”
And what pots? Enlargement set the Cannabis Kings’ on a quest for a watering system that was as flexible as it was high-yielding, as efficient as it was responsive. AutoPot Watering Systems have proved to be their grail. In their own words: “It was a huge decision for us to switch our grow system to AutoPot and we are pleased with the results. The modular design is as flexible and simple as it is clever.”
The simplicity and intelligence of the design in operation revolves around the AQUAvalve in each AutoPot module. The AQUAvalves are power-free and gravity-fed, requiring no computers, pumps or timers. Instead, the AQUAvalves are effectively activated by the plants themselves. Each AQUAvalve opens to supply water and nutrient solution to a 3/4” depth and then closes. Once the plants have exhausted that supply of water and nutrient solution the AQUAvalve reopens to repeat the cycle. This “plant controlled irrigation” is truly responsive to each plant’s needs.
AQUAvalve also means AutoPot modules do not require plumbing for recirculation or waste water. Modules can be added to, or removed from, a layout at will. Layouts can be created to suit room designs of any shape or size whether during build-out or during extension. The only limit to the potential scale of your system is the space you have available.
In the Kings’ own words; “The AutoPot system has proven itself to be efficient, versatile and low maintenance, which boosts the bottom line. AutoPot has turned out to be a real game changer for Cannabis Kings”. 1Pot XL, the preferred choice of Cannabis Kings, and a large number of other commercial cultivators, is ideally suited to use in Stock Plant or Production Areas. A combination of modular design and a large size pot means plants can be allowed to grow efficiently, continuously and vigorously. The ease with which XL can be repositioned is essential in Stock Rooms where young plants are typically huddled together, thus reducing the lighting requirements. As the plants mature in the 1Pot XL they can easily be spaced apart. The round based pot also enables the grower to easily rotate a big plant while the pot is still in the tray. Plant development in the 1Pot XL is unhindered by the need to transfer to a larger pot, such is the module’s exceptional capacity.
Output is going to be key. Marijuana Business Factbook projects that “Oklahoma MMJ sales will reach $140-$180 million in 2019, the first full year of market operations, exceeding original projections”. To date regulators have approved applications from c.178,000 patients to buy and use medical marijuana products. These patients will be served by some 1,848 existing dispensaries who will draw on the 1,173 processors currently licensed. The fact that all this can happen so quickly in a state typically considered to be so conservative strongly suggests that cannabis transcends the usual boundaries, especially once its medical use is enshrined in law. For growers, the lesson of Oklahoma is that preconceptions are out and readiness is required. There is almost no telling where and when cultivation will take hold.
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