By Jimi Devine

 

One of the brightest minds cannabis has to offer looks to solve its biggest issue after criminalization — the massive carbon footprint caused by indoor mega-grows and what their agriculture-leading power needs are doing to the environment.

One hour north of San Francisco sits one of the cannabis industry’s budding meccas. Santa Rosa, California is the last major population center for hundreds of miles as you travel north before entering the foothills and redwoods of the Emerald Triangle.

This access to land, an environment generally friendly to the developing industry, and a highly skilled labor pool compared to other municipalities trying to get in on the green rush has seen many head to Sonoma. From the most old school hill kids talking about the dark ages of camouflage jumpsuits to the newest pioneers who believe their idea is the next great intersection of Buds and Tech, all cannabis dreams are currently welcome — with appropriate paperwork. Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake, one of Santa Rosa’s early adopters when Humboldt and Mendocino refused to host the cup, told me recently that he expected the wine country hub to be the center of the industry in the next five years.

Despite the wave of enthusiasm in Santa Rosa, little is garnering as much hype as the possibilities surrounding a new indoor cultivation technique and technology called Dynamic Supplemental Sunlight (DSS). This unique new growing method adds a completely new category to the way cannabis has been grown previously, as in, indoor, outdoor, greenhouse, and now DSS.

“What we’re trying to do here with DSS is introduce a fourth modality that can dramatically reduce electrical and water demand,” said Dr. Jonathan Cachat, founder of Fleurish Farms. He and his team continue to develop DSS techniques all while producing top shelf rosins along with many other products for their patients.

With a Ph.D. in Neuroscience focused in Psychopharmacology, Cachat easily finds himself among the most well-credentialed of the newer faces entering the industry. He’d previously pioneered tools and methodologies for using Zebrafish in research work. With those efforts, he was the first to prove to the international research community that Zebrafish were a viable alternative over mammals for Psychopharmacology research. After two books on that topic, he worked in data science before transitioning to cannabis industry full time to continue to break new ground, now with his team at the farm as opposed to a school of Zebrafish.

With his new endeavor, Cachat stands at the cross section of industry, conservation, and top shelf indoor — it doesn’t take a Ph.D to see that’s a good place to be in the nation’s most rapidly expanding industry. The heart of Cachat’s system is the hardware, more affectionately known to the team as Crystal Chimneys. The chimneys capture sunlight from all angles of the sky — sunrise to sunset — with their ability to capture low angle light closer to dusk and dawn, and then transfer it into the building. As a bonus, it only sends the visible light spectrum; “we’re not bringing heat into the room just the visible light spectrum,” said Cachat.

The actual light catching is done by Spectral Light Infinity, an advanced material developed by 3M and Solatube. It allows only a fraction of the light to be lost through diffused reflection and sends 99% of the light that hits it downwards. From there, the light enters a rocket engine-esque focuser that projects a focal point across the canopy over the course of the day. As you watch the focal point move, the plants move with it.

That focal point of the light is where the PAR, or Photosynthetically Active Radiation, measures the highest. It is as major ingredient to successful plant development, as wood is to matches. While being as bright as possible is fantastic, the costs of maintaining PAR levels over 500 aren’t worth it for the return rate you get on the photosynthetic process.

Thankfully, you don’t have to pay for sunlight. There’s no loss to scale into the costs despite the additional PAR; when the focal point of the captured light hits the canopy it’s measuring in at up to a whopping 1300 PAR.

“It’s a large amount of PAR and the nice thing is the plants aren’t being consistently exposed to a static 1300 PAR. That hotspot moves throughout the space, so it’s a dynamic aspect of giving the plants what they need but not too much,” said Cachat.

Research has shown after 500 PAR, the actual returns on the photosynthetic processes can start to diminish. These findings are why the system was designed for ambient light levels to stay at between 450 and 500 PAR. This is accomplished with an LED system dialed in at all points to maximize the parts of the light spectrum plants crave but aren’t found in a high-pressure sodium setting, in particular, creating the deep reds of sunrise and sunset.

The middle of the collector features a dimmer, which allows the whole DSS system to be completely light deprivation compatible — much of the finest cannabis grown under the sun is done in this style. On top of that, with the type of protection the DSS offers the plants, it could very well be the biggest thing to happen to light-dep since plastic tarps, which are now commonly used by growers to create artificial light cycles.

“We’re fueling with the highest quality light available, that of the natural sun, and then driving plant growth with LEDs,” said Cachat.

The results are going great, Fleurish Farms continue to improve the yields as they hunt for the perfect strains for the format. In their first harvest under the DSS system, they were able to achieve yields of up to 25.56 grams per square foot. This new harvest has proven even more successful.

“With the Skywalker OG we’re up at that 31-gram mark, so we’re increasing the yield per square foot, but of course we’re blowing it out of the water when it comes to the amount of energy being used to produce that cannabis,” said Cachat.

With the original harvest, there were about 30 plants in the test pods that had four chimneys on the roof; they were grown sea of green style. Once Cachat’s team realized how strong the ambient PAR was in the room they decided to reduce the number of plants to seven.

The newest batch of plants are in 65-gallon pots, those are monsters for an “indoor” flowering setting. In the 100 square foot space, they’re expecting to cultivate seven plants that will produce up to two pounds each.

In California, the number one producer of cannabis in the nation, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report noted indoor cultivation is responsible for about 3% of all electricity use, or 9% of household use. It went on to state that level of energy use by the cannabis industry, whether it be the black, grey, white, or blue markets, corresponds to the electricity use of one million average California homes, greenhouse-gas emissions equal to those from one million average cars, and energy expenditures of $3 billion per year.

At rare peak power usage, the DSS systems at Fleurish Farms use less power than four HPS lights would use alone, disregarding all other energy costs associated with that room. At commercial production levels, the system uses 80% less energy than other indoor systems. In California alone, a transition away from HPS towards DSS technology could mean up to $2.5 billion dollars in reduced energy costs on growers, the grid, and the environment.

The system drastically cuts water usage as well, something drought-riddled California desperately needs. Water usage across different styles of cultivation is much harder to draw a baseline impact on than with lights, where x number of lights equals x impact, with the other power needs of the facility tacked on. Generally speaking, full sun outdoor plants consume the most water with varying improvements on the number of reclaimed gallons as a cultivation setting moves indoors.

According to best practices from Americans for Safe Access, up to 160 gallons of water per plant would be deemed acceptable. In one of the test sheds holding twenty-four Grape Ape plants, the Fleurish team could have used almost 4,000 gallons of water.

Inside the DSS test room, with the Grape Ape, they used 326 gallons. Of that water, 268 gallons were reclaimed. This resulted in a net water use for the entire eight-week flowering cycle of 58.5 gallons — a 96% decrease from the “best practice.”

Despite the massive environmental benefits of the DSS, you’re not sacrificing quality on behalf of your grandkids having polar ice caps. While still providing the light spectrum needed for optimal terpene and trichome production, the protection the plant is offered by the DSS system goes beyond anything possible outside or in most greenhouse settings. The lack of wind and temperature variation produces a plant with far fewer waxes and lipids than seen in other non-HPS lit settings. The resulting flower is an ultra-smooth smoke.

“By growing indoors we’re removing the environmental variables, said Cachat. “What that results in is less thick lipid layers on the trichomes and a smoother kinder smoke that really exemplifies the genetic profile that you’re growing.”

Ethan Rubindall oversees much of Fleurish Farm’s DSS work, as well as many other aspects of the cultivation efforts at the site. Most importantly, he’s in charge of pushing the boundaries of the system as they continue to analyze the process for further optimization.

“One thing is we really have a lot more light in areas of the room that aren’t traditionally lit in an indoor cultivation space. We’re going to try and maximize that by using the vertical space more to get some 3D canopy action going,” said Rubindall.

Rubindall believes one of their biggest mistakes early in the process was treating it like an indoor grow. They’re currently trying to figure out if they can fuel monster outdoor-style plants with the high residual PAR levels in the room.

“Not only is that going to be possible, but we’re going into the winter months right now. In the Summer months we should see numbers improve 20 to 30%,” said Cachat.

The winter months, in general, have seen the DSS system do well. The sun being lower on the horizon allows the chimneys to capture more light. Catchett says “There is no shortening of the time we’ve been able to use the tube exclusively in the winter months.”

The Fleurish team has settled on Platinum OG and White Mango for the next wave of research, which will see the first major rosin production efforts from DSS-grown cannabis, with a pound of the Platinum OG earmarked for the press while still early in the flowering stage.

Generally, the rosin produced by Fleurish Farms is the most identifiable part of the brand to the average cannabis consumer. Their offerings are appearing across a spread of Northern California’s high-end dispensaries and on the growing “sess” scene. Rubindall also handles the rosin production, so we asked him what the market was like in the most dynamic year for the solventless extract yet.

“I think there is a cool future, I think it’s fighting the same stuff BHO did when it first came out,” said Rubindall. “Where it’s at right now is that people want to give their nice stuff to BHO guys and get live resin back. Now people are getting more fearful of that, they don’t know. People are throwing their trash stuff at it, and then you get trash rosin.”

Rubindall went on to note the exact same issue plagued BHO. In the early going, people were using far from their finest materials in an effort to chase the almighty dollar. Cachat said the farm is getting a call a week from folks looking to work with them on their extraction efforts.

“Regulation-wise, we think there is a strong future for rosin,” said Cachat. He also noted on the consumer outreach efforts they’ve gone through in hopes of spreading the rosin gospel by giving away “a lot of free dabs to try and open people’s eyes.”

“Everyone is advertising “virgin” or “first press,” we didn’t really market like that. The only thing we mess around with is first press. There’s a lot of artistry there,” said Cachat.

“We’re happy with where rosin has gone from where we were a year ago; it’s getting out there.”

Keep an eye out for Fleurish Farms and their DSS-grown indoor, it’s the first wave of the most exciting technology the industry has seen in years.