Blog Layout

Cannabis Cultivation: Which Data Should You Track?

With the rapid growth of the cannabis industry, cannabis cultivation is becoming more and more sophisticated. In order to increase your chances of being a successful cultivator, you can use many of the same techniques and analytics used by other major agricultural industries to maximize efficiency and profit. Therefore it is vital that you collect an extensive array of data points each day to optimize your cannabis cultivation operation. The data that you collect will help you to stay abreast of market trends, optimize efficiency for your business (including helping your employees be more efficient), improve the quality of your plants and enable you to understand all of the numbers that affect your company’s financial performance.

Which Data Should You Track In Cannabis Cultivation?
Environmental Conditions

Keep track of all environmental conditions in your gardens daily including: sunlight, light wattage, height of plants, temperature, humidity and CO2. This helps determine what works best for your plants, increases the quality of your product and help you to determine you where you may be able to cut costs and/or change your operating procedures.

Irrigation and Fertilization

Monitor and record the volume of water or solution used, pH levels, EC/ppm, temperature, and approximate volume given to each plant. This data will allow you to understand where you can try different methods to improve the quality and potency of your marijuana plants. If you are building organic soil it’s essential to keep track of the quantities of each material used to create the soil. Soil mixes may be refined over time to meet your needs.

Integrative Pest Management (IPM)

Be sure to consistently monitor your IPM activities. Make adjustments along the way to ensure your procedures work effectively and comply with state laws. Being diligent in this area will ensure safe products as well as a healthy and productive garden.

Employee Resources

Keep track of your employee’s tasks and the length of time it takes them to complete each task. This will help you maintain the appropriate number of employees needed to effectively manage your cannabis business’s  operations. In order to increase productivity and improve culture in the workplace, it’s helpful to invest the time to build authentic relationships with your employees, consistently address their individual needs and instill in them a greater sense of purpose for the work they contribute. Businesses are only as strong as their employees. Mentorship is essential at all levels of the organization to help employees grow. Productive feedback and appreciation of a job well done are always helpful.

Plant Growth Characteristics

Record the growth characteristics of individual strains, such as their response to the fertilization program, susceptibility to pests, and which flowering duration is appropriate for them. Over time this will increase the quality of your flowers, help you determine which strains to cultivate and which to abandon, as well as solidify the procedures to use for each strain.

Cannabis Yield Data

Be sure you know the cannabis yield data for every room or strain come harvest time. Yield data is important to track and document not only for legal compliance but for cultivation procedure assessment as well. If a strain is yielding poorly yet is in high demand, you will want to scrutinize your protocols (and review your data) and seek a solution. If a strain is not a top seller for you and it’s yielding poorly it may be time to look for other strains that have a similar cannabinoid profile. Yield data will help you to asses all other environmental and cultivation data you have collected.

Material and Procedure Changes

Finally, keep meticulous records of any material or procedure changes you (or your employees) make to your cannabis cultivation process. Whenever you use a new material or procedure you should record the details of the process and repeat it at consistent intervals in order to definitively evaluate the impact of the new material or procedure on your final product.

If you consistently monitor each of these areas of your cannabis cultivation operation and make informed decisions based on the data you have tracked, you will certainly increase the quality of your product and the efficiency of your business. By routinely assessing all of the data you observe and gather you’re on your way to producing consistently high quality cannabis.

Have you been tracking data in your cannabis cultivation operation? If so, what lessons have you learned?

Share

Recommended Articles

23 Jul, 2020
This guide highlights all 3C Consulting has learned on helping clients to develop, licence, and grow legal cannabis businesses globally.
Person looking at phone with return on investment report on desk
24 Jun, 2020
Lack of compliance for companies makes investment due diligence risky. This cannabis due diligence checklist supports success for your business.
A large stack of papers
24 Jun, 2020
Despite challenges, the cannabis industry is still growing stronger than ever. Learn how to secure limited cannabis business licenses amid COVID-19 hardships.
Share by: