Leading cultivation expert urban-gro to speak at NCIA’s Q4 Quarterly Cannabis Caucus in Boston on Oct. 13
BOSTON (September 27, 2016) – Massachusetts Commercial Cannabis Cultivators will see their ranks grow to over 60 state-licensed operations in the next year, offering patients better access to critical medicine, but also putting pressure on growers to lower their cost per pound. urban-gro, the product solutions expert for the commercial Cannabis cultivator, provides services and products to the state’s cultivators, and Director Mark Doherty notes that adopting large scale agricultural practices that provide efficiency in operations will be critical for growers in the coming years. Doherty will discuss these practices when he visits with industry leaders at NCIA’s Q4 Quarterly Cannabis Caucus in Boston on Oct. 13. urban-gro is a premier sponsor for the event that provides state and federal briefing on marijuana legalization.
“For years, Cannabis cultivation was kept in the basement, but with state legalization, old school home grown techniques like hand watering put growers at a major competitive disadvantage,” Doherty said. “Every serious cultivator needs to look at efficiencies of operation in fertigation, integrated pest management, lighting and building controls.”
Additionally, many Massachusetts grows are being built into existing structures. Urban-gro helps cultivators get ahead of the curve by working to maximize canopy space, benching and lighting. Urban-gro also works with cultivators in advance of buildout to ensure potential issues such as room size, airflow, and lighting do not negatively affect future harvests. “Environmental controls, pest management and disease management are critical to cultivators’ yields and product consistency,” Doherty said.
“Massachusetts cultivators need to ensure they have early stage integrated pest management in place,” Doherty noted. “Bringing genetics into a grow creates the potential for diseases such as powdery mildew, so growers want to be sure to have cultural and environmental controls in place.”
Doherty has over a decade of experience in controlled environment agriculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, food security and distribution. urban-gro provides innovative lighting and pest management solutions to growers around the country. urban-gro is a distributor of P.L. Light Systems, which develops and manufactures the most advanced horticulture fixtures on the market. Earlier this year, they released HortiLED, a new line of LED lighting for the Cannabis market. HortiLED products feature unique LED optics, custom engineered to deliver optimum lighting performance for specific indoor and greenhouse Cannabis cultivations. In addition, urban-gro’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) helps growers achieve healthy, pest-free crops through the use of biological controls, cultural management, chemical control and exclusion. urban-gro’s extensive experience with large scale horticultural automation allows growers to save money while staying ahead of the competition.
On November 8, Massachusetts residents will vote on a bill to legalize the recreational use, possession, cultivation and sale of marijuana. According to recent polls, a majority of voters support the measure. Currently, there are no limits on the number of dispensaries allowed in the state but dispensary applicants must go through an extensive and expensive application process and meet heavy regulations. However, Massachusetts has been an emerging front-runner for medical marijuana sales, with patients purchasing 9,576 ounces of marijuana in 65,270 individual transactions between the end of June 2015, when the first dispensary opened in Salem, and the end of November 2015.
Doherty will offer insight from urban-gro at NCIA’s Boston Q4 Caucus, which will host the state’s foremost cultivators and business leaders on October 13 from 6:30-9:00pm at Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, Mass
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Shawna McGregor at 917-971-7852 or shawna@rosengrouppr.com.
ABOUT URBAN-GRO
urban-gro provides product solutions for the commercial Cannabis cultivator. We provide commercial grade LED and HPS grow light systems, integrated pest management, automated fertilization / irrigation solutions, and a complete line of water treatment solutions. We understand that each grow is unique and every facility presents a different set of opportunities and challenges. By taking the time to understand your unique circumstances, we offer customized product solutions to help you meet your cultivation goals. Visit www.urban-gro.com to learn more. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
