During your last marijuana experience, it’s more than likely that you didn’t spend a great deal of time pondering the long journey of seed to sale that landed you your product.

Then again, maybe you did. 

But if the image you have in your head of growing marijuana is like growing kale or lettuce in your backyard garden, then you might be surprised at what truly goes into cultivating cannabis.

The Arduous Seed to Sale Process

The process of planting a seed, nurturing the plant as it grows, harvesting, drying, and curing the cultivated plant, packaging it, and processing it is incredibly involved. 

Much of this has to do with just how highly regulated cannabis is. There’s a lot that goes into seed-to-sale compliance. And it all starts with abiding by the rules instituted by Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting and Compliance (METRC). 

We’ll take a look at the entire cycle:

1. Seeding

The term seeding, in this case, is ascribed to the process of starting a plant. In some cases, growers do choose to begin with actual seeds, and on other occasions, they may begin with clones.

The advantage of clones is that they’re easier to control. The cultivators know the sex of the plants.f they’re given a similar growing environment to their parent plants, they produce roughly the same amount of product. 

Seeding plants, on the other hand, is more of a crapshoot. While they tend to grow stronger and faster than their cloned cousins, there’s a more considerable risk that there will be too many males, whichcan quickly destroy the whole operation. 

Regardless of whether they’re seeded or cloned, growers must record and keep track of every plant to maintain METRC compliance. 

2. Growing/Nurturing

At this stage, it’s essential that the plants receive the proper nutrients and water levels and the appropriate amount of light, oxygen, and CO2. Maintaining all of these requires nearly constant monitoring, which is best facilitated with software.

In addition, the grower must control pests and address overgrowth to ensure that newly developing plants can thrive.

3. Flowering

Once the plants are encouraged to start budding and flowering, things get crazy. At this stage, the plants are shifted to a different nutrient regimen. The transition must happen slowly and carefully to avoid jeopardizing the plants’ growth. 

The plants will begin to grow out and stretch, so they must be adequately supported and have the same access to adequate light. This phase lasts for a few weeks - at the end, the plants become thicker and taller and begin budding.

4. Cultivation/Harvesting

Once the plants begin to present darkening hairs, milky white trichomes, and a distinctive and sharp odor, they’re prepared for harvesting. Many growers will keep their plants in a dark room just before harvesting to protect the THC levels of the trichomes. 

They will also flush the plants to get rid of  any added nutrients given during the flowering process. This gets rid of any potential chemical tastes.

5. Drying

Drying marijuana is nothing like drying garden herbs. Best practices dictate that it be done for a week straight in a pitch-black room with humidity control and good circulation. This requires extreme patience and precision.

Once the buds are dry and the stems can bend or pop without breaking, they are considered sufficiently dried.

6. Trimming

There are two different methods for trimming - wet and dry.

Technically, wet trimming falls between harvesting and drying. Wet trimming tends to be easier since the sugar leaves haven’t curled back yet. It also promotes faster dry times..

By contrast, dry trimming means a longer dry time. However, this can be advantageous because an extended dry time equals less of a chlorophyll flavor. And that means a potentially smoother hit. 

In some cases, trimmers will use a hybrid wet/dry trimming process where they trim away the larger leaves while wet, then attend to more precise trimming once the plant is dry.

7. Curing

It takes zero time for the terpenes and cannabinoids in marijuana to start breaking down once harvested. To prevent this, the plants must be properly cured after trimming. 

Buds are stored in airtight containers in cool and dark rooms. The sealed containers must be routinely “burped” to allow both pressure and moisture to be released and prevent mold and preserve flavor. 

8. Packaging

Once everything is cured, the next step is to sort out the flowers to determine which will be sold as bud on the shelf and which will be further processed to roll joints, extraction, etc.

This stage requires strict attention to exact measurements and weights to maintain seed-to-sale compliance. Furthermore, certain cannabis compliance rules must be followed when it comes to packaging design.

9. Post Processing

Finally, any bud that can’t be shelved can be used for other products such as the above-mentioned joints and extractions. Leftover trimmings can be filtered to create hash. 

The Need for Seed to Sale Software

The seed-to-sale process is quite extensive. And every single one of these spots on the supply chain between grower and consumer requires multiple data collection points. 

This is what makes cannabis compliance software so essential for growers. It ensures that every law and safety measure is in place and in compliance with state and local laws.

So if you’re a grower in this industry that’s under constant scrutiny, schedule a demo with us to find out how our software can simplify any or every part of the process!

It’s the ultimate seed to software solution.