To start a cannabis business, you need tools to grow the plants and help them grow at every step. This is why the industry and its businesses use the right tools and technology to make sure they get a good crop. This way, they can meet commercial cannabis profitability targets.
Luckily, there’s an abundance of both new and traditional equipment for business owners to choose from that works in growth facilities and dispensaries. Thus, if you’re looking to expand your tool selection and streamline business operations, there are several key items that your business can benefit from purchasing.
Here are five essential pieces of equipment every cannabis business should own:
Bud Sorters
For both emerging and established cannabis businesses, bud sorters can be a valuable investment in saving time, improving crop volume output, and reducing labor costs during post-harvest processing. These are the table and grate stations that let you sort your trimmed buds quickly and accurately into different sizes, such as shake, popcorn, small, medium, and large. The buds can then be removed from the bins intact for the next curing process.
Fortunately, there are plenty of bud sorter stations to choose from that cater to any business budget. You can get the standard manual sorters, where staff members sort the buds by hand, roughly taking a minute to process a pound of buds. However, if you have enough capital, you should opt for automated stations such as the Mobius cannabis sorters. Doing this can help preserve the quality of the trichomes and terpenes in the buds and equip your business for scaling up production.
Grow Lights
If your business grows cannabis indoors in a greenhouse, then you should own grow light technology to ensure the healthy cultivation of your crops and their buds. There are a lot of options, though, depending on how your greenhouse is set up and how much electricity your business can afford.
Grow lights can be divided into three categories: fluorescent lights, high-intensity discharge (HID) lights, and LED lights. Fluorescents are the energy-efficient bulbs that most people already have in their homes and many indoor herb gardens. They are also the least expensive option.
The HID lights, which are the standard in the industry, are bigger ceramic or metal bulbs attached to a hood. They are much better at making a larger amount of high-quality cannabis yields. However, they come with higher operating costs, as they need to be kept cool. Lastly, LED lights are becoming more popular as a way to save energy because they are easy to set up and keep themselves cool.
Security Systems
Since cannabis products have a street value and generate interest on the black market, your business is at risk of being targeted by criminal activity. So, you must always have security equipment in place to protect both your employees and your cannabis assets.
Proper security is also a legal requirement because cannabis is still a controlled substance in many states. This means a dispensary, in particular, should comply with and implement security measures to keep its growing license and stay operational. So, the security equipment your business needs includes infrared security cameras with 24-hour monitoring that are placed inside the buildings. Additionally, you can get a vault to store any goods and cash on your property and transport them using bullion vans.
Measuring Equipment
To accurately inspect the health of your cannabis crops, your business will need to take measurements of each plant. This can be done with the right devices to generate readings and collect data on variables such as temperature, humidity, and the weight of your crops.
pH meters and total dissolved solids, or TDS, meters are two of the most important tools for measuring. These will help you check the composition of your growing environment and its water content. By doing this, you get to assess whether it’s suitable for cannabis to grow effectively. Thermometers and hydrometers are also important tools that let you keep an eye on the temperature and humidity of your growing space.
Workplace Safety Gear
It’s essential to comply with workplace safety procedures by providing your field staff with safety gear. This will protect them from inhaling odors that can impact their health over time. Workers are less likely to get skin irritations if they have the right safety gear, like gloves. They also protect your crops from the microbes on your workers’ hands.
Also, workers should have respirators and eye protection so they don’t get sick from harmful particles and contaminants in the air. These include carbon monoxide and allergy-causing substances associated with moist environments. If you use chemicals like pesticides in your cannabis business, your workers will also need aprons and coveralls that cover their shoes, hair, and any skin that isn’t covered by clothing.
Conclusion:
Every cannabis business needs a basic set of tools to grow a crop that will make money and keep the business running. Tools such as grow lights, bud sorters, and measuring devices work to maintain the right environment for cannabis plants and help them develop at every stage of their growth.
All of this is done while security systems and safety gear keep workers safe as they watch over and pick the crops. Finally, owning necessary equipment should always suit your business’s needs and scale. Following this requirement will guide your decisions on which specific tools will be worth investing in.
