There are currently three major markets in the cannabis industry, and this holds true for virtually all cannabinoids. Deciding which market or markets you wish to reach out to with your plant material makes a big difference as to how you will plant, care, harvest, and dry your product.
Trimmed Flower
-Cultivators produce quality flower to be trimmed up for sale and consumption
-Growers will spend more time with the manual inspection and care of plants to ensure market ready flower
-Harvest, drying, curing, and trimming process will require well planned and established infrastructure with temperature and humidity controlled environments to ensure quality, consumer-ready product
-Can require a large workforce, especially on large parcels of land, for all parts of the process from harvest on
-Flowers require post harvest testing prior to sale by either the farmer or retailer
-Will yield a higher price per pound for flower but sales are often on the spot market
Full Spectrum Extract
-Cultivators aim to produce large volumes of cannabinoid heavy flower for extraction
-Care requirements are less than for trimmed flower, but careful plant inspection is recommended
-Harvest, dry, and curing require proper conditions to keep terpenes and cannabinoids intact
-Middle of the road price per pound
-Seller must be diligent in selecting a reputable extractor
-Product can either be processed at the expense of the producer or the processor, depending on who intends to sell it
Isolate/Distillate
-Aimed at providing large volumes of whole plant material to extractors for isolating CBD
-For large parcels, can require specialty equipment for planting, watering, and harvesting, or a large workforce
-Plants may be largely left unattended but the risk of crop loss rises
-Drying plant material may require a large area or outsourcing, but can be done rapidly at temperatures up to 200 degrees F without significant loss of cannabinoids
-Lowest price per pound yield, generally sold by percentage points of cannabinoids per poundExample: 1 lb of 10% CBD material would yield $20 if prices are $2.00/percentage point
