GROW PRACTICES
Root Cellar B Y M R . R O O T S O F A L I G H T FA R M S
Is “Bag Appeal” all that Appealing? An area where growers are experiencing increased pressure is the need to make their product assimilate to a certain aesthetic via the relatively modern standard of “bag appeal.” This has many positive aspects and has raised current trimming standards. We are seeing less sugar trim shag, less leaf petioles, and little to no ducks feet on flowers for sale. “Bag appeal” can change from region to region, but it largely refers to buds that are dense, trichome covered, tightly trimmed, and relatively uniform in structure, with an absence of smaller “popcorn” buds, or those that are pinky nail sized, in the package. While “bag appeal” is purely superficial, many times it can drive a sale before the consumer even smells or samples the product. Unfortunately, the way a cannabis flower looks has relatively nothing to do with how it can affect you, how it can taste, how cleanly it will combust, or how well it was grown.
Sun-Grown vs. Indoor-Grown Cannabis The modern cannabis landscape is steadily evolving. Medical and adult-use legislation are spurring constant change. Growers, like me, are being affected in production and are seeing changes in the ways consumers view cannabis. These changes are bringing about a need for cannabis growers to examine the market in ways that we have not previously needed to. Due to a steady stream of new personal-use, at-home growers and commercial scale investors, profit and loss, shrinking margins, and increased overhead are of greater concern. Higher market saturation is leaving growers wondering how we will make a name for ourselves. Do we want to rely on “bag appeal” alone or is there a way to grow quality product while also considering the larger environmental impact of the cannabis industry? The changes are largely driven by consumers, who have succeeded in making the market very fickle here in Maine. If the product does not speak for itself—or, if it is not what someone wants—consumers have the ability to go elsewhere to find what they are after. This is very evident with the presentation and aesthetics of modern day cannabis flowers.
18
MAINECANNABISCHRONICLE.COM
The market has evolved to a point where natural sun-grown cannabis is being sold next to flowers that have essentially been grown in lab-like conditions. This indoor-grown flower has, in just 25 years, changed nature’s choice flower to second fiddle status, largely due to appearance. I have sampled so many dense, frosty buds over the years that have had little to no noticeable effects on me. Some had very little taste and some tasted flat-out awful. Choosing cannabis based solely on bag appeal is akin to grocery shopping while hungry; you are likely to be drawn to what first catches your eye, with some level of impulsivity. There is no other aspect of the industry where this is more pronounced than with the “sun-grown vs. indoor” debate. At a recent cannabis community sesh, Alight For Health/Alight Farms showed up to vend with several cultivars grown both indoors and in a greenhouse. Over the course of the evening, most consumers would check out the sun-grown greenhouse flowers in our jars, realize that they were not indoor, and promptly step over toward the jars that were grown indoors. Both flower examples were veganically grown in no-till soil, without anything different about them apart from the fact that one of them was grown in a greenhouse under Maine sun, direct into Maine soil. These flowers are not your Uncle John’s leafy, hay-smelling home stone. Our greenhouse flowers are fairly dense, trichome-covered, well trimmed, lab-tested (with surprisingly positive results for cannabinoids and terpenes), and smell amazing. Despite these factors, they were largely passed on in lieu of our indoor-grown flowers.
