Watch: Episode 2 of ‘Growing Exposed’—Growing to New Heights
This second episode of “Growing Exposed” features an impressive indoor garden with cannabis plants reaching a height of over 10 feet tall. Come harvest time, these plants, which resemble trees, have massive buds swelling to the size of two-liter bottles. Founder of Cannabis In Canada, Jason Wilcox leads you through this jungle of towering plants as your tour guide. From start to finish, Jason explains his perfected system and set up that allows for complete control.
“That’s the cool thing about this series” explained the show’s producer Jeremy Deichen. “The viewer gets a behind the scenes look at what other growers are doing. We don’t just show you a perfect bud on a dry rack; we break down the individual techniques used to achieve that final result.”
Jason begins his tour by taking us to the roof—where he reveals the high-tech equipment this grow uses to control their growing facility, from lighting, climate control, water filtration and more. Cooled by three 5-ton air conditioning units, the rooms are built inside of a warehouse the size of a football field.
By the end of the episode, Jason is climbing up ladders inspecting terminal buds of a cannabis variety called Moby Dick. Excited, he takes a moment to compare it to the size of his head.
“These are really chunky beautiful buds that are resinous and smell incredible.” Like a kid in a candy store, Jason goes on to explain, “I’m in heaven.”
Jason makes a point of showcasing the plant food this grower uses. It’s a 3-part base formula created by Green Planet called GP3. The grower explained that a 3-part formula gives him maximum control throughout the vegetative and bloom cycles. He was already using the most popular 3-part system in the industry for years until he learned about a cleaner formula on the market that did not contain carbonates. Carbonates are essentially fillers commonly used in the industry. No one likes salt build up around drip lines and reservoirs.
When we asked Green Planet’s owner Justin Cooper why we keep seeing this line of food behind some of the nicest grows we visit, he answered: “Green Planet Nutrients have been created from the highest sourced ingredients. We believe our formulas are the best in the world. We simply don’t cut corners by using anything artificial. We then take it one step farther by challenging ourselves to bring you the best value possible.”
The master grower I spoke to, made it clear, that this formula promotes healthy aggressive growth. This resulted in significantly boosted yields and really was an easy switch.
If you are already using a 3-part, then GP3 can be substituted even mid crop, and the only thing you will notice is your plants getting happier. I think another reason people like GP3 from Green Planet Nutrients is you won’t have a learning curve. If you’ve ever used any other 3-part on the market, then you will easily be able to understand the feeding schedule and dial this one in to your liking.
The garden also features an activated charcoal filter to clean the air going out of the facility (known as a scrubber), a dehumidifier which recycles the water the plants transpire back into the system, a high-end water filtration system that removes both chlorine and chloramine (which is damaging to crucial inoculants), a water chiller to keep water at a steady 70°F and to top it off, each room is certified fire-safe. Every single component is wired for precision and efficiency.
This facility keeps a room packed full of mother of optimal phenotypes and hybrid strains; it is a forest of ganja. However, how do you select a mother plant?
The keen knowledge of David Robinson, the Garden Sage, explains this topic in the second episode of Growing Exposed.
Robinson explains that it takes roughly 6 – 9 months to identify the best phenotype out of a batch of seeds, which becomes your mother plant. The mother plant is sustained in vegetative growth, so it is kept under a constant 18 hours of light a day. This plant will never flower, but the clippings taken from the plant, which have a rooting hormone applied to the stem to encourage roots to form and thus create a “clone,” are grown to bloom.
Also featured in this episode is Keirton, a company that manufactures a product called the Twister. The Twister is a wet and dry trimmer for the cannabis industry, and it literally saves the day. With conveyor belts and all sorts of high-tech machinery, this trimmer can wet-trim an incredible 9 pounds of cannabis in an hour, which is a necessity for a grow operation of this scale.
We hope you enjoy the tour of this facility on Episode Two of “Growing Exposed” exclusively on HIGHTIMES.com.
Don’t Miss Episode 1 of “Growing Exposed”—Clandestine Gardens!
For all of HIGH TIMES’ grow coverage, click here.
by Jeremy Deichen at High Times