The complexity of large-scale cannabis growing isn’t made any easier by the amount of solutions growers have at their disposal. There are some special elements proper of cannabis growing that, however, do not make any horticultural solution particularly optimized for this kind of crop. For this reason, Jiffy has created Vicaa to specifically assist medicinal cannabis growers in selecting the solution that suits their needs and cultivation best. “The cannabis industry is maturing, and with that, also the needs and necessities of cannabis growers that have to be addressed directly,” says Daniel Grincewicz with Vicaa. “That is why we have decided to launch Vicaa.”
Indeed, Mike Cade with Vicaa points out that “there are so many different methods or styles of growing. So, you have those fast-cropping products, then others that do large volumes with small plants, as well as more ‘traditional’ growers that are growing larger plants in a smaller number.”
The cannabis difference
All in all, Mike has noticed that cannabis growers focus on some things to a much higher degree than the rest of the horticulture industry. “For instance, the utter attention to cleanliness, especially when it comes to choosing the substrate. The biggest challenge upfront is the fact that natural organic media has very high standards when you talk about certifications. If one considers Health Canada’s strict standards, then complying with them might be difficult when it comes to using an organic medium. Cannabis growers have to look at very specific items such as heavy metals, pesticides, pathogens; thus, every solution that they use has to take into consideration all those different elements.”
A source of knowledge
The choice of serving the medicinal cannabis industry through the Vicaa brand is also driven by the mission of providing growers with knowledge and information that the industry has been constantly seeking. “If I walk into an orchid greenhouse, for instance, growers are accustomed to working close with suppliers to find better solutions,” Mike points out. “For cannabis, is not as easy a process, it’s more of a challenging one. The aura of secrecy surrounding this industry prevents some suppliers to get the complete picture of a given operation. This is crucial, as knowing exactly what is happening in a cultivation site would give us the constraints within which we can work – and that is fundamental. Sometimes, growers have to undergo a trial process through which they assess the goodness of a given solution, and only after that they open the production site.”
The importance of giving growers the information they can rely on is paramount in the cannabis industry, as well as in any other manufacturing industry. “It is crucial for any business to be open minded and to recognize the fact that processes can be fine-tuned to be more efficient,” Mike explains. “This is caused solely by the fact that information has been lacking for decades, and when a grower finds a way to get what they want from the plant, it might be challenging to look elsewhere for other methods, considering they have had to rely on their own for such a long time.”
Thus, it is necessary to support growers and join forces to advance the industry as a whole. “I think that the market is still going to be considered relatively young in the near-future,” Mike points out. “What we are seeing right now is a combination of a lot of growers with past cannabis cultivation experience that are trying to enter this sector. These people have not been growing in the most ideal conditions for years. But now, they are evolving, they are the ones moving into these product lines. As the market grows, we will see more professional players, and those who come from a legacy background will be forced to find a way to compete better. The way to do this is to be able to maximize production and reducing cost, taking advantage of the entirety of the grow space that a grower is provided with, and all of that. With Vicaa, we offer products and services that exactly allow growers to increase their efficiency and support them to be ready to hit such a highly competitive market. Growers that will focus on producing clean products and fine-tune their processes to maximize the volume of material, those are the ones that will have a place in the cannabis industry of the future.”
For more information:
Vicaa by Jiffy
vicaa.us