At CULTA, there’s a lot that goes into producing our high-quality medical cannabis, extracts, and edibles. Yes, we have some of the brightest minds in the industry working at our Cambridge cultivation facility and our outdoor grow operation was the first of its kind east of the Mississippi, but we also invest heavily in premium technology systems that make our cultivation team’s jobs easier.
In this blog, we’ll give our patients a sneak peek at some of the cutting-edge technology that helps produce Maryland’s favorite craft cannabis.
Building management system
One benefit of growing cannabis indoors is that it allows cannabis cultivators to fully control the environment. With that being said, there are a ton of moving parts to manage -- from temperature and moisture to light and heat. That’s where a building management system comes in. With a few small adjustments, our cultivation team can monitor and control environmental factors like temperature, humidity, CO2, and light intensity. (Um, can we get one for the entire state of Maryland, please!?)
We use Priva, which also spits out in-depth graphs of our grow rooms and helps us make even better decisions that are driven by data.
Environmental monitoring system
This system is very similar to the building management system mentioned above, except this one lets us make adjustments on the strain level. Yep, you read that right -- with our EarthScout environmental monitoring system we can develop “recipes” of different irrigation, lighting, and environmental factors for each and every strain we grow. The system uses multiple sensors to monitor soil moisture, soil temperature, and salinity, in addition to air temperature and humidity and then automatically makes adjustments per the recipe. So, our question is -- how the heck was cannabis grown before this system!
“Getting our EarthScout system was a cultivation game changer,” said Jay Bouton, CULTA’s Senior Director of Cultivation. “With the system, we set up each strain with its own recipe. It really took a lot of the manual work out of cannabis cultivation, allowing my team to focus on higher priority issues.”
Ozone generator
Without clean water, it’s impossible to grow healthy cannabis plants even if all the other environmental factors are perfect. Like humans, cannabis plants rely on water to grow and build “muscle” (aka beautiful cannabis buds). This is why we invested in a state-of-the-art ozone generation system for our crops. Like a Brita water filter for your tap water, this system destroys any pathogens in water so our plants are only drinking the cleanest water possible. As an added benefit, it also keeps our irrigation lines clean which cuts down on our maintenance and repair costs.
Over time, these savings allow us to invest in even more technology that improves our patient’s medication (and their lives). It’s a win-win for everyone.
LED lighting
In case you missed it, the leadership at CULTA recently made some pretty aggressive goals to reduce our carbon footprint. We love Mother Nature and everything she provides us with (cannabis included), so a lot of our technology upgrades involve investing in technology that’s better for the environment. One of the first (of many) environmentally-friendly improvements was upgrading to LED lighting. Being able to control our lighting allows us to enrich our plants’ cannabinoid, terpene, and flavonoid profiles. On top of that, it also helps us to cut operation costs and reduce our carbon footprint.
Cannabis tech is constantly changing
What do we love most about technology in the cannabis industry? Like technology in other industries, we love that it’s constantly changing! Innovations are being made each and every day, and new products are constantly hitting the market. It’s difficult to determine what the next big technology advancement will be, but one thing is for certain: without cannabis technology, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do best -- grow top shelf cannabis for our patients in Maryland!
So, the next time you’re in our Baltimore dispensary picking up a CULTA product, you’ll know a little bit more about all the technology that went into what you’re holding in your hand.
