The Arizona cannabis company Earth's Healing has recently expanded their cultivation operation to a 140,000-square-foot facility, including 60,000 square feet of mixed light greenhouse. "The mixed light greenhouse offers an extremely high UV index and a lot of stresses that many indoor growers wouldn't experience. Therefore, we need to make sure the genetics we choose are actually going to work with our environment," says Hosea Evans, Greenhouse Assistant Manager. In their latest episode, CannaCribs got a tour of the facility.
1,500 mother plants
Hosea explains that the company has roughly 18-20 strains in rotation. "That allows us to run 12 strains that we've already heavily tested, and we know to do well while also rotating some of the newer stuff." To support this production, Earth's Healing keeps about 1,500 mother plants in production, with another 1,000 smaller plants to feed the regenerative mothers that come to take their place.
Preparing for flowering
George Allen III, Crop Registration Manager, talks about feeding the plants when they get to the veg room. "We feed the plants 2.9 EC pretty much everywhere. In a commercial setting, we don't really have the availability to tailor to each individual strain. From the first time the plants get brought in with a hydrated pot, we will hydrate them for the first day and just twice more after that. This forces the roots to search for where the water is. As the roots are looking for the water, that helps the plants to really take off. Once the roots get into the bottom third of the pot, we can get the plant to start stretching and get the plant height we need to go into flower."
From indoor to greenhouse
"For the new mixed light greenhouse, we try to marry what we think is best about indoor cultivation (as far as control) with what makes everything possible: the sun," say Ed Tracy, Greenhouse Manager, and Miles Sadowsky, Chief Cultivation Officer. Both Ed and Miles have a background in growing indoors. "When getting into the greenhouse, the first thing I noticed was the plant responses," Ed says. "In an indoor grow, you can have a lag in your plants when going from veg to flower. With the available daylight, plants respond significantly to the transition from one place to the other in the house. There is almost no lag time and no downtime in the plants."
For more information:
Earth's Healing 
www.earthshealing.org
CannaCribs
www.cannacribs.org