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Feast your eyes upon the award-winning cannabis varieties that wowed the world in the past year. We reveal our illustrious list of the best currently available strains for connoisseurs, aficionados and medical patients. By Danny Danko and T.H.Caeczar. Sour Girl Photo Courtesy of C.R.A.F.T. The winner of third place in the hybrid flower category at our 2016 NorCal НT Cannabis Cup, this Sour Diesel x Girl Scout Cookies cross comes from Citizens Research Alliance for Therapeutics, one of the finest collectives in the Bay Area. Stop by and pick up some Clean Green Certified and sun-grown Sour Girl and experience the intense smell and cerebral high. Farmers will get the best results growing Sour Girl organically as well as feeding and watering her lightly.

With the great state of California poised to legalize adult use cannabis in January 2018, a big debate has formed around the potential environmental impact of all that cultivation. Currently, the regulations are being finalized and issues regarding everything from runoff to soil disposal have been discussed. In this dialogue, sustainable farming techniques are being looked at as a potential solution to help mitigate this problem. According to the Rodale Institute, “We have proven that organic agriculture and specifically, regenerative organic agriculture can sequester carbon from the atmosphere and even help to reverse climate change.” These regenerative farming techniques can work in cannabis gardens as well. This type of agriculture could help elevate the fears that people have concerning the potential damage cannabis agriculture can leave behind. A study published in the journal, Environmental Research Letters, looked at the impact of several grow sites in Northern California and found that the sites indeed caused various environmental damage. From potentially contaminating rivers due to chemical fertilizer runoff, to increased soil erosion. Regenerative farming is a type of organic farming that heals the earth while making use of it to incubate your crops. This type of farming is designed to build soil health and is comprised of practices that include cover crops, residue mulching, composting and crop rotation. These practices can also reduce climate change by restoring the biodiversity of the soil. This results in carbon drawdown and improvements in the water cycle—all of which would greatly benefit California. More of these practices should be adopted when growing cannabis—as the plant heals us, so to should we attempt to “heal” the land with this plant. As more and more people cultivate the plant, the risks to the environment grow. Not all of these new farmers will practice organic or sustainable agriculture. According to a study from the Center on Food Security and the Environment, over the last five years, there has been a 50 to 100 percent increase in land being used to cultivate cannabis. From water use to land erosion to chemical nutrients being used, the environmental impact is huge. This is why practices like regenerative farming will be so important under the new regulatory landscape. As the new regulations sweep into effect January 2018, a lot of California’s growers will have to make drastic changes to their cultivation techniques; hopefully, most will choose a path leading towards sustainability. In an age of mainstream cannabis, it is crucial that we act as shining examples in all aspects of the industry, including the environmental impact we, as cannabis growers, leave behind. Not only that but these techniques often also improve flavor and bud structure—returning densely packed nugs that have deep rich flavors as a result of the terroir. Much like grapes, the flavor of cannabis is also affected by the environment. This is why the same strain grown by different growers under different conditions will vary so much. Over time, we will come to see that where your cannabis is grown, as well as how it’s grown, will be a deciding factor for the discerning cannabis consumer.

Here’s a look at what’s new on the market for cannabis cultivators and connoisseurs. 1. Let It Rock Prices vary growstone.com The medium in which you choose to grow helps determine the outcome and output of your garden. The new GS-1 Hydroponic Substrate from GrowStone is an Earth-friendly and extremely porous aggregate that absorbs and stores water while allowing plenty of capacity for the oxygen necessary to your roots. The rocks are quick-draining and made from 100% recycled glass instead of non-renewable mined obsidian. 2. Doobage Storage Starting at $129 cannador.com Cannabis quickly deteriorates in quality when it’s improperly stored. Connoisseurs and medical patients alike should get a Cannador to ensure that their pot lasts longer, maintaining potency and preserving essential oils thanks to the company’s humidity-bead system or Boveda packs. You can also regulate the humidity level for your flowers from your smartphone using the optional Bluestream hygrometer and app. These lockable storage units come in a variety of sizes. 3. Natural Bug Killer Prices vary purelifeveganix.com Growers seeking a veganic solution for pest and mildew control should look no further than the Vegamatrix FTB Insect Suffocant. This concentrated all-purpose foliar spray (complete with terpenes!) was developed by НT alum and multiple Cannabis Cup winner Kyle Kushman in order to safely control or destroy insects or mold. Kushman’s unique formula coats and suffocates spider mites and repels powdery mildew (PM) without harming the environment or damaging your plants. 4. Quiet Storm Prices vary hurricanehydroponics.com The earliest period of plant growth sets the stage for future harvests. Feed your seedlings and clones with Storm Cell from Hurricane Hydroponics to get a head start on the crucial vegetative stage, when pot plants build their foundation. This liquid solution provides the essential nutritional requirements for the robust development of new plant growth and a healthy root system.

Stealth, noise reduction and odor control are always important for cannabis cultivators, but they become critical in crowded areas. Get street smart about growing weed in the city. City Lights Marijuana cultivation can prove difficult under the best of circumstances, but add in the unique challenges of growing in an urban environment and the stakes rise substantially. For apartment dwellers living in close proximity to nosy neighbors, growing pot at home requires a very particular set of skills. Issues such as odor control, noise suppression and flood-proofing are important for all pot farmers, but for those operating in cramped quarters, they become absolutely vital. Lighting must be sized appropriately to available space. The first decision you need to make is whether growing is right for you in your current situation. Keep in mind that the strong smell of freshly harvested cannabis can permeate an entire city block if uncontained. Safety and security require vigilance, so the place you choose to grow can’t be a party palace or crash pad. Shady behavior becomes amplified in confined spaces, so you have to maintain the appearance of normality at all times. You certainly should never grow in a place where marijuana is being sold and people are coming in and out with any frequency. You may laugh at the notion, but I’ve encountered this behavior on multiple occasions in my travels. Your home must look like any other home in your vicinity or you risk attracting scrutiny, or far worse. Closet, Bedroom, Tent Or Growbox? This grow tent features sophisticated monitoring equipment. You have four basic options when it comes to growing in an apartment or small house: You can convert a closet or spare bedroom into your grow space, or you can purchase a growbox or tent. The first two options will require extensive work in order to ensure the proper amount of airflow, and they’re also tougher to move or take apart in case of an emergency. Growboxes provide a stealthy turnkey option, but their cost can be too high, and heat buildup can become an issue in some environments. This leaves the grow tent as the best option in many cases. They’re affordable, easily assembled and disassembled, and many come in kits that include lighting, intake and exhaust fans with odor filters, growing mediums and even fertilizers. With many different sizes to choose from, grow tents provide a variety of solutions for small-scale cannabis cultivators. Getting The Equipment In And Out No matter how you choose to grow, you’ll need to find a way to get the necessary materials in and out of your space. Hauling grow-light systems, bags of soil mix and hydroponic reservoir tanks into a studio apartment in broad daylight is sure to arouse suspicion. So will trying to sneak these materials into your space in the middle of the night. The answer is to disguise your equipment as normal household materials. A refrigerator box or other large appliance container can work wonders for concealing any large apparatus. A prominently placed aquarium in your home can help dispel questions about certain provisions and noises as well. Stealth Bombing The most essential element to urban growing is odor control. The telltale scent of marijuana can’t be allowed to permeate your limited space or drift outside of it. All spent air must be actively pumped through activated-charcoal filtration rated for the amount of space in which you grow. Pumping air out will create negative pressure that pulls fresh air into your room from your intake fans and even from cracks beneath doors. If your growroom is entirely sealed, you’ll need to supplement it with carbon dioxide from a tank or generator with a meter and regulator. Noise Suppression Avoid kinks in vent tubing. (Photo by Justin Cannabis/НT) There are several ways you can reduce the sound generated by grow equipment. Electronic ballasts that have a tendency to hum loudly should be mounted on rubber pads or hung from straps. Mufflers can be purchased or built and attached to exhaust fans and filters to stifle their noises. Install air and water pumps atop foam or rubber strips to reduce their sonic output. It’s nice to have the television on or music playing, but you should avoid having loud noises emanating from your home in the middle of the night. Flood-Proofing Aside from odor and noise, no other environmental factor can narc you out as quickly as a water leak. No matter where you decide to grow, you should create a space that can withstand a possible flood. Whether you hand-water your plants, use an automated-drip system or grow in deep-water buckets, there is always a chance of the nutrient solution getting on the floor or worse. Place a waterproof tarp underneath your grow and seal it up so that any potential deluge is contained. This is even more important for hydroponic gardeners, because large amounts of liquid flow back and forth between the trays and reservoirs, and any leaks or breaks in the tubing can spell catastrophe, causing dozens of gallons to pour through your floor to the neighbors below. Overcoming Odors Apartment growers who want to realistically control the odors associated with growing cannabis should utilize air scrubbers similar to the ACSI Force Air 2000 or the Aeroclean 2000 “Econo” negative air-cleaning machine. Large-scale growers with odor issues should investigate the use of an industrial-scale air-pollution scrubber, which can mitigate almost any air contamination, including cannabis odors. There’s a plethora of designs available; some simply filter and clean the air using nothing but water. If an oil refinery can clean its air to acceptable EPA standards utilizing this type of equipment, surely a cannabis-cultivation facility can do so as well. Google “air scrubber” and you’ll see that there are many options available to suit any requirement. —K from Trichome Technologies, author of Marijuana Horticulture Fundamentals, Instagram @trichometechnologies Environmental Control Mother plants insure a steady supply of clones. (Photo by Justin Cannabis/НT) Virtually any space can be converted into a growroom, and with proper cloning skills, you can be quite productive. A huge key to a successful apartment grow is controlling your environment. Temperature and humidity must be monitored and regulated. All outgoing air must be cleaned with carbon scrubbers. MzJill and I started TGA Genetics in an 8′ x 10′ extra room that went undetected for four years. —Subcool, breeder of TGA Genetics, Instagram @theweednerd420 Air Conditioning Exhaust growroom air into carbon filters in a separate room and keep the window open (if possible) to allow the air to ease out quietly. Keep your fans and ballasts from vibrating and humming. Use tarps on the floor in case of leaks. Also, split-system air conditioning is ideal for urban grows. —JJNYC, breeder of Top Dawg Seeds, Instagram @topdawgseeds Dealing With Limited Space Vertical systems, especially hydroponics, allow for higher yields with less cropping time in the same-sized linear footprint. Don’t think flat—grow in all three dimensions for more production in limited spaces. Higher plant densities also mean less veg time for more crops of bud per year. Equipment like fans and dehumidifiers can rattle ceilings, walls and floors—possibly annoying others or those in your own household. Using rubber straps or bungee cords in eyehooks to suspend equipment will greatly dampen noise and vibrations. Also, sealed growrooms don’t tell everyone you’re cultivating cannabis because they don’t require noisy or obvious exhaust and intake fan ducts to the outdoors. While this is a more spendy option, the AC, CO2 gear and humidity controls will eliminate the need for such obtrusive openings, while giving you better and more consistent cannabis crops. Finally, you should look to conserve valuable power consumption and space. You’ll simply be wasting limited resources if you use an entire room and high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting to veg young cannabis plants that don’t require all that space or light intensity in their growing environment. Stage your crop throughout the room to maximize efficiency for lower power bills and healthier plants with fewer chances of problems. —Submitted via Happy Seeds Company, happyseedscompany.com, Instagram @happyseedscompany Prevent Flooding And Light Leaks Tarps can contain flooding to avoid detection. (Photo by Brian Jahn/НT) You want to make sure to trough or bed-line the area with tarps as a safeguard for catching leaks and avoiding water damage. This is especially important if you’re growing on an upper level. Also, by placing a combination fan/carbon filter as an exhaust at the ceiling of your grow tent and opening the smaller bottom ports, you’ll create a negative pressure that will filter odors and circulate the air. Other factors to consider: Use rubber pads or mats under anything that vibrates; it helps to muffle the noise. Consider LED lighting for its low heat output and energy use. And always keep an eye out for light leaks; otherwise, people might think that Jesus is your roommate. —Eric, MassCannabis Consulting Inc., Instagram @masscannabis The Right Stuff The air in your growroom should exchange every five to eight minutes. With this in mind, the first step in building a silent growroom is buying a fan that draws the exact amount of air you’ll need, instead of trying to reduce the speed of a fan that’s too powerful. The more air a fan draws in, the louder it will be and the more work you’ll have to do to silence it—but reducing the fan speed with controllers forces the fan to run at suboptimal conditions and will lower its life and performance. Also, exhaust air exiting a duct at high speed makes a very audible whooshing sound that has given away countless grow ops. You can either purchase or build a muffler for very little money. The muffler decreases the speed of the air and reduces turbulence, and even a DIY setup made with a trash bin, glass wool and chicken wire can make your airflow almost completely inaudible. Light must not leak out from your closed space. (Photo by Brian Jahn/НT) Both flexible and rigid metallic ducting can carry vibrations and cause noisy turbulence that will compromise your stealth. Not only is fabric ducting easier to install than either of these more common options, but it lends itself excellently to ventilation situations that require silence. Many stealthy growers also recommend insulated ducting for the last stretch of the duct before the air exits to the outside. While it may cost a pretty penny, the fiberglass insulation designed to contain heat also absorbs sound excellently. If you do use ducting that isn’t made of fabric, be sure to minimize the bends and turns that it makes, which create noisy turbulence. In order to prevent vibrations that the fan creates from going through the floor, walls or ceilings, it shouldn’t directly come into contact with any of these surfaces. Enclosing the fan in a wooden box and suspending it from the ceiling with bungee cords will prevent any vibrations from traveling beyond the enclosure. Seal up any cracks with acoustically rated caulk and you’ll be good to go. If you have metal air ducts, suspending them from bungee cords will drastically reduce sound transmission through the ceiling. Air and water pumps typically rest on the ground and produce noise and vibrations that are capable of penetrating both floors and walls. Placing a high-density foam or rubber surface between them and the floor will attenuate the vibrations, making them as quiet as possible. If you’ve already invested in acoustical duct wrap or some other soundproofing material, cut out a few squares and place the pumps on them. Just make sure that whatever you use, it’s made of a flame-retardant material. Putting noisy air pumps on foam padding will block vibrations from going through the floor, but they’ll still emit sound into the surrounding air—and a lot of it. It may seem counterintuitive, but air pumps make more noise the less resistance they work against. Placing more airstones in a series will make your pump work much more quietly, in addition to providing more distributed oxygenation to your reservoir; it just takes some simple plumbing. If the above solutions aren’t enough because you absolutely need silence, then the entire room requires soundproofing. Certain architectural techniques and materials can be incorporated into the construction of a house or the walls of a room, but tearing up walls and flooring isn’t an option for people that pay rent. Installing rubber underlayments, which go beneath the linoleum or wood floor surface, doesn’t entail as much work or expertise as ripping up walls, and they may be the first option for someone who wants to make a permanent alteration to the room. If you can’t make permanent alterations, you can hang up vinyl curtains (such as those used in garages and loading bays) for relatively cheap. Pyramid-panel acoustic foam hung on the walls will cut down on high-pitch frequencies, but blocking low and medium tones requires heavy materials like rubber. Don’t waste your time with egg cartons—they’re highly flammable and don’t block as much sound as you think. Seal up all cracks with acoustically rated caulk and make sure that everything is completely fire-safe and that all of the materials are nonflammable! —Sirius J., НT cultivation reporter, facebook.com/John.SmytheIII Stealth And Safety Are Key Joyride (Photo by Justin Cannabis/НT) You must ensure that your growing setup is safe and clean. All wiring must be done properly, with safeguards in place and never exceeding your electrical capacity. Check out how we wire our boxes at 14 to 18 seconds into this video at bcnorthernlights.com/company-culture. Stealth is the other paramount concern. Because you have others close to your crop and with possible access to your apartment, it’s important to ensure proper ventilation (without having to cut holes in your walls); odor reduction via negative air pressure that pulls exhausted air through odor-scrubbing activated-carbon filters; plus lockable doors and wheels so you can roll it all out to a friend’s house at a moment’s notice. (PS: BC Northern Lights growboxes address all of these concerns!) Also, CO2 injection can be a great way to maximize your yields in small spaces and will also serve as a natural pest deterrent. (PSS: You’re not going to believe this, but BC Northern Lights offers an automated CO2-injection system with its growing appliances!) Last but not least, don’t be greedy; share your bounty with your neighbors. You’ll be far more appreciated than bringing an ambrosia salad to your next block party. —Tarren from BC Northern Lights, Twitter @BCNL420

Just off the Las Vegas strip with daily summer heat that gets well over 100°F may not sound like the prime location to grow first-class cannabis, but there is a 42,000 square-foot facility that has ingenious solutions to grow the best cannabis around. The facility named Cannabiotix is home to 27 unique strains and is devoted to sanitation and water conservation in order to adequately quench the thirst of their plants—even in the case of a drought. On Episode 10 of Growing Exposed, we show you how water grows weed. Inside The Cannabiotix Veg Room Before entering the veg room, Cannabiotix requires you to suit up in quarantine and take an air shower to prevent the spread of outside contaminants, pests and fungus. All plants are top-fed and kept in coco/perlite mix and are hand-watered. Every strain requires different food levels, so automating feeding schedules is not an option. The most labor-intensive stage is in the growth cycle and requires around four to five workers watering and tending plants every day. Being in the desert requires some serious cooling and water systems, but thankfully Cannabiotix is well on top of that issue. They have built a large system involving an air separator that delivers air through a dehumidifier that reclaims excess water out of the air and sends it to water chillers outside the facility. The water is filtered using Hydrologic ARCS systems and is de-chlorinated, sanitary and ready for re-use. Every four to five weeks, Cannabiotix is pulling 400-500 pounds of cannabis. In the flower room, which contains 460 lights for flowering, Cannabiotix harvests full plants to hang-dry, traditionally for about five to seven days, before trimming the buds by hand. This method is unprecedented in the commercial market as people want faster results and less labor cost. However, David Lloyd of Cannabiotix believes the quality they get from hand-trimming and hang-drying greatly outweighs any of the monetary benefits of mechanical trimmers. How Water Grows Weed Cannabiotix reclaims all their water from a system made by a company called Hydrologic from Santa Cruz, California. But what is so important about water purification and filtration in cannabis cultivation? Rich Gellert is the owner of Hydrologic Purification Systems, where they create the best water systems in the world. Hydrologic manufactures out of a 20,000 square-foot facility in Santa Cruz and creates units like the ARCS system used by Cannabiotix. ARCS stands for “Automated Reclaimed Condensate System,” which takes all of your air conditioning and dehumidification water and reclaims it as very pure, 0 PPM, pH neutral and sterile water. How did Hydrologic come to be? Gellert was a grower and wanted a reverse osmosis filtration system. He bought one he found on the shelves, brought it home and realized it was poor quality. So he returned it to the store and found out it was all the distributor carried. So, he went and built his own system, brought it to the same store where he bought the original one and showed it to them. They wanted to buy some, and his business took off from there! Gellert explained: “When people start to grow with RO water, they can never go back to tap water as there are so many unknown contaminants.” Water quality around the world varies greatly, especially when you’re on city water. When you remove chlorine and chloramines and other biocides you can then start with pure water. Before we left Santa Cruz, we took a look at a second garden which reclaims its water with dehumidifiers called Utopia Farms. Utopia Farms is a small facility growing their award-winning staple C Banana strain. “Welcome to flavor town,” said Jesse Bower of Utopia, as he pulled back the curtain before checking out one of the many flowering rooms. Growing Exposed Reveals The Importance Of Water “We have come to rightfully view fresh water as our most precious planetary resource. We all want to live on a green planet and to live on a green planet, we have a wet planet. To maintain our wet planet, we have to conserve our precious fresh water,” explained David Robinson, as he gave his insight on water conservation in the growroom. Cannabis producers are often very environmentally-minded people. So, we see a trend toward building grow facilities with an eye for water conservation and an eye for water reclamation. Plants actually transpire 99 percent of the water they take up; they pull an unbroken chain of water from the root zone and transpire it out into the atmosphere. Therefore, when gardening in contained environments like indoor gardens or greenhouses, through the use of dehumidification technology, we can reclaim this water. Watch Episode 10 of Growing Exposed: Water Grows Weed below.

Trying to figure out how to choose nutrients for cuttings and young clones? Well, you’re in luck! НT Cultivation Editor Nico Escondido answers all of your grow questions in his weekly Nico’s Nuggets column, and today’s piece is all about what to feed new cuttings and seedlings. The Question: How Do I Choose Nutrients For Cuttings And Young Clones? Mr. Escondido, Hello from Oregon! I hope you actually read these. I am an avid pot smoker, and now, I have decided to try my hand at growing some of my own. Here in Oregon, I can buy clones easily and want to start a garden of 6 – 10 plants, so I bought a dozen clones (I figure a few might not make it) and have them under fluorescent lamps in big red Solo cups. My plan is to grow them for a week, then transplant them into larger containers and move them under MH lamps for the vegetative stage. My question is about what to feed these young clones over the next couple of weeks? Do I use straight grow/veg formulas, or is that too much? Maybe use the Lucas formula for now? Any advice will help! Many thanks, amigo. — Austin M. The Answer: Utilize These Formulas As Nutrients For Cuttings And Young Clones Howdy, Austin. Thanks for reading HT.com and welcome to the world of growing! As I always say, growing your own in the most rewarding endeavor a marijuana enthusiast can take on! New Cuttings Cuttings this young need only moisture and heat to develop roots. Your question about nutrient programs for cuttings and young clones (and seedlings, too) is a very good one. Every grower has his or her own ideas on the subject, and a lot will depend on the strain you are growing and the exact age of the cuttings. Very young cuttings, such as those that have just been sliced from the mother plant, do not need any nutrients. Giving new cuts any nutrients would be pointless until roots develop as they cannot absorb any mineral content. It could also further the initial shock these poor little branches are going through. Instead, these new cuts should be dipped in a rooting hormone (gel or powder-based) before being placed into their plugs for rooting. Sometimes it is helpful to create a mild solution of distilled water and vitamin B1 and apply to the plugs to help alleviate any stress the younglings are going through and assist in the rooting process. Once roots have begun to appear on the underside of their Rockwool plugs or peat pellets, they can start to handle mild nutrient solutions—very mild. It is important to understand that nitrogen (N) can work against the plant hormones or rooting hormones that may have been applied during the cutting. Salts in nutrients also make it a lot harder for young developing roots to absorb the water they need. Young Clones (or Seedlings) Clone machines like this one help cuttings root. Use vitamin B1 and rooting hormones to aid the process. Once you see the white tips of roots protruding from your plugs, your plants are in good shape and much more likely to survive and grow into mature adult plants. During the vegetative phase, we use “grow” formulas that are rich in nitrogen. However, nitrogen tends to divert growth from the root zone to the plant’s top. This is not ideal as it is critical to the life and development of the plants to have a large, robust root structure. Thus, you would not want to use a “grow” formula early on, but rather a mild nutrient solution of very low nitrogen. Looking at the N-P-K (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) ratio on the labels of nutrient bottles will help you. Something like a 1-3-3 ratio would be ideal. You mentioned the Lucas formula, which is a general way of halving the dosages recommended by nutrient manufacturers. This is a smart way to go, especially if your nutrients are high in N-P-K mineral values. Simply take half—or even a third—of the recommended amount of nutrients and dissolve it in the amount of distilled water recommended. If you are unsure about mixing nutrient solutions or are worried that your solution might be too strong for young plants, you can test your solution by measuring its pH level using a pH meter or pH (litmus) strips. For young clones and seedlings still developing their roots, the pH range required for rooting cells to have maximum nutrient absorption should be between pH 5.1 – 5.7. Once your plants have been transplanted into the larger containers for their vegetative growth stage, wait a week for them to settle in and get accustomed to their new environment before starting with their “grow” nutrient program. Good luck, Austin and let us know how the ladies fare!

Here’s the thing about humidity: It doesn’t care if you’re a basement hobbyist or the biggest, commercial cultivator on the block. It will demand to be managed if you want to have a great indoor grow. A number of factors play a role in controlling humidity: room temperature, number of plants, how much you water. But, ultimately, nearly every indoor grower is going to need a dehumidifier—or a dozen. So, how do you know what’s the best dehumidifier for your setup? Is efficiency a top priority? Or what about capacity? Maybe it’s ensuring you have the most reliable system possible. To help break down the best grow room dehumidifier for hobbyists, caregivers, boutique and commercial growers, we talked with two industry veterans: Gary Howard, owner of Urban Garden Center and managing director of Safe Alternatives Dispensary, and Clif Tomasini from Quest Dehumidifiers. Hobbyists And Humidity A hobbyist is anyone growing a few plants in their home, perhaps in the basement or a small grow tent. When it comes to humidity, there is a high likelihood you don’t need additional control if your house or basement is well insulated, equipped with proper HVAC and free of pre-existing moisture issues, Tomasini explained. “Most hobbyists growing a small number of plants in their home won’t need a dehumidifier. If they do, a small residential unit is likely sufficient,” Tomasini said. “We do recommend these growers monitor humidity as plants mature and water intake increases because a humidity problem can pop up quickly and ruin their buds.” One way to keep humidity down is to avoid overwatering, Tomasini said. Small, residential dehumidifiers can also help, but they’re inefficient and unreliable, he said. Howard added that anyone with about eight grow lights, which could fall into the hobbyist category, will want to consider a commercial dehumidifier. That’s because the plant canopy begins to significantly increase and will trap moisture. Often, a unit that pulls 150 pints of water from the air will do the trick for this size grow, but it’s best to size your room based on how much water you’re giving your plants daily. While it may be difficult to pull the trigger on a commercial unit, it will pay for itself in money saved on electric bills, he said. Caregivers—Coming To Terms With Dehumidification The caregiver category is a broad cross-section of the growing community that often has at least one 10-light room, if not more. Given the size of the rooms, Howard said humidity control for caregivers is a must. Along with lights and air conditioning, it’s one of the key areas where Howard, a longtime caregiver, would never cut corners. Humidity control is critical because in this size grow, the plant canopy is much larger than anything a hobbyist is handling. Those plant canopies trap moisture, creating a haven for crop killers like powdery mildew and bud rot, Howard said. The challenge for caregivers is coming to terms with the fact they need commercial dehumidification. “We commonly hear this group tell us that they didn’t have a humidity problem as hobbyists, so why would things be significantly different now?” Tomasini said. “Naturally, these customers worry they’re being sold something they might not need. In the end, most growers decide to start with the cheap units to address a humidity problem. It isn’t until those units fail that they look for something more efficient and reliable.” Howard said a 10-12 light caregiver room usually requires about 300 pints of dehumidification. For that reason, he almost always recommends using two 225-pint units to build in redundancy and to protect against any “worst-case scenarios.” “I always ask, ‘what are the room dehumidification needs without anything in it, meaning no plants,’” Howard said. “Once we know that number, we can add in how much humidity control we need for an active grow. Consistently, we find about 400 pints of dehumidification is perfect.” Only The Best For Boutique For boutique growers, precision is the name of the game, as growers push for the highest-quality product, dialing in terpenes and THC levels. At this level of growing—usually between 1,000 to 5,000 square feet of grow space—quality and redundancy become the most critical focal points when it comes to environmental controls, Tomasini said. They’re looking for reliability and performance in every aspect of the grow and that includes dehumidifiers. That’s because one outbreak of mold or mildew, each of which can ruin a grow and cost thousands of dollars, can be prevented by managing humidity. “For a boutique cannabis grower, similar to a craft beer brewer, their reputation and business hinges on the quality of each crop,” Tomasini said. “For that reason, they’re going to want to ensure they have enough dehumidification power to keep their minds at ease.” Because redundancy is important, Tomasini recommends a modular setup, using multiple units in each room. Often, he sees the best growers using a couple of 225-pint units per room. This provides enough humidity control for all stages of the grow and allows for adequate backup if one unit needs service. Commercial Growers—Efficiency And Layout For anyone operating with more than 50 lights or more than 5,000 square feet of grow space, managing humidity is a must. The focus for commercial growers is on layout and efficiency, Tomasini said. “These businesses have chief financial officers and are looking critically at things like electricity usage and depreciation of capital assets,” he said. “They want dehumidifiers built to last and units that deliver a return on investment in no more than one year after purchase.” As commercial grows have increased in size, many growers are looking for units that pull anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pints of water from the air daily, Tomasini said. Units in this range allow growers to still have the redundancy and customization smaller units provide but with the capacity they need, he said. “We found a lot of growers want midsized dehumidifiers they can still hang overhead in their rooms, so they can control each microclimate independently,” Tomasini said. “That’s what ultimately led our engineers to design the Quest 506, a unit that meets growers’ needs for a larger-capacity unit that’s still highly efficient.” Because power consumption is a huge concern for nearly every indoor grower, Howard spends time with each grower he helps, to determine not only which unit is the most efficient, but how to lay out a grow room to maximize the performance of their dehumidifiers. For instance, Howard always makes sure there is proper air movement every eight feet in a room, so dehumidifiers and air conditioners aren’t blowing air on each other, which can make units work harder, costing more money and making them less efficient. “On a commercial grow, power consumption is huge,” Howard said. “They have to figure it out. Nobody has unlimited power and nobody wants to spend tons of money.”