Growing Cannabis Outside a Growing Trend

Companies Find Growing Cannabis Outside More Cost Efficient – LPC

A version of this story was originally published at www.cbc.ca

7 Farms Down in Chatham-Kent plans to be growing cannabis outside. It’s a growing trend — outdoor-grown cannabis costs less with natural sunlight and rain. Licensed producers including Speakeasy Cannabis Club in BC have already had a cannabis harvest.

Since marijuana was legalized in Canada in 2018, Windsor-Essex has seen an influx of cannabis growers in the area, most raising crops in a highly controlled environment, such as under greenhouse glass and wild bright lights, designed for year-round farming.

But 7 Farms Down, a company in Merlin, Ont. in the Chatham-Kent region is going the old fashioned route — it will grow their crops outside in the field.

Jason Guttridge, one of the owners of the company, said after four years of bouncing around the idea with his brother and trying to make it a reality, they finally received their cultivation license on Friday. “I can’t say it was easy because it definitely wasn’t, but I think it would be worth it in the long run to bring a different product onto the shelf,” he said.

“Small-Batch” Outdoor Cannabis the Way to Go

Guttridge said he and his team come from an agricultural family and are already familiar with traditional agricultural practices, and will apply those harvesting techniques to grow “small-batch, handcrafted outdoor cannabis.”

“There’s a lot of proven agricultural techniques that are already kind of readily available to us. I don’t really have to go reinventing the wheel,” he said. The company expects to grow less than five acres of marijuana outdoors this spring. (Radio-Canada ) He said growing outdoors has many benefits compared to growing in a greenhouse, including reduced costs, and “free sun and rain.”
Pests also becomes less of an issue when growing outside because he says “there’s going to be beneficial insects around.”

“For every insect that’s out there, there’s an equal and opposite insect that wants to take… Click here to view full story at www.cbc.ca

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