MJBiz - August 2023 - 34

applied
Science
Streamlining Harvest Day
Employ these strategies to make the most important day
of the growing cycle go smoothly
By Omar Sacirbey
E
very cannabis company's harvest
day looks different because
of varying room sizes and
plant counts, labor and equipment,
cultivation environment and strains
grown-and, of course, experience and
expertise.
But there are some commonalities
that indoor cultivators advise pursuing,
having to do with harvest-day processes,
temperature, humidity and more.
Time and Labor
Harvesting is a detailed process
that is best executed by a full-time,
dedicated team that has experience
and chemistry, said Josh Malman, vice
president of cultivation at Floridabased
multistate operator Jushi
Holdings, which uses two-level vertical
cultivation. Jushi's smallest facility
harvests 300 plants per week and the
largest about 2,100 plants per week.
" Our confidence in (the staff) being
able to do it the same way across
different cultivars every week is higher.
We know they're not dropping the
plants, dragging them along the coco
(coir) or along the rockwool. It's a lot of
training and development. "
Malman said it takes two days at
most to cut down plants in a room-and
then another two or so days to clean
and sanitize that room in preparation
for the next crop.
" We are doing these harvest
turnovers over the course of four, 4�
days at the longest. From the first plant
that we cut on Monday morning, we've
cleaned and sanitized, quality-checked
and loaded in the room by Thursday
34 August 2023 | MJBizMagazine
environment of pre-dawn when they
harvest their own plants. For example,
Frank Golfieri and Kevin Sparks,
head cultivators for Insa's operations
in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania,
respectively, like to set their floweringroom
temperatures to about 60 degrees
when they harvest.
Once an optimal environment has
Kevin
Sparks
night, Friday morning at the latest, "
Malman said.
Nic Robertson, vice president of
operations in Massachusetts for
Phoenix-based multistate operator
4Front Ventures, noted that because
harvest teams are on a schedule
that could compel them to rush, the
company has a supervisor present at
every harvest to ensure staffers are
working carefully.
" Because they are on a schedule,
the potential to feel rushed is there, "
Robertson said, so it's important to
have a supervisor making sure that
flower is being handled carefully. That
includes implementing a mentality
where harvest staffers touch the flower
as little as possible.
Trim and Cut
Outdoor cultivators advise harvesting
before sunrise, especially for freshfrozen
products, because that is when
resin and terpene levels are the highest.
Many indoor and greenhouse cultivators
try to mimic the dark and cool
been set, harvesters begin removing
excess leaves, cutting and weighing
the plants, hanging them on mobile
racks and then moving them to drying
rooms.
Not everyone follows the same order,
however. For example, harvesters at
4Front trim away excess leaves before
the plant is cut and weighed, while
harvesters at Jushi trim excess leaves
while the plant is still in the soil. Either
way, there will be some leaf trimming
on harvest day.
Malman said his Jushi staffers
remove any fan leaves longer than
1� inches a few days before harvest,
but they leave so-called sugar leaves,
which don't have nearly as much of
a cannabinoid profile as flower but
have enough to warrant trimming and
saving for extraction.
On the other hand, 4Front's
Robertson removes fan leaves on
harvest day, after the plants are cut
down.
" With the fan leaves gone, there
is better airflow to the buds, and
that helps them dry more evenly, "
Robertson said.
To actually cut the plants, which by
harvest can typically reach anywhere
from 4 feet to 8 feet tall, depending
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