There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Master Grower’

We’ve all heard of a “master grower” or know someone who has referred to themselves as such. This is what we think when we hear it:

“Oh. Where did you get your certifications? Do you have a degree in growing marijuana? can you grow indoors or outdoors, in any medium? How many new strains have you bred? How many plants have you ACTUALLY grown? Have you ever won an award?”

When cannabis first started to become legal, but before commercial cultivation really took off, quality home-growers, in order to differentiate themselves from each other, started calling themselves “Master growers.” However, many of these skilled home growers were quickly overwhelmed by the requirements of commercial production. 

In a commercial setting, you are working with, at a minimum, several hundred plants. Working with 5 plants is very different from 50, which is very different from 500 or 5,000 or even 50,000. Each time you scale up, especially by a factor of 10, new things must be taken into account and prioritized. 

At home, you have the luxury of being able to flower a plant virtually indefinitely. Home growers are also able to crowdsource answers from the internet whereas if a commercial grower is not able to identify a pest it could cost the company tens of thousands of dollars or more. In a commercial setting, time is money. Everything is under a time constraint and like the cogs of a machine, if one fails, they all fail. Most production schedules are limited to about 100 total days of growth and then at least 5 days of cure time.

Being able to identify which tasks need completing first is an essential skill any commercial grower needs to master. Pest identification and eradication becomes more important the larger your grow is because there are more plants, and more money, at risk. Being an actual master grower means you excel at multiple different methods of cultivation and are knowledgeable of most pests and symptoms of nutrient deficiencies. 

When a person self-identifies as a “Master Grower,” be extremely wary. Most professional growers will let their resume and accomplishments do all of their bragging. The differences between a “Master Grower” and a genuine professional cultivator of cannabis becomes increasingly evident with direct correlation to the number of plants under their care. Being able to navigate tight time constraints and the knowledge of how to push your plants during vital times is what sets a grower apart from the rest.

You have been warned.