Cannabis With A Conscience: What Is Sungrown Cannabis?
What are the driving factors behind your cannabis purchases? Is it the price? The potency? Or perhaps it's company culture?
As the Vermont cannabis market matures, Sunset Lake Cannabis is thrilled to see that a growing number of consumers and retail owners alike are supporting craft, sungrown cannabis. We’ve decided to start a new series to talk about what sungrown cannabis is and our farming practices.
Sunset Lake cannabis exclusively harvests sungrown cannabis. We’re proud of the results and we’ll talk about what sungrown cannabis is and why we prefer this method.
What Is Sungrown Hemp?
Sungrown (or sun-grown) cannabis is cannabis that’s grown outdoors, planted in the soil, and subject to the sun. That might sound obvious, but “sungrown” isn’t interchangeable with the term “outdoor.”
According to evolving industry terminology, sungrown cannabis is a subcategory of outdoor cannabis. “Outdoor” is an umbrella term that can refer to cannabis grown in greenhouses, hoop houses, in the soil, in containers, and even subjected to light deprivation. Essentially any cannabis that isn’t grown and finished inside under artificial lights can be considered outdoor cannabis.
Sungrown cannabis on the other hand is exposed to the elements, grown in-ground with natural fertilizers, and subjected to the local area’s terroir.
Sungrown cannabis
uses the elements, the living soil, and some organic fertilizer to produce more bud per plant than indoor cultivation.
Benefits of Sungrown Cannabis
As a conscientious shopper, you care about the quality and environmental impact of the products you consume. You choose lovingly-grown organic food over food grown under harsh lighting and filled with artificial fertilizers. Why would your cannabis be any different?
Environmental Impact
Indoor (and some outdoor) cannabis cultivation draws massive amounts of energy and emits nearly 25 times more carbon dioxide per gram of cannabis compared to sungrown cannabis. We can attribute this eyepopping disparity to the power needed for growing lights, air flow, heating, cooling, water purification, and more.
Sungrown cannabis needs almost none of the above. It uses the elements, the living soil, and some organic fertilizer to produce more bud per plant than indoor cultivation.
Potency
It’s long been believed that cannabis plants grown indoors produce the most potent flowers. It’s true to an extent— cannabis can be manipulated into producing higher concentrations of THC. But on the whole, sungrown cannabis has been found to produce more cannabinoids and terpenes overall making for a more well-rounded experience.
Price Point
Because indoor cannabis cultivation uses so much power to produce average per-plant yields, it’s usually more expensive on the shelf than outdoor and sungrown cannabis.
When properly maintained, sungrown cannabis plants will produce more grams of usable bud than indoor plants. This is because indoor plants are subjected to more limiting factors like light, root space, and nutrient deficiencies.
Potential Challenges of Growing Sungrown Cannabis
Just like any outdoor agriculture, sungrown cannabis doesn’t come without its own set of challenges.
Weather
Unlike indoor cultivation, sungrown cannabis is exposed to all of the elements and has been known to be toppled by strong winds and heavy rain. But what doesn’t kill sungrown cannabis usually makes it stronger.
When sungrown cannabis is exposed to the elements it will put more energy into its foundation and immune system much like how exercising helps us stay healthy and in shape.
Pests
Pests are a part of life. Luckily for us farmers, pests also have hungry predators. At Sunset Lake Cannabis we use predators (called beneficial insects) like ladybugs and assassin bugs to eat the pests that would otherwise harm our cannabis. This is what we call an integrated pest management system and it allows us to keep the pest population down while also helping us keep our cannabis pesticide free.
Molds and Mildews
Yes, while sungrown cannabis is exposed to and can harbor unwanted mycotoxins, it’s a myth that only outdoor hemp can contain mold. Indoor hemp is just as, if not more sensitive, to molds and mildews.
If you want to avoid harmful molds and mildew, you should get your sungrown cannabis from a licensed farm that can provide you with certificates of analysis and testing to show you that what you’re buying is clean and safe.
You Decide — Sungrown Hemp
At the end of the day, your cannabis preferences are up to you to decide. Do you prefer indoor, outdoor, or sungrown cannabis?
All of Sunset Lake CBD’s hemp flower is sungrown to preserve cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavor. If you’re unsure about whether or not our hemp is right for you, check out some of our reviews.
