There are several reasons why our growing methods start with sunlight and native soil. One is that pot grown outdoors dramatically reduces the huge energy and chemical footprint of indoor Cannabis production. Secondly, complex living soil allows our plants to fully express their unique traits. Third, while all plants prefer sunlight, tropical sativas in particular can struggle to grow in artificial light.

Our plants are grown in gigantic hoop houses, which wrap them in sunlight and extend our outdoor growing season to three crops per year.  12 feet tall, these Solarig®-covered canopies afford the space for pure sativas to fully mature. Light deprivation panels are incorporated into the row house design, allowing us to flower exotic, top shelf buds in higher latitudes.

While indoor grows are generally hydroponic and depend on external fertilizers, our methods create an ideal, diverse native soil ecosystem.  This complex living soil provides the micronutrients and natural processes that allow our plants to express the full spectrum of their natural compounds and unique traits.

We brew composted mint, farm-grown botanicals and earthworm castings in molasses and purified water to create a liquid teaming with microbes.  Applied in the soil, along with a special bacteria Rhodopseudomonas palustris, these natural building blocks foster a beneficial mycelial fungus colony in the soil that greatly improve the root’s ability to absorb naturally occurring minerals and nutrients.  In Kiona’s wine country terroir, little else is required to ideally nourish our plants.

To protect our plants from pests and diseases, we use botanical oils and beneficial insects instead of chemicals.   We support these insect populations by introducing and managing native plants along with what we grow.  These “weeds” provide pollen to feed insects and also keep diverse soil-enriching processes alive through most of the year—a very different approach than industrial monoculture, where one plant species is grown in isolation.