JESSUP, Md. — For cannabis to be sold in Maryland it has to be grown and processed here.
For facilities like Verano’s that means output is going up to meet the demand.
“I'm really confident about the ability of the operators to rise to the challenge as they’ve rose to the challenge over the last couple of years and meet the needs of the state," said
Darren Weiss, president of Verano.
Cannabis is grown differently than your average plant.
Instead of massive open fields it’s grown in rooms filled with LEDs and on layers of tables.
Everything is monitored and controlled, from the humidity in the room to the amount of nutrients they receive from these massive fertilizer containers.
“Plants like different things at different points of the life cycle. Sometimes we want it to be really dry and cold, other times, particularly in vegetative, we want to simulate almost a rain forest environment so plants can take on the nutrients and build up and bulk," said Weiss.
The process starts with mother pants of each strain, a piece is planted in these little containers until it can grow on its own.
Eventually it moves here – where each plant produces about 110 grams of cannabis.
“At this point we want to focus as much of the energy into flower production," said Weiss.
Before the plant can be used in any products, they have to be dried out, which happens in a cool dry room compared to the warm humid grow room.
“Plants are in here between 7-10 days to get them to the correct moisture content," said Weiss.
Then, the flowers are hand pulled off the stem, weighed and transferred to a room to cure – like fine wine or bourbon.
“Once we get it to a particular moisture level and water activity threshold, we’re ready to put it into a jar and send it on its way," said Weiss.
That process happens on location and sites like these are pumping out more and more product as we move closer to the first day of recreational marijuana in Maryland.
