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Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 3 (More contents on page 4) contentsMy Home Grow for Beginners, Part 2 The vegetative and flowering stages First Stop on the Grass Route An Airbnb that welcomes cannabis appreciators. The Topic?Jobs. A Q&A with Aidan Coffey 26 23 3436 22_FLX420_2_CoverIdeas.indd 1 18 Meet WatermanJoshua The cultivator of underground pot brand Dr. Dankenstein’s has become an unlikely spokesperson for New York’s legacy market. Introducing ... The Dank Tank Your cannabis grow issues diagnosed by Dr. Dankenstein himself. Seeds With a Flava! For beginner, intermediate and expert growers30 Photo by Ashley Eberhardt Find her on Instagram @ashley_eberhardtphotography
4 FLX420.com • Summer 2022 Founder - Nate Editorialtmanzer@fwpi.comEditornate@flx420.comKurash-TinaManzerAssistant-Missy Kelly Graphicmissy@fwpi.comArtist-Mark Stash Salesmstash@fwpi.com&Marketing - Tim Braden Advertisingtim@flx420.comSales - Amy Colburn amy@flx420.com For Subscriptions To sell FLX420 in your store TO SUBSCRIBE, RENEW OR CHANGE ADDRESS, VISIT ToFLX420.COMshareyour cannabis experiences, advice, photos and stories, visit FLX420.com / Onlysubmit-here.firstnames will be used. Fahy-Williams Publishing Inc. Copyright© 2022. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the contents GrowinNatureMimickingControlledEnvironments 28 Craft Cannabis The microbusiness model may be perfect for the Finger Lakes 1486 The Journey By Nate Kurash POT Shots From our readers Small Talk TheAdvertisersLimit Parts of a cannabis plant – illustrated4645 40
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Ihave noticed over the past several months that dozens of cannabis “dispensaries” have opened in cities and towns in and around the FLX area. They – along with various other small stores and coffee shops – are selling locally produced, cannabisinfused edibles i.e., chocolates, cookies, brownies, etc. While I have more than a few issues with this practice, a big one has to do with how those edibles are labeled. Friends of mine were enjoying coffee one day with a brownie labeled “contains CBD.” A half-hour later, they were stoned out of their minds. Luckily they were at home, but what if they had been driving
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6 FLX420.com • THE journey
In all actuality, the chemical in the brownie was THC. I know this because after they sobered up, my friends called the coffee shop. They were told yes; it did have THC. The coffee shop assumed “everyone knows that CBD is code for THC.” I am concerned, first, that people are purchasing products that they think have CBD in them but in fact have THC. Second, when they purchase a product that has THC as an ingredient, they don’t know how that THC was grown or where it was sourced.Iam all about small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country so great. I am also all about small government and keeping officials out of our business. But when it comes to the safety of the public, government does play a role. We must keep in mind that cannabis is a plant and, depending on how it is grown and how the THC is extracted, it could pose a serious risk to your health. Even if we assume that the plant was grown without toxic pesticides and that the THC was extracted without using harsh chemicals, how do you know what amount of THC you are getting in a serving?When a licensed THC product is sold, it is tested for toxins. Through batch testing, the amount of THC are taking a gamble when they buy these products. I want this industry to flourish as much as anyone, but it needs to happen the right way. Consumers: please use caution when you purchase THC products that haven’t been tested. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Remember: you are the best advocate for your health. Retailers: Please do your best to educate your customers and provide them with as much information as possible. Ask the vendors you are receiving your products from about their growing and extraction practices. Ask them how they determine the amount of THC per serving. I would hate to see what is normally a pleasurable and safe experience turn into something that could harm both the consumer and the retailer.Ifthisindustry is going to be successful, it requires everyone sharing in the responsibility and doing their part. Wishing everyone a safe and sunny summer. Enjoy your time in one of the most beautiful regions in the world!
pot SHOTS readersourfrom
Mike asks, I have read several different opinions on the best way to dry/cure your flowers after trimming them. What are your suggestions?
Kevin Parsels of Green Merchant Gardening & Hydroponics Supplies in Bath, New York, says this: “Hang dry whole branches, at about 50% relative humidity and 70F to 80F. Continue to check until stems harden and small leaves just become brittle. Then remove remaining leaves. I like to use a silicone brush for this, and cut buds from the main stem. Seal in a reasonably airtight container with hygrometer to read relative humidity, and let humidity stabilize. If humidity is too high, over 60%, vent to lower moisture. Then seal with 2-way humidity pack for longer-term storage. I prefer 55% relative humidity.”
8 FLX420.com • Summer 2022
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• 2 cups tea • 2 tablespoons Listerine • 20 or so drops shampoo to a 2-gallon sprayer. “I also hand pick as many bugs as possible.”
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“I may be seeing two different things going on here,” responds Dan Diefendorf, cultivator and genetics expert at Glenna & Co (Colorado’s Brand Distributing) in Rochester. “The spots on the leaves in the lower right are caused by a small black-and-green bug called a fourlined plant bug. They hang out on the underside of the leaves and quickly do damage by spotting and then shriveling the leaves.
“The big leaf, top center, may have something else going on, too. “The way the leaf at the lower left is growing funny may not be due to a pest. I have seen it before but I’m not sure if it’s related to bug issues.
A reader asks, I’m concerned with the health of my outdoor home grow. Can you offer any advice based on this image?
“To get rid of fourlined plant bugs, I use a concoction of tobacco tea made by steeping plain, unflavored, long-cut chewing tobacco in water for a couple hours. Then I strain it and add old-school Listerine and a few drops of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. I apply the mixture to the leaves with pump sprayer. It does a good job during vegetative growing.”
pot SHOTS (Continued on page 12)
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annabis was legalized, I was super stoked to make my own edibles. I found a lot of different recommendations online on the right way to do it. Cue the voice in my head saying, ‘What if I choose wrong and ruin the whole batch?’
“I wondered how many other people were afraid to experiment with edibles and decided to take the chance in hopes of discovering helpful insight to share here. “Calculating how much weed you need to reach your desired potency is super important. You don’t want your edibles to make you feel sick or have little effect. It’s not likely you’ll be spot-on, but calculators are plentiful online. I used 3.5g of weed, or about 30mg of THC per each cupcake I was making.“Decarboxylation or “decarbing” turns raw THCA into THC. This involves baking the weed by itself before adding Positive Grow Advice From Fred “I always ‘messed around’ with growing for the better part of my life, but when my mom was diagnosed with ALS and she was having problems with pain and sleeping, I really jumped into it. This plant is the first one I grew in the journey of helping my mom. The strain is Tropicana Banana by Barney’s Farm and she is a beast of a plant. This one plant went on to be made into juice drinks – some for pain, and some CBN drinks to help with sleep. Advice I would give to anyone is this: no matter how discouraged you get, KEEP GOING! you will get better and better with each grow. You learn from your mistakes and you fix them with the next grow. NEVER GIVE UP!”
SHOTS
pot
Proud member of the NYCGPA it to anything or infusing. First, break your buds down into smaller pieces so it bakes evenly. Spread them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake the weed in the oven until it just begins to turn brown. Underor overcooking will lower the potency of your edibles. Temperature recommendations range from 220°F to 265°F, and I chose something in between. “Now your weed can be infused in an oil or fat, depending on your recipe. Infuse in a double boiler, slow cooker, or something that allows you to maintain a temp of 160°F to 200°F for two to three hours. My boxed cake mix called for vegetable oil, which I infused for three hours. When it was cool, I strained out all the solid bits using 4 by 6-inch mesh bags, and then added the oil to the mix.” Takeaways “It will smell. Immediately. Open your windows and turn on your fans before you put the weed in the oven. Don’t overthink it! Once I worked through the worry of making a mistake, the process was easy. I didn’t have my cupcakes tested for THC content, but they seemed to be as potent as I hoped they would be, no more or less. You don’t need fancy equipment. Everything I used I already had on hand. I am glad I gave it a chance. I have found so many fun ways to experiment with cannabis in my cooking now.” Janet strained the infused oil through a mesh bag.
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 13 To share your stories, visit FLX420.com/submit
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The businesses have received cease-and-desist letters directing them to stop all illicit cannabis sales. Their failure to do so, say the letters, could permanently bar them from receiving any state-issued cannabis licenses.
“There are no businesses currently licensed to sell adult-use cannabis in New York State,” says Tremaine Wright, chair of New York’s Cannabis Control Board. “Selling any item or taking a donation, and then ‘gifting’ a customer
The first-ever New York Growers Cup (NYGC), a legacy focused, DankensteinThegrowersthreeTheinheldcompetition,grower-firstwillbethisDecemberNewYorkCity.brainchildoflocalNewYork–Sensei,Kolektor,andDr.–NYGC
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More than 50 unlicensed merchants who are openly but illegally selling marijuana before the state has issued licenses to sell cannabis were identified by New York State regulators in July. According to the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), they pose a public health risk and undercut the equity goals of the state’s cannabis laws. Since adult-use recreational cannabis was legalized last year, hundreds of such stores have popped up in communities across the state. The OCM is strongly encouraging New Yorkers not to visit these operations and to be aware that products being offered for sale are not safe for human consumption.
is being produced by ALL CAPS, a New York City-based cannabis media company. Open to New York growers only, the competition’s entry fees, product requirements and ticket prices are still being finalized. Anticipation is high, report the planners. Tickets for a pre-competition, smoke-friendly seed swap scheduled for August 13 sold out in under three hours. In addition to exchanging seeds, participants were invited to weigh in on the NYGC’s proposed rules and categories. Anyone can attend the event, say its organizers. “You’ll be the first to know if you sign up for the NYGC email list and follow our Instagram account.”
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16 FLX420.com • Summer 2022 a bag of untested cannabis does indeed count as a sale under New York’s cannabis law. “But you need a licenseto sell cannabis in New York,” he continues. “Licensed sales and a regulated market are the only way New York’s customers will be assured that the cannabis products they are purchasing have been tested and tracked from seed to sale. Sales of untested products put lives at risk. I implore these illegal store operators, and any other stores pretending to be legal operations, to stop selling cannabis products immediately.”“Theyaren’t creating opportunity, they are creating confusion – New Yorkers think they’re buying a highquality, tested product when they aren’t,” adds Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management. “I look forward to working with other regulatory bodies across the state to hold these stores accountable for their flagrant violations of the law.” He says the OCM is hard at work developing regulations for the broader adult-use program including expansive testing requirements to avoid adverse reactions to cannabis products. Unregulated vaping products, including cartridges labeled as containing THC, have been cited by the CDC as being responsible for thousands of cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome, across the country.
Aidan Coffey, union representative for RWDSU Local 338 and a keynote speaker at Catch a Cont@ct, says that attending job fairs may be the best way for job to write for FLX420?
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If you are a freelance writer or artist in the Finger Lakes Region with an interest in cannabis, we welcome you to contribute to our content. Please reach out to us at info@flx420.com
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Catch a Cont@ct, a Cannabis Career Summit organized by New York State Cannabis Connect (NYSCC) and supported by the New York State Department of Labor, was held July 16 in Rochester. It offered job seekers the opportunity to meet and connect with cannabis businesses, and businesses the chance to fulfill staffing needs with knowledgeable and passionate workers.Plans for additional job fairs in Binghamton, Albany and New York City are in the works, according to nyscannabisconnect.com.NYSCCwasfounded a year ago by Tiffany Walters and partner Jumaane Hughes with the goal of creating a hub for information on all things cannabis in New York.
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G eneva-based 29 Design Studio, a creative agency focused on food and agriculture brands – including cannabis –recently received three Pinnacle Awards from the Rochester chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). The firm won Best in Branding (Not for Profit) for its “Geneva Made” initiative, inviting food/ beverage companies from across the nation to establish their businesses in Geneva. It was also recognized for the packaging it designed for Brewery Ardennes, a Belgian-inspired craft brewery and kitchen in Geneva. An initiative that brought “Cooperstown’s Perfect Hot Dog” to life was awarded best small-business campaign. It included out-of-home, social media, print advertising, signage, landing page design, and collateral for Green Cow & Friends Butcher Shop in Cooperstown. To see more of the studio’s portfolio, visit 29designstudio.com.
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 17 seekers to connect with employers. He also noted that indeed.com has become one of the first job-search sites to welcome participation from cannabis companies. “It’s tricky,” he adds. “Other conventional job-search providers have been hesitant to get involved with the cannabis industry because it’s federally illegal.” To read more of Aidan’s cannabis-job insights, turn to page 23. Additional recruitment sites featuring available jobs in the Finger Lakes Region were found by FLX420 during an informal Google search. Here are just a vangst.commonster.commarijuanajobscannabiscareers.comjoblist.comhempstaff.comcareerscannabis.comfew.
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18 FLX420.com • Summer 2022 The Vegetative &
Last time (FLX420, the Premier Issue, see it at FLX420.com), my home-grow diary covered the initial four weeks of my very first home grow: seed germination to seedlings. Although I made mistakes along the way, I’m very pleased with the way my plants have progressed, thanks to help from my mentor Jon Callahan of Honest Pharm Co. I’m grateful to Jon and hope that the information I share – including his advice – will help other first-time home growers be successful with their experience.
2PartBeginners,forGrowHomeMy
In this issue, my journey continues with updates on the plants’ vegetative and flowering stages. One of the biggest challenges, especially this summer, has been maintaining a consistent temperature and level of humidity. When the plants were 4 weeks old, I added a small ventilation system, reduced the intensity of the light, and started keeping the room’s door open during the day. All that was based on Jon’s recommendation to “dial in” my environment and reduce the temperature of my grow room. That’s where this entry begins. Let’s grow, people …
• As your plant gets bigger, increase your watering radius to help guide roots to the edges of the pot as they seek nutrients in the soil.
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 19
• I tested for the total amount of salts/nutrients in my tap water using a TDS/ TEMP meter. The Parts Per Million (ppm) should range anywhere from 50 to 300 ppm. Any higher and you can dilute with distilled water if necessary.
Humidity: 40-60% Light: 18 hours of light/6 hours of darkness while increasing the light intensity (blue spectrum preferred) Height of Light: I hand test for heat, about 12”-16” above the plants
Temperature:Benchmarks70-85˚F (Temperatures will fluctuate during light on/off periods)
• An under-watered plant looks weak with yellow or brown leaves that curl up.
• Water temperature should be between 65-75 degrees F.
• I mixed my nutrients and water in a 5-gallon bucket using a small submersible pump for about 15 minutes.
1) Stick a finger 1-2” into the soil. If it’s wet, hold off on your watering. If it’s dry, it’s time to add water.
2) Pick up the pot and feel its weight. Get a feel for what you’re looking for by lifting the pot after a good watering. You’ll quickly learn the difference between a pot that has water and one that needs it. Watering process: Dampen the soil of your plants first, wait a few minutes and then add more water (approximately 1/4 gallon each time). Repeat this process until water starts to drain from bottom of plant. My plants usually took up to 1 gallon with each feeding.
• An over-watered plant looks droopy, but with dark green leaves with tips that curl downward.
Nutrients: I use nutrients and a feeding schedule from General Organics, per Jon’s advice. Apparently, the program is very forgiving for first time growers. Water: Every 2-4 days depending on need – but I avoid overwatering. I water near the stem and also around the outer edge of the plant pot to help the roots stretch for the water. See H20, below. pH level of water: 6.0-6.3 using tap water with a de-chlorinator solution. During the vegetative stage, plants will grow very quickly in height and size. Adding air movement from oscillating fans will help strengthen plant stems. It was a good time to begin topping and trimming the plants. Topping helps the canopy expand horizontally. Trimming the fan leaves at the base of the plants creates good airflow underneath. After I finished topping, Jon suggested that I also scrog the plants to spread out the canopy. I got a late start, so my canopy isn’t as broad as we would have liked. See Scrogging on page 21. Scrogging also helps support branches with heavy buds. I was in a hurry to push my plants to flower for the sake of this article, but giving plants more vegetative time results in bigger plants that are more likely to produce higher yields. By week 6, the plants began to show pre-flowers which eventually turned to buds. Note: Only female plants will produce buds. I was working with feminized seeds so I didn’t have to worry about male plants. If you purchase regular seeds, there’s a chance you’ll have both male and female plants in the mix. This would be the time to remove the male plants from the female plants to avoid pollination. Once a female plant is pollinated, it will produce seeds inside of the buds.
Other watering tips
• Water pH should be 6.0-6.3 which helps the plants absorb all of the necessary nutrients from the soil.
Trimming the fan leaves
I discovered that overwatering is a common mistake made by first-time growers. A cycle of wet and dry is healthy and necessary for the roots to grow out and reach deeper into the soil. Roots pull in oxygen as soil dries. If the soil is too wet, the plant cannot pull in oxygen. Here are two ways to determine if your plant needs water.
• Make sure you remove the chlorine when using tap water. Use a dechlorination solution.
Cannabis Vegetative Stage will last for a period of 3 to 16 weeks
Flowering Initiation
FloweringCannabis Stage Temperature:Benchmarks65-80˚ F (Temperatures will fluctuate during light on/off periods) Humidity: 40-50% Light: I changed the light schedule to start the flowering process. 12 hours of light/12 hours of darkness. I also increased the light intensity and, since complete darkness is essential, I did not disrupt or otherwise look in on my plants during their 12 hours of darkness. Height of Light: I hand test for heat, about 12”-16” above the plants Nutrients: I continue to follow the feeding schedule from General Organics. Water: Every 2-4 days depending on need, but I avoid overwatering. See H20 page 19. pH level of Water: 6.0-6.3 using tap water with a dechlorinator solution.The flowering stage lasts a total of 8 to 12 weeks, depending on the strain. Indica strains will take approximately 8 weeks to fully develop, Sativa strains 10 to 12 weeks, and hybrid strains 6 to 10 weeks.The flowering process has 3 separate stages: 1) Flower Initiation, 2) Mid-Flowering, and 3) Late Flowering. Flower Initiation (3-week process) During this stage the plants stretched and grew in both size and height. Some doubled in size. The female plants started blooming with pre-flowers. Their pistils looked like white hairs. By the end of the third week, the plant started forming its bud sites in the plant nodes.
Mid-FloweringLateFlowering/Ripening
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 21
Late Flowering/Ripening (2 to 5 week process) The buds gain the most weight in the last few weeks, and become sticky. The aroma is very strong. The pistils show white, cream or brown colors and get covered in trichomes. Jon advised me to pay close attention to the trichomes – a magnifying glass came in handy. When trichomes are around 50%, the THC level is at its peak in most strains. The trichomes started to turn from clear to a milky or amber color. Both of these are good indicators that it’s time to harvest!
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Scrogging works best when combined with plant topping. Topping your plants will help branches grow horizontally, increasing the surface area of your canopy so the light will hit as many bud sites as possible. Height: Set the screen about 1 ft. above the base of the plants. Size: It’s helpful to keep the same strains together as they will have a similar size and shape. If you have multiple strains, group them by height. Spacing: Be sure to space your plants properly. The branches of one plant should slightly interlock with the branches of the plants next to it. Generally speaking, this means about 1-2 ft. between pots. A better way to gauge spacing is to stretch out the longest branch of a plant toward the plant next to it. If it reaches the middle of the next plant, it’s too close; it should overlap with the longest branch of the adjacent plant by 6” or so.
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What is Scrogging?
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Mid-Flowering (2 week process) The plants stopped growing, the buds started to get fat, and the pistils got darker. By maintaining a good feeding schedule during this period, the size of my buds increased and the plants formed strong aromatic components. I stopped pruning to avoid upsetting the plants’ hormones.
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The most rewarding part of my first home grow was the actual look on Jon’s face when he viewed the plants during the ripening stage. He said, “Dude, you’re killing it!” Hearing that from my mentor is all the encouragement I need to keep growing. Look for the next issue of FLX420 where I’ll talk about preparing for harvest, flushing the plants, trimming, drying and storage. Until next time, let’s grow together!
What I learned during this part of my grow Keep a daily journal.
Please share your home-grow stories and advice with FLX420. And/or send us photos of your best plants, or questions to be answered by our experts. Just visit FLX420.com/submit-here. Topping Seal the wound by pinching it with your fingers.
I still find that controlling the temperature and humidity is the most challenging aspect of growing cannabis indoors. For reference, my interior room is only 8’ by 9’ and I’m using a 5’ x 5’ grow tent. If I had more time, I would have let the plants grow a week or two longer during the vegetative stage to increase their size before flowering. Scrogging. I need to do a better job of stretching out canopies in the future to increase my overall yield.
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In an ideal situation, your grow light should run at 100% intensity. In my case, in a small indoor room with no air conditioning, I was only able to run the light at 55% which seemed to be the sweet spot for maintaining consistent I’vetemperatures.hadtheopportunity to chat with other home growers and have come to realize that everyone has their own techniques and very strong opinions on what works best for a successful cannabis grow. Fascinating!
Jobs. A Q&A with Aidan Coffey
I don’t know the exact data off the top of my head, but I imagine New York has a population three or four times greater than Colorado’s. That would put the 30,000-to-60,000 figure in the ballpark. And those are just the workers directly involved in the industry. The numbers don’t include the data security company that doubled its workforce because so many cannabis companies came on board, or the restaurant next door to the dispensary that tripled its number of servers to keep up with the additional diners. As the cannabis industry grows in New York, we’re not only going to see new businesses open, we’re also going to see more customers for existing businesses. I’m thinking of armored truck companies, long haul truckers, accountants, lawyers … there will be demand for just about every skill set you can think of.
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 23
As an organizer and representative of the New York State cannabis workers union Local 338, Aidan Coffey has had a front-row seat to the slow unfolding of the industry here. This summer, while cannabis businesses are still hanging in the hurry-up-and-wait mode, we reached out to get his perspective on its potential for jobs and the kind of industry Local 338 is helping to shape.
Positions range from medical consultants and pharmacists in retail shops – “budtenders” – to cultivation and processing workers operating heavy and complicated machinery in state-of-the-art facilities. Ancillary positions make up the second-biggest category. They include security, IT, construction, building
The Topic?
How many jobs are available today in New York’s cannabis industry, Aidan? How many in five years? It’s early in the cannabis job market here. There are only 10 medical cannabis organizations in the state right now, so cannabis jobs measure in the very low thousands. However, when grows and dispensaries are up and running, those numbers will grow exponentially. I think by 2027 they will measure in the tens of thousands. State projections are in the range of 30,000 to 60,000 cannabis jobs when the market matures. One way to forecast it is to look at other states – Colorado for instance, the first state to legalize adult-use cannabis. After 10 years, Colorado has 30,000 cannabis workers.
What industryspecificjobswill there be? I group them into two broad categories. The first is plant-touching jobs. They’re directly attached to cannabis licenses and involve the handling of cannabis products.
24 FLX420.com • Summer 2022 maintenance, accounting, shipping and receiving, among others. Tell me about Local 338. How does it serve the cannabis industry? It is one of the most progressive labor unions with a history that goes back 100 years. Folks in New York are probably most familiar with us for representing workers in the retail grocery sector; we’re part of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. It’s also the nationwide cannabis-workers union with 10,000 members across the country.InNew York, Local 338 was a key force behind the passage of the Compassionate Care Act – now within the state’s medical cannabis program – and the MRTA. We’ve been representing cannabis workers in the state’s medical industry since 2015. Our goal is to create an industry that provides careers for people, not just jobs. We want them to have highpaying union careers that can sustain families and communities, especially those ravaged by the War on Drugs. Union benefits are really a key part of it. They include excellent health and retirement plans, consistent wage growth, and a voice on the job for workers looking to build careers in the industry. How did you get involved – do you have a background in cannabis? I do. I worked for a dispensary company in Seattle called Have a Heart. I participated in the union organizing campaign there and then became a union organizer myself. I’ve organized cannabis workers in Massachusetts, Michigan, California, Washington, and Illinois. At the same time, I was paying close attention to the legislation in New York. I was impressed with the way the state approached legalization, with emphasis on social equity and empowering people of color who want to be entrepreneurs. I wanted to be a part of it. Besides benefits, what are other advantages of working in a union shop? Here’s an example: Have a Heart was bought out by another company. With an industry like this that’s in flux, that’s not uncommon. But since they had a union contract, employees didn’t have to worry about benefits or wages being cut by the new owners, or that the owners would get rid of Quality CBD Products FOR Niagara2023RetailINDIVIDUALSStoreMilitaryRd.Falls,NY14304 FORB2BBUSINESSESWholesaleWhiteLabel(716)362-9499 ONE HOLISTICSHEMP cGMP Certified NOFA Organic Certified ✓ ✓ LEARN MORE AND SHOP ONLINE OneHempHolistics.comLEARN MORE AND SHOP ONLINE OneHempHolistics.com • Farming • Extraction & Purification • Business-Ready Solutions • Investment Opportunities “New York views the legacy market as a partner. They want to bring them into the tent instead of building a tent and themleavingoutof it.”
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 25 the current employees and bring new ones in. What are the advantages for management? Reduction in turnover, for one. About six months after the union contract was in place at Have a Heart, I got a call from someone there who said company turnover was down 30 percent and they were more profitable than ever. That was 2018 or 2019. Today, with everyone talking about the Great Resignation, most employers will tell you that keeping good employees has become one of the trickier aspects of running a business. Many companies see the value of partnering with organized labor; others are more hesitant. But the state has required all cannabis companies, as a condition of licensure, to have what’s called a Labor Peace Agreement. An LPA is basically a promise by the company that it will respect the rights of workers to organize. That means they can’t use the tactics that have put Starbucks and Amazon in the news.
How would you rate the progress of the Cannabis Control Board and Office of Cannabis Management? People complain about the speed at which the Cannabis Control Board has rolled out regulations, but they should understand that overseeing and implementing three industry programs at once – the medical, the adult-use and the CBD hemp program – is a hugePlift.eople also need to understand that, unlike California that’s had Prop 215 since 1996, New York didn’t have hundreds of grows and dispensaries already in place when MRTA was passed. It is building the infrastructure from scratch. Add to it the emphasis on a robust social equity program, and it becomes clear that both the CCB and OCB are dedicated to not just getting the industry up and running, but also doing it in such a way that gets it right from the start. For instance, New York views the legacy market as a partner. They want to bring them into the tent instead of building a tent and leaving them out of it. Other states view legacy as a competitor – they want to get rid of it and have the legal market instead. You’ve got to give New York State credit for the way it’s building – from the ground up – what will be the firstor second-biggest cannabis market in the country.
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Grass Route First Stop on the “As the Finger Lakes soils and saysgeneticists,”cannabistoocideries,distillersbrewers,vintners,award-winningattractedweatherandso,willflowanditsEdVarno.
26 FLX420.com • Summer 2022
Q: Finger Lakes High View has been your home for many years. A: Ed Varno: Yes. Vanessa acquired the farm in the 1980s. It needed a lot of attention to prevent its further decline and to save it from developers. We met in the early 1990s and never looked back. We have succeeded in saving the property from becoming a housing tract and consider ourselves stewards of the land, a responsibility we take seriously. We opened our Airbnb in 2017 as a peaceful, private, and memorable getaway. We like people and enjoy sharing what we have with visitors. by Tina Manzer, photos by Mark Stash
Welcome to High View in Canandaigua, the first Airbnb venue in the region to openly welcome cannabis appreciators. The 22-acre horse farm features beautiful open pastures, several scenestealing barns, and five-star accommodations in an historic home. Unique views of legendary Bare Hill and South Hill in the Canandaigua Lake valley can be seen from its rolling hills. Five people-friendly Arabian horses live at High View with their equally charming owners, Vanessa Waters and her husband Ed Varno. Here, Ed recounts the couple’s journey to becoming Airbnb Super Hosts and explains the reasons they took the high road.
“Visitors can enjoy the high view or the view ‘high,’” say Airbnb hosts Vanessa Waters and Ed Varno. Smoking spots on the property are indicated by the presence of Sesh the Rooster.
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Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 27
What are your plans for High View as cannabis becomes more readily available? Vanessa and I will continue to offer a five-star stay here. Cannabis education will remain important: as others shared information with us, we, too, are willing to share what we have learned.Itis our hope that the state will see cannabis worthy of its agritourism and farm-to-table programs. Finger Lakes High View is accessible exclusively through Airbnb. For more information, visit nycannatour.com.
Where did your cannabis-accommodating ideas come from? We began following the subject when the U.S. began to discuss the impact of marijuana decriminalization. In 2014, when Colorado began selling recreational cannabis, we discovered “The Cannabist,” a section in The Denver Post’s Sunday edition. It was primarily educational with a list of online resources that offered information on cannabis and the future of the industry. That’s when our research began in earnest. In 2019 we took a cruise to Alaska – an early recreationalcannabis-sales state. Vanessa and I visited five dispensaries to learn about their marketing. We saw that cannabis was being viewed in a different cultural light that focused on, among other things, the science of growing the plant. Strains and potency had become measurable. Testing is improving all the time. The budtenders in Alaska were friendly and willing to share their knowledge. For us, it was very much like sitting with John Brahm of Arbor Hill Winery in South Bristol, talking about blending varietals and which grapes grown locally would complement our rare Finger Lakes Traminette. We realized that the cannabis culture fits hand-in-glove with New York State’s agritourism and farm-to-table initiatives. Vanessa and I asked ourselves, “Do we want to dive in?” We’re retired, so we had to consider the risks. We talked about the safest and easiest way to tap into the cannabis industry, and decided we would not invest in stock, seek state licenses, or offer products for sale. Instead, we would simply set some rules and promote our Airbnb as being a location for “Your Cannabis Experience.”Wesaw an immediate uptick in our bookings. Like us, our visitors are amazed at the legalization of recreational adult-use cannabis in the home state of the harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws we knew in the 1970s. Compared to pre-MRTA, what’s different in the way you operate now? Smoking has always been permitted on our property except inside the house and barns. We embraced the recent legalization of cannabis and offer our guests open-air places with great views to sit, relax and get elevated. Are other lodging venues in our area following suit? We have not seen other Airbnb offerings in the region openly welcome visitors who wish to enjoy cannabis. We realize that it’s still an emerging situation.
Biomimicry is the integration and imitation of the natural world, and natural processes and phenomena, into controlled environments, processes and products. While the concept may seem foreign, we see various components of this at play in most cannabis grows. For instance, a greenhouse or indoor grow mimics the natural life cycles of the sun. Controlling the frequencies and duration of exposure to light allows the plant to thrive in an environment that it is genetically programmed to need and want. LED lights are essentially a biomimetic tool, because they harness the benefits of the natural cycles at their best. Within your soil, biomimicry can be implemented by encouraging beneficial microbes and the natural biology of the soil. When we move into indoor or controlled environments, we sometimes exclude many of these naturally occurring components – thus losing crucial components of the natural symbiosis of the soil. Safe and clean biology can be implemented within controlledenvironment agriculture to create these harmonious relationships. Sterilized or partially sterile environments that lack diversity in biology and microbial life disrupt the natural interactions between the soil and the plant.
Modern growing techniques often exclude natural processes that are beneficial for the plant. These modified practices focus primarily on singular crop qualities, such as greater yield, brighter color, or a specific THC content. This creates a deficit on the full-spectrum potential of the plant. A tomato grown in a biologically limited and modified environment may look plump, ripe, and delicious, but is likely to have a fraction of the flavor of the same tomato grown under a more diverse set of conditions.
28 FLX420.com • Summer 2022
MimickingNature in ControlledEnvironmentsGrow
In its most natural state, a cannabis plant benefits from the organic nutrients within its soil environment. In a controlled environment, we replicate it by feeding the plants nutrients. Still, sterilized environments limit the bioavailability of these nutrients, making the uptake and digestion of them take much longer. To adjust this, micronized nutrients can go through systems to be better – and more quickly by Selah Moore,@bio365soilbio365 natural process is called environment.”smallerorgrowintobeThistensiometer.atoolcanconnectedlargescalesystemsusedinagrow
Mimicking the organic processes and diverse microbiology of the natural world enables the plant to fulfill its full spectrum potential. Reproducing these natural elements in both your soil and grow space can be done through a process known as biomimicry.
KellyMissybyPhoto
Extremely limited and controlled systems are focused on one component of the crop performance rather than the full spectrum of performance and capability. The more controlled and distant your system is from the natural biological system of the plants, the more high-risk the growing environment will be. In trading the full potential for specific plant traits, you lose the strength and resilience that comes with a diverse soil and microbial environment. The use of biomimicry processes within areas such as our soils, our light cycles and our watering levels increases the potential for a crop to improve both yield and quality traits. The biology of our modern-day crops has evolved through unique influences in our natural soils and environments. If we want to maximize their potential, and work with the plant rather than against it, we must look to nature. The natural systems and biological processes guide us by encouraging the full capabilities of the cannabis plant.
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 29 In this new and growing industry, it’s important to have a partner you can trust! Contact JD Chapman today for your Cannabis and Cannabis related insurance needs. Some of the Coverage we offer: General Liability • Property Product Liability • Workers Comp From seed to sale we have you covered. Find us on Facebook and Instagram Macedon Office 66 Main Street Macedon NY macedon@jdchapmaninc.com315-986-406214502 Canandaigua Office 498 North Main Street Canandaigua NY 14424 canandaigua@jdchapmaninc.com585-394-5482 FOR SALE Contact Valley Hemp Research LLC. for showing and details Valleyhempresearch@gmail.com Warehouse on 3.10 acres •3 phase electric •Village water and gas •Septic is on the property, recently inspected •Large parking lot •Located in Steuben County — Exact location can be offered at inquiry •Zoned multi-use commercial/residential •Possible owner financing The First Upstate Cannabis Cup is seeking NY’s best growers to apply for judging in Early October $10,000 to the winner absorbed – by the plants. Some companies, such as bio365, can deliver these nutrients compacted into the substrate itself, allowing them to be digested by the plant more easily.
In a controlled environment, the water retention of the soil is often mismanaged, resulting in overwatering. This means that the plant does not experience the natural water stress that helps it reach its full-spectrum potential –the most yield, higher cannabinoid content, and health benefits. When looking at water retention through the lens of biomimicry, the challenge is to examine the ways in which natural soils retain water and release water to plants. One of the ideal tools to help mimic this natural process is called a tensiometer. This tool can be connected into largescale grow systems or used in a smaller grow environment. Placed in your root zone, this tensiometer doesn’t measure soil moisture, but rather the water availability to your plant. It mimics the plant’s root and measures how much tension the root has to exert to pull water. In essence, it is an artificial root that will tell you whether your plants’ roots can pull water or not, so you’ll know when your plant is drinking and when it is not.
Selah Moore is a cannabis journalist and copywriter who focuses on the integrity of the cannabis plant, the soil and the cultivars. Her work has been featured in a variety of print publications and media platforms. Selah is also a moreworkedcannabisthird-generationfarmerwhohasintheindustryforthan10years–but has had one foot in it all her life. @selahgraceful
FLAVOR Sweet vanilla cake batter. Smells exactly like blueberry muffins straight out of the oven!
For Intermediate Growers
FLAVOR Papaya, strawberry, and Juicy Fruit gum
BENEFITS Uplifting; even somewhat motivational. Ethereal. Can help with stress relief.
Just like hops, a vegetable, is engineered to make beer taste like newmown grass or gooseberries; cannabis – an herb – is being bred to taste like poundcake, grape jelly, and buttery garlic. Those are just a few of the plant flavors you can grow using Humboldt Seed Company seeds.
CrémeVanillaStoopidSlightlyPie (Indica)
Seeds with a Flava!
BENEFITS A heavy hitter with possible couch-lock qualities. Can be beneficial as a sleep aid. Also has appetite-stimulant qualities. High THC – I’ve heard it may be a helpful strain for people trying to kick opiate addiction.
HSC was founded in 2001 in California’s Emerald Triangle where the legendary terroir – a magical combination of soil and climate – produces the best weed on the planet. The company began by breeding strains and cloning plants to treat patients protected under Prop 215. Since then, Humboldt Seed Company has evolved to include the recreational market. Its mission is to provide high-quality cannabis seeds to customers who want to grow their own plants. Today, Humboldt Seed Company operates satellites in legalized markets in the U.S. and worldwide. Here, HSC’s Founder & CEO Nathaniel Pennington shares growing tips for seven of the company’s strains – something for every level of grower from beginner to advanced. Be sure to check out the information for Hella Jelly, a possible option for outdoor growers in New York.
For Beginner Growers
30 FLX420.com • Summer 2022 Flowering Time 45 days Flowering Time Flowering Time 65 days MuffinBlueberry (Indica)
FLAVOR Sweet vanilla fuel
Credit: Kandid Kush, All Cali Farms
BENEFITS Mood elevating and stress reducing. Calms the nerves and relaxes without heavy sedative qualities. Not likely to cause anxiety.
Register your email for our product catalog, breaking news and new product roll-outs. Look out for Grateful Valley Farms branded Live Resins, Tinctures, Salves & more.
to deliver relief and
GROWING TIPS
wherever you may be on your cannabis journey so you can
feel at
and wake up happier everyday. • Supplying area dispensaries & processors • Popular, Medicinal & Craft varieties • Quality Tested for Safety, Cannabinoids & Terpenes • Sun and Greenhouse Grown • Organic, Regenerative and Sustainable Tess Interlicchia gratefulvalleyfarmllc@gmail.comFounder/Owner
It’s a heavy feeder that needs some trellising – a medium amount, not as much as Stoopid Fruits. Plan for a long flowering cycle. It gets purple, but only if it’s exposed to cooler temperatures.
Our
GROWING TIPS
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 31
GROWING TIPS
It’s tall and a big producer. Plan for a longer flowering time which leads to really nice, large flowers. A moderate to heavy feeder, Stoopid Fruits definitely benefits from trellising.
This is a short and wide plant – something to take into consideration when you allocate space in your grow room or greenhouse. In terms of light positioning, you can keep lights relatively low because the plants don’t get super tall. The flowering cycle comes on strong and fast – so fast that some people don’t get the flowering nutrients going quickly enough! If you plan on feeding throughout the growth of the plant, start the phosphorous nutrients sooner than you think. Blueberry Muffin is a moderate feeder and may not need trellising.
grown
Grateful Valley Farm is a woman-owned farm, providing quality recreational and medicinal flower organically. mission is joy smile, ease gratefulvalleyfarm.com
It’s a small world: Nathaniel Pennington was born in Canandaigua. His family lived in nearby Honeoye but moved to Philadelphia when Nat was in elementary school. He came back though, to attend RIT’s School for American Crafts, and then headed west. Nat arrived in California just as the state was defying federal law with a new medical marijuana initiative. Growing pot became Nat’s favorite hobby. He was good at it. humboldtseedcompany.com
FLAVOR Blue cotton candy, strawberries and grapes
CupcakeBlueberry (Indica) Sour Apple (Sativa)
Flowering
BENEFITS It has relaxing qualities like the Blueberry Muffin, but packs a little more punch and is definitely higher testing. A little more sedative. Folks tell us they enjoy rolling joints of Blueberry Muffin and Poundcake together. Now they don’t have to combine because we’ve done it for them.
BENEFITS High in sesquiterpenes, which last much longer than the common monoterpenes. In other words, it provides the benefits that come with terpenes but for much longer. It’s high in THC, but not necessarily a couch-lock strain – more of a psychoactive without the sedative. Better for creativity. Consistently producing test results in the 30s.
BudderGarlic (Indica)
Hella Jelly (Sativa)
Time 70 days
Time 60 days Flowering Time 75 - 85 days
BENEFITS Potency is usually in mid 20s. It’s a good all-around cannabis varietal. You can smoke a whole joint and it will hit like a ton of bricks. Or, you can take a bong rip and still have a productive afternoon. In general, it has uplifting properties.
FLAVOR It has blueberry from the Blueberry Muffin strain, and gas and cake come from its Humboldt Poundcake ancestry. FLAVOR Gassy, with tangy fuel and crisp green apple. Has more of the apple nose at the beginning of flower. Then, towards the end of the growth cycle, the classic gas terpenes come through a little at a time.
BENEFITS Very strong: a knockout, potency wise. Can be good for managing pain. Through our California labs it has consistently tested over 30% THC.
FLAVOR Savory terpene profile. Smells more like a fueltype strain than a fruit or dessert strain, but it’s in a category all its own – pungent and herbal, skunky, with hints of thyme. Imagine walking into a kitchen on Thanksgiving after somebody has burnt the stuffing.
Flowering Time
For Intermediate Growers
Flowering
For Advanced Growers
Try an Autoflower
GROWING TIPS Tall and lanky; requires a lot of trellising. Stems are pretty strong. Toward the end of the flowering cycle it stretches and reaches – a challenge for trellising and light position. If you’re not ready, the light configuration could end up too low. A moderate feeder, it will go purple if exposed to the cold. A lot of frost makes the flowers attractive. Good contrast on the purple and green. A little tricky knowing when to harvest. Many golf-ball-sized buds all over rather than big, long, individual flowers. The golf balls add up, but it takes someone with experience to know when to call it.
GROWING TIPS
in all environments. Ideal for a quick turnaround in regions where fall arrives early for outdoor growers. It’s a fast finisher with moderate trellising Flowerrequirements.onsetis super quick so start the flowering nutrients on the early side. You don’t want to wait too long and miss that crucial feeding window.
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GROWING TIPS Hella Jelly is a great performer
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 33
GROWING TIPS Sometimes hits closer to 60 days instead of 70 for flowering, depending on conditions. This one will turn purple with cold exposure. If you go for the color, the room needs to get down to 50˚F at night when the lights are off in the last three weeks before harvest. Some individual plants may turn more purple than others. There will be a little variability here for individual plants.
It’s really uniform; one of our most-uniform autos as far as phenotypic expression. It’s easy to manage and helps make your growing space more organized. It’s super predictable – helpful for planning your growing space. Plants usually end up with a main top and four lateral branches. The whole plant will be roughly 16 inches wide and about 3 feet tall.
Fun fact! A female thrip lives for more than a month and lays up to 80 eggs a week. Multiply that by 300 females and you got yourself a bighimselfdoctorthebydiagnosedissuesgrowyourproblem!THE tankdank M A R C O asked: What is causing the white spots on my leaves?
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 35
Stalking is a very important step. If the pest lays eggs on the foliage, you might not need to treat the soil. Depending on your method, treating the soil can be very stressful to your plant. Unfortunately for us, thrips lay eggs under the foliage, in stems, or really any soft tissue of the plant. Then, the creeps will hatch into a larva and start going to town chowing on your plants. Afterwards they fall down, creepily, into the soil to pupate. (Yes! I looked that word up on google lol.) They emerge from the soil a creepy adult thrip – with wings! Killing the bug-gers For thrips, the first step is to remove all the damaged foliage and purchase an insecticidal spray. There are a ton of options, but I recommend Athena’s IPM. It’s an organic mixture of essential oils that kill thrips and most pests on contact. You can use it as a weekly treatment so it will never happen again. When spraying the plant, you want to soak every part. If your plants are small enough, fully submerge the plants into a pail full of the IPM mixture by flipping them upside down and dipping them in. Treating the soil and foliage You can do a soil drench with any number of different solutions but be careful: your root zone is delicate. It’s not easy to reverse the damage done because of hard oils. I prefer using beneficial nematodes which are equally as creepy as the pest, maybe more so. But sometimes the only way to kill a creep is to find something creepier. You mix the nematodes into your water and then water your plant thoroughly. Directions vary depending on the species you have, so read them! The nematodes will attack the thrips and lay their babies in them (told you they were creepy). Since it takes two to 14 days for thrip eggs to hatch, we will be repeating foliar sprays every four days and treat again with nematodes once a week. Then you will have resolved your issue like a true OG. In conclusion Thrips are one of the easiest pests to identify. If caught early by an observant gardener, they’re also one of the easiest to eliminate. But as I said in the beginning, the best way to get rid of pests is to prevent them from the beginning Got a grow issue? Send your questions to the Dank Tank at flx420.com/submit-here/. To read more about Dr. Dankenstein, see page 36.
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Meet Joshua Waterman. He grew and sold weed before it was legal to do so. Now he wants a place in the new cannabis industry, and hopes the state won’t screw him over.
The Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act has a focus on fairness, which most people, including Josh, applaud. Among its goals is awarding 50 percent of the licenses to run a legal operation to “social and economic equity applicants” – people who were previously convicted of marijuana-related offenses and their families. It is a unique approach among states that have legalized recreational pot. But more than a year in, no licenses have been issued for social equity reasons yet. The state has placed social and economic equity applicants first in line for licenses to sell cannabis in retail dispensaries, but the application portal wasn’t open by the time FLX420 went to press.
“I was expecting to see was some kind of legacy license, at least for growers,” he continues. “One of the ideas put forth was a mentorship program where a legacy individual would team up with a hemp farm. I think by Tina Manzer Photos by Ashley Eberhardt
Until recently, most folks knew him as Dr. Dankenstein, the mythical maestro behind the underground pot brand. For years, his products were discussed in reverential whispers among folks inthe-know. They knew his Space Pineapple and Purple Waldo strains, but never his real name. He operated so low on the down low that he’s hesitant today to answer basic questions like, “Where are you from?” (“Central New York,” the doctor pinpointed, vaguely). Recently, he came out of the shadows. “I can come out in the open because I’m not doing anything illegal,” Josh explained. “I gave it up.” He hopes to channel his pre-MRTA operation into a legal business, a dream he felt encouraged to follow after lawmakers stated publicly they would welcome people like him – the “legacy market” – into New York’s legal industry. They even discussed the path they would create to make it happen.
Under construction
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 37
Josh wanted to set a positive example by being among the first legacy growers to follow that path. To get other “illicit” operators to join him, he cofounded the Legacy Growers Association in April. When he had to register the 501c3 organization under his name, his name, he stepped out of the gray market. Since then, he’s become an unlikely spokesperson for his legacy colleagues. Along with leaders from other advocacy groups, Josh is lobbying elected officials and representatives from the state’s Office of Cannabis Management on policy beneficial to legacy’s interests. So far, interactions between the advocates and state officials have not yet yielded results – unless you count frustration. Granted, much of it on both sides is due to the difficulty of creating one of the nation’s biggest cannabis industries in less than two years. “I get that,” says Josh, “but as someone who has navigated in the legacy industry for most of my life, I’ve learned never to judge people on what they say they plan on doing, but on what they have done already. So far, all we’ve got is a bunch of hemp farmers growing auto flowers, instead of hemp growers and legacy growers working side by side, helping and learning from each other along the way.”
“The state’s equity stance included a big push to involve legacy,” explains Josh. “Chris Alexander [executive director of New York’s State’s Office of Cannabis Management] stated that the success of the legal adultuse market depended on it. I don’t want to look like I’m attacking the OCM – they’re doing a lot of good things –but until they’re clear on how we’ll be included, I feel like it’s just talk. I’m afraid they’ve turned their back on us.
Why legacy growers are vital for a successful legal market
While many crops like onions and sweet corn are successfully grown outside, cannabis is not one of them, Josh explains. To see an example of the controlled environment needed to produce the best pot, turn to the home-grow article on page 18. And that’s just for beginners. Experienced legacy growers like Josh try every grow method available, especially techniques shared by other legacy cultivators, because they know what sells. And mediocre cannabis will not. According to Ryan Douglas, author of From Seed to Success, a guidebook for setting up a cannabis cultivation business, “Legacy growers know what it takes to create remarkable cannabis flower, from the right environmental setpoints to the best post-harvest techniques.”Sothestate doesn’t want to create a new legal market that ends up sending its customers to the illicit street market. But right now, the Office of Cannabis Management is stuck on how to verify bona fide legacy operators. “I’ve thought about it for a year, and I can’t figure out how to prove someone has or has not sold pot in their past,” Josh says. “I can, however, define a legacy grower beyond a shadow of a doubt. I can offer proof of 100 of them now using pictures and dates.” He and the other legacy advocacy groups are not ready to give up on finding a solution. Neither is the Office of Cannabis Management, Josh reports. After a rocky start, they reached out to continue their discussions in August. It’s encouraging news.
When I asked Josh why he chose to cultivate pot – and not corn or strawberries or apples – he said, “My favorite thing about growing pot is that I know for a fact I’m creating something that is helping the quality of life of anotherHisperson.”planisto apply for a license – to operate a microbusiness possibly, an entity like a craft brewery – or to be a designated cannabis caregiver, where the cannabis he grows on his own property would be used to treat people with Alzheimer’s, cancer, or other debilitating illnesses.
The first provisional grow licenses were issued in April with no social-equity or legacy mandates. More than 200 existing hemp farmers received licenses and were tasked with growing enough weed in their fields this summer to supply the state’s legal retail market when it opens. However, experts forecast they won’t produce enough to meet demand and what they do produce will not be nearly as good as the pot people can buy on the street.
“Like the OCM has said, ‘Let’s move on with what we can define,’” Josh recently posted on Instagram. “Let’s all move forward – minorities, legacy growers, and hemp farmers – to create a successful industry together.”
it’s a genius idea, exciting even. The possibilities made me come out from under cover and set myself up with a hemp farm. I took all the steps to get a cultivation license, but the opportunity just disappeared. I don’t know what happened.”
lives on a farm with his partner Tiny and their three dogs: Piper, Opie and Kush. He runs his own landscaping business. On Instagram, a space he uses to share videos, photos and stories focused on cultivating weed and the products of other legacy growers (among other things), he has 3,000 followers. If you read the comments in response to his posts, you can feel the love.
“Legacy people make up this huge community around the world, and we’ve always stayed connected through social media,” Josh explains. “Counter to popular belief, the legacy market has never been about greed, but about honesty. And setting a high standard of safety and quality and meeting it every time. Because when we don’t have any money, we only have a community. We have to be about what we say we’re about and keep our word. “People needed us,” he adds about his 10-plus years as an illicit grower. “A lot of people I worked with used cannabis for recreational purposes, of course – but not everyone. There are people who need cannabis as medicine. Sometimes they would come to me, and they couldn’t afford it, so I would give it to them cheaper or give it to them for free. I’m not the only one who did that. It’s what the whole legacy community is about.”
Under New York’s Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act passed last year, provision is made for the licensing of what are termed “microbusinesses.”
“The model helps open the industry to owners and operators who would otherwise be shut out, and is a positive, if imperfect, step towards a more accessible and equitable cannabis industry.”
Many people associate the cannabis microbusiness model with social equity initiatives because the license comes with lower startup costs, reduced entry fees and, often, priority license application review, notes Greenhouse Grower magazine.
The microbusiness model may be perfect for the Finger Lakes Craft Cannabis
Although specific requirements for microbusinesses remain to be seen (the requirements will be found in yet-to-be published regulations), it is hoped that, especially for our Finger Lakes Region, the state will recognize the success that craft beer, cider and spirits producers have had, and enable and incentivize cannabis microbusinesses in the same way. Under the act, a New York-licensed microbusiness will be able to cultivate and produce, process, distribute and deliver, and sell-at-retail cannabis and cannabis-infused products. Only microbusinesses will be able to perform all such “vertical” (from growth to sale) operations. As a general rule, under the act, cultivators and processors cannot also be retail sellers.
What then are the drawbacks of the microbusiness model? The downside to microbusinesses, as seen in states with existing microbusiness programs, is the limitation placed on the scale of a microbusiness’s operations. For example, in New Jersey, microbusinesses may have no more than 10 employees, facilities can be no larger than 2,500 square feet, and depending on license classification, production is limited to either 1,000 mature plants or 1,000 pounds of cannabis per month. New Jersey businesses involved in cultivation are limited to 24 feet of canopy height.
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Another “restrictive” feature of the New Jersey microbusiness program is that in by Gregory W. Lane, Lane Law PLLC
addition to requiring that all microbusiness owners be New Jersey residents, at least 51 percent of its owners and employees must reside in the municipality in which the microbusiness is located or in an adjacent municipality. Michigan, in recognition that its initial limitations on microbusinesses’ scale may have been too restrictive, has doubled the maximum plant count that a microbusiness may have, from 150 to 300. Also, Michigan now allows its microbusinesses to purchase mature plants, edibles, concentrates, etc., from licensed third-party sources rather than requiring them to be grown/produced in-house. One uncertain area for New York microbusinesses will be whether or not all operations (cultivation, production, processing and sale) will have to take place at one location or whether, for example, a microbusiness will be permitted to have one (or more) separate retail locations. Drawing a parallel with our state’s craft beer industry, although there are many single-site craft beer production-to-sale-to-on-site-consumption operations, there are also many craft brewers who use additional locations for production. Let’s hope that we see the microbusiness regulations soon. I am sure that there are many FLX420 readers who may be interested in understanding how well they can produce and develop products that are enjoyed by the public, even if not on a large scale. The microbusiness model may be exactly the right way for those folks to enter into the market. Greg Lane has been practicing real estate law and business transactions for more than 35 years. He is the principal partner of Lane Law PLLC and is affiliated with, and acts as counsel for, Knauf Shaw LLP in Rochester. In addition to his work in the cannabis space, he practices in all areas of real estate and commercial and business transactions. For more information, call 585-730-4611. NY
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Each container of the new CBD Energy Drink Mix from 4Fathers Organics has 15 servings of tropicalflavored energy-drink powder that contains 375mg of CBD, 75mg of caffeine and 12.5mg of CBG. A great substitute for morning coffee; supports recovery before and after exercise. 4fathersorganics.com/4fathers-energy-drink-mix/
Sivan Calm Gummies, available at Cornell’s Greenhaus, are a unique 25mg CBD blend with 150mg Ashwagandha and 100mg of American Ginseng in 30ct lemon lime flavor. Specialty formulated for the entourage effect with CBD, CBG, CBC and CBN. cbdcny.com
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The three-step Native Ceuticals Skin skincare system leads to healthier, cleaner and brighter skin. Includes 1: Gentle Foaming Cleanse, 2: Brightening Day Cream with SPF, 3: Night Cream with Collagen Enhancement. 631-823-0500 Liquid Gold, a potent topical, is perfect for travel for the entire family! With 3000mg per bottle, a little goes a long way. Provides relief from muscle and joint pain, skin irritations, and even bug bites. Blended with jojoba oil, menthol, lemon grass and aloe. $34.99. Get 15% off your first order. onehempholistics.com
Summer 2022 • FLX420.com 43 ENJOY Full spectrum CBD+THC pain cream, a top-selling product from Catskill Hemp Co., provides relief from arthritis pain and sore joints/muscles. It also quickly soothes dry/cracked skin. Retail $59.99 for a 4 oz. jar. cbdsourcecenter.com P’s offersTeas InfusionsHerbalmade in andgrowningredients,high-qualityethicallyNewFairport,York,withsourced,locallycannabis,lotsoflove. Instagram: ps_ paigey_chttps://linktr.ee/Toteas585order: exclusive, withformula,100-percentstandardized,THC-freeisdesignedtomeetthehealthandwellnessneedsofdogsandcats.cannabidiolconcentrationssalmonflavors.Perfectforkeepingyourpetcalmduringastormysummernight.1FLOZ/30ML cbdmiamishop.com The Futurola X Tyson 2.0 Cone Roller is a king-size classic by the rolling experts; it’s the original invented by our founders in Amsterdam. The roller is compatible with FxT2.0 Rolling Papers and Blunt Wraps from 84mm to 109mm in length. @FUTUROLA Dewey Ave. Smoke Shop introduces Zig-Zag’s Premium Rose Cones Partnering with the finest rose farms from around the world, Zig-Zag brings a natural and convenient way to enjoy a premium, tobaccofree, slow-burning experience. No artificial flavors or sprays 585-458-8824 The 2GoPipe is a smooth, high-quality smoking pipe you can carry in your wallet. It’s reusable, affordable, disposable and always ready to go. Available on Amazon and at the Finger Lakes Cannabis Company in Victor. doctoke.com
Fish Sh!t is the most robust beneficial bacterial available on the market, with over 4,000 specific and distinct species of living microbes and billions of microbes in every dose. Fish Sh!t increases flavors, oils and terpenes, nutrient uptake, and yield up to 30 percent.
OXYSAN 1522 controls damping-off, root disease and stem rot disease. This versatile, EPA-registered peracetic acid product can be used in drip irrigation systems and green houses to suppress/control algae and slime formations. It’s also effective as a pre-plant dip, seed treatment and for foliar applications.
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Blacksmith BioScience Armory from Green Merchant is a water-soluble powder derived from the beneficial bacteria Bacillus. It releases iron and manganese to plants which naturally helps in the prevention and treatment of pathogenic mildew and molds. blacksmithbio.com
Homegrown Hydroponics offers a complete AC Infinity setup. This all-in-one kit includes a 4-by-4-foot tent, LED light, inline fan, carbon filter, ducting, clamps, smart controller, two clip-on fans, trellis net, shears, fabric pots, and plant tie down. All you need is seeds and soil, which we sell, too.
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Key Grow Solutions’ Blue Butterfly makes the perfect high-performance, all-purpose base for cannabis, houseplants, fruits, and vegetables. With an even NPK ratio containing a full suite of micronutrients plus a unique polyamine delivery system to increase bioavailability, Blue Butterfly includes a proprietary potassium acetate and 17 l-amino acids.
315-759-0777 Pine State Seeds’ Garlic Budder variety provides prevalent spicy, garlicky terpenes, along with enticing buttery and nutty undertones. Expect aboveaverage growth, with tall bushy plants that are high-yielding and productive.
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THE limit
bio365 provides the CLEANEST, and most versatile medium we’ve ever used. —Potent Farms We switched to bio365 and INCREASED CROP YIELDS by 121%, total cannabinoids by 35% and terpenes by 45%. —Holistic Industries THE SOLUTION IS IN THE SOIL bio365.com844.707.3651 @ bio365soil
