Hitting High Gear

FIRST, WE FARM…

...AND, WHY SOME OF US HAD TO LEARN A NEW WORD

Blue sky. White clouds. Green hills. Is there anything better than May in the Williams Valley?

One thing becomes abundantly clear to us every year at this time. We are, first and foremost, farmers. We may celebrate New Year’s Day in January, but when agriculture is your business, May marks the new year, and it kicks off a fast-paced march toward hemp harvest time in the fall.

That’s not to say that plenty doesn’t go on the rest of the year. The cultivation and farm teams are behind the scenes, maintaining the farm and its growing systems, and have been busy choosing strains and seeds, sprouting plants, cloning, and doing all kinds of scientific and magical things that come with planting and harvesting hemp.

They’ve been building beehives and planting things besides cannabis, like cover crops, flowers to attract pollinators, and special ingredients that will end up in and fortify our compost. For those of us who sit at our desks and look out over the farm, the activity level is undeniable.

Planting is in full swing, and the first roots to hit the ground were something some of us needed an education on. Cannabis is like that. No matter how much you know, there’s more to learn. Those of us who don’t work with the plants started over-hearing this word and would wonder...what is that?

Autoflower.

Now, if you know anything about plants, you can assume that means they… well … flower automatically. And you’d essentially be right. But here’s why: they switch from the vegetative state to the flowering stage without the “12 light /12 dark” ratios typically required. And they do it quickly, meaning that we will have plants to harvest in 60 to 90 days!

So, in addition to our fast-paced march to hemp plant harvesting in the fall, we’ve got a faster-paced march to summer. That means more of this year’s cannabis product, sooner.

And we already know the word for that: Woohoo!

You can learn more about autoflowering cannabis here.

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