As cannabis cultivators who have worked in the industry for over a decade, we've tried multiple different growing methods to find what works best for us. We've had to discover where the perfect balance of working with the land and optimal efficiency lies to develop Giving Tree Farms into what it is today. Over the years, we've learned that our desire for optimal control over our environment and the need for multiple cultivation cycles throughout the year was only possible by evolving our approach. From the installation of both our cold-frame and climate-controlled greenhouses to the continuous improvement of our workflow, our personalized approach to sustainable cultivation provides our clients with the highest quality craft cannabis in the state.
Each farming location is going to define its own equation for sustainability, and because sustainability and efficiency often go hand-in-hand, we have to work around our individual land restrictions to find a process that works for both the farmer and the farm. On our farm in Anderson Valley, part of this discovery was exploring the native soil and what it can offer to our plants. While various soil types can work well for growing cannabis, typically, a loamy medium with added organic materials is ideal due to its sufficient water retention and adequate drainage. Unfortunately, our location has clay-based soil that isn't the best for cultivating cannabis. It may contain some beneficial nutrients, but it offers poor drainage, it's heavy and compact, and it isn't easy to work with. This is why we don't personally use inground, raised beds, or Hugelkultur cultivation methods to grow our cannabis. Instead, we use pots filled with the soil we amend to perfection each year. Reusing and rebuilding the soil eliminates the single-use plastic bags the soil comes in and the environmental impact of transporting the dirt to our farm. It also gives us control over what is in the soil, like the amount of organic matter, nutrient availability, and pH levels, so we can produce a superior product every time.
With efficiency a key goal on our farm, we are always looking for ways to decrease overhead without sacrificing quality or our relationship with the environment. We can often achieve this by tweaking our workflow and finding creative ways to cut the time it takes to perform a task. Using pots has helped us do this in a big way - by giving us the flexibility to quickly and easily move our plants around the farm. For the summer cultivation cycle, we save ourselves time, soil, and resources by not transplanting our most established teens and, instead, keeping them in their 25-gallon pots and just moving them straight into the flowering canopy. Not having to transplant keeps our operation efficient and set up for commercial output. When harvest time comes along, we dump the used soil into a pile that we winterize and rebuild for use the following year. The newly empty pots are then washed and stored so we can reuse them in future cycles. We use our pots as many times as we can, keeping them in rotation until they are unable to do their job any longer. At that point, we either find another purpose for the cracked pots, like for tool storage, as trash bins, or as harvesting baskets for our veggie garden, or recycle it if it's damaged so severely that we cannot repurpose it.
Sustainability is unique to every cultivation operation, and here at Giving Tree Farms, we've found cultivating in pots is the best for our land's unique design and our business's goals. Due to our native soil's composition, it was necessary to create our own medium for our craft cannabis, and because we've also found workflow support by using pots, we feel it assists us in providing more purchasing options to the California craft cannabis market. If you're a buyer looking for outstanding sustainably-grown craft cannabis, Giving Tree Farms has what you need. We value transparency in our operation and even offer farm tours so our wholesale partners can see the facility in person and feel every drop of love and care we pour into our plants. If you're interested in a farm tour, please send us an email at hello@givingtreefarms.org, or click here to fill out a Wholesale Account Form and stay up-to-date on the latest Giving Tree Farms inventory.