Approximately half of all dispensary sales are dry flower, with the other half consisting of everything from edibles to extracts.
As the cannabis industry expands, so too will the lucrative extract market. Commercial cultivators would be wise to serve both needs, but if you’ve never grown a crop that’s destined for extraction, the path forward can be riddled with uncertainty.
For growers new to the world of extraction, here are four key points to keep in mind as you plan and cultivate for success.
- Start with the final product and work backward.
Cultivation businesses that intend to sell their crop for extraction must organize their production program with the finished product in mind. Cultivators who plan their grow operation first and their extraction lab second will likely find themselves frustrated when it comes time to process their biomass.
Cultivating just any variety with the general, undefined goal of “extracting stuff later” can prove costly. This short-sightedness can result in poor quality extracts, low yields and higher operational costs.
Given the wide range of products created from the cannabis flower, knowing how your plants will be used is vital in determining strain selection, post-harvest equipment and logistics.
What will the plant biomass be used for? Live resin? Crumble? Shatter? Oil for vape pens, or maybe just isolate? Is the biomass coming from outdoor crops or a climate-controlled indoor facility? Does the product need to be dried before processing, or can it be extracted fresh? Are you processing the whole flower or only trim?
Answering these questions is the first step to defining a successful extraction plan. Before you start the hunt for genetics or develop your post-harvest strategy, first be clear about the finished product.
- Don’t be fooled by resinous plants.
The criteria for selecting cannabis varieties for dry flower sales are not always the same as those for extraction. A high-THC cultivar that finishes covered in trichomes won’t necessarily result in copious amounts of high-THC oil in the extraction lab.
“Not all cannabis washes the same,” says Jason Tueni, chairman and CEO of Oak Canna, LLC. “You’ve got to really know what you are growing it for.”
Tueni is an expert grower and producer of premium extracts in Michigan, where his CannaBoys branded products are highly sought after in retailers across the state.
“If the variety is really oily and sticky, sometimes those don’t break off as well,” he explains, “You need to understand cannabinoids and how they’re attached to the plant.”
According to Tueni, different varieties result in a different “wash,” or removal, of trichomes, the microscopic oil glands that cover the cannabis flower and contain cannabinoids and terpenes.
Some trichomes are sticky and won’t efficiently separate from the plant, while others are more like tiny grains of sand that easily fall off the plant.
Which varieties lend themselves to extraction is not exactly common knowledge and may take time to dial in.
“A lot of it is just done by the feel and look,” Tueni explains. “Years of experience have led me to understand which ones extract and yield better. It just depends on the head and how hard it’s connected to the plant.”
- Gold in, gold out.
The extraction process concentrates all cannabinoids present in the plant, including the impurities, potentially. Cultivators must be mindful of this fact.
“If you’re doing basic hydrocarbon extraction, which is propane and butane closed-loop extraction, you have to watch what type of spray you use on your plants,” Tueni advises. “The most important thing is to stay away from oils.”
Horticultural oils are mineral or plant-based oils that are common organic methods for keeping insects and diseases in check. These products act by coating the plant’s surface to suffocate tiny plant-damaging insects or by temporarily changing the pH of the leaf surface, making it more difficult for mold infestations to take hold.
However, Tueni warns that oils can have adverse effects and leave residue, even after extracting.
“Those oils leave a sheen on the product, and even though it won’t test bad, you can still see it and taste it,” he says.
Tueni understands the value of including these products in a grower’s toolbox of pest control options, but he recommends only applying them in the early stages of plant growth.
The same goes for any product applied as part of a grower’s integrated pest management strategy. Sulfur and potassium bicarbonate are commonly used to battle powdery mildew, but they don’t simply disappear after application. If sprayed late in the flowering cycle, they inevitably wind up in the extraction room.
“If you have an IPM treatment where you are continuously spraying your plants with something, I recommend you stop as soon as you see flower sites,” Tueni days.
The product needs to be clean. “Gold in, gold out” is his mantra for extracting cannabinoids. Entrepreneurs new to cannabis processing would be wise to adopt this philosophy.
- Plan your harvest before you plant.
Growers that cultivate in bulk and sell wholesale to extractors must ensure they’ll have the equipment and logistics to efficiently deliver their product to the client.
This is especially true when a crop is destined for live resin extraction. Live resin is pressed from fresh frozen plants — not dried — so timing and temperatures are essential for a successful transit from grower to processor.
For cannabis businesses that grow and process onsite, the harvesting protocol is pretty straightforward.
“We use a bucking machine to separate the flowers from the stems,” says Jose “Pepe” Calderon, a California-based grower and consultant with 25 years of experience in controlled environment agriculture. “From there, we harvest the flowers, put them into bags, vacuum seal them, and then send them to the freezer,” he says.
At that point, the biomass can be processed or held in a frozen state until the extractor is ready.
But for a business that grows cannabis a long distance from where the crop is being processed, logistics can be more challenging. Calderon recommends using dry ice or refrigerated trucks to ensure that biomass freezes quickly and stays frozen while in transit to the processor.
Calderon suggests vacuum-sealing the flowers and packing them into crates with dry ice. This way, the product can be shipped in unrefrigerated trucks or vans without the risk of flowers drying out before arriving at the extraction site.
“In our SOPs, we try to keep no more than one and a half hours between harvesting and putting it in the freezer,” he says. “Otherwise, they’ll start to lose flavor, terpenes, everything.”
For large commercial growers, Calderon suggests skipping the dry ice and instead packing vacuum-sealed fresh flowers directly into an 8-foot by 40-foot refrigerated shipping container, to begin freezing immediately and to save space.
“When you compress the bags with vacuum-sealing, you save 50% of the space,” Calderon says. Plus, often the cost to rent these units pales compared to the value of the crop arriving to the extractor in perfect condition.
Much like cultivation, extraction is both an art and a science. If you’re new to growing for extraction, do yourself a favor: seek the help of an expert. By avoiding the guesswork and shortening the learning curve, you’ll not only increase your chances of success, but you’ll spend less money along the way.
You — and your investors — will be glad you did.
Ryan Douglas helps new cultivation businesses come to market fast and spend less money getting there. He has worked in commercial horticulture for 23 years and previously directed cultivation for Tweed Inc. in Canada. He now offers cultivation advisory services through his company, Ryan Douglas Cultivation, LLC.