Greenleaf 0117

The CFF Family, plus one:
Leslie, Nate, Brian, Crockett,
yours truly and Nick.
The crew uses a
series of large
fans to speed the
drying process.
GenetICs
“There’s half an acre of Tangie, half an acre of
Strawberry Banana and half an acre of Lemon, as
well as a quarter acre of Banana Pie and smaller
patches of around 54 other strains, including
many of the new strains we’re developing.
There’s White Pineapple, which smells just like a
pineapple soda, Golden Peaches, Plum Crazy,
Grape crosses…and of course, the Bob Ross.
There’s a whole bunch of different stuff that I'm
working on.”
harVest
“This harvest was a massive amount of work. It
took a crew of around 70 people close to a month
to harvest and hand-trim all of the plants, cola by
cola. We started harvesting at the end of September
and didn’t finish until around October 21st. We
worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week with no
days off. We really took it to the limit.”
Post-harVest
“Around 70% of the material was fresh frozen,
to be sold for extraction—the rest was hung to
dry and cure for around 8-12 days.”
M22
All in all, it took Crockett and his team approximately
two months to prepare and set up the grow,
four months to cultivate the crops to maturity and
another month to harvest—a total of around seven
months, making El Dorado a one-crop wonder, so
to speak. He says they decided to tackle the ambitious
El Dorado project for two reasons: to help
satisfy the growing market demand for his genetics
that he couldn’t meet with his existing operations,
but also because they’d yet to run a grow of
this size and simply wanted the experience.
“This was more for scale than sophistication,”
he explains. “My other, built-out greenhouses—
the ones that are fully automated, have light deprivation,
lighting, all of the bells and whistles—I
can plan on getting about four crops a year out of
them. But this is an older facility, so it serves a
great purpose for only once a year. You could do a
second crop, but it wouldn't be as good.”
Despite said age and lack of sophistication,
Crockett was apparently very pleased with the
results at the facility, as he plans to invest in
fixing it up for another run next season.
“The great thing about this facility is that [the
owners] are working with the local and state government
and having it completely licensed and all
of that, so we're going to be putting in newer
greenhouses and actually turning it around to be
built to suit specifically for cannabis,” he says.
Well… if they were able to produce such a
monster crop of mind-blowing marijuana in
such a broken-down, bare-bones facility, I can’t
wait to see what they’ll be able to do in a fully
suped-up El Dorado. Lucky for me, I know I’ll be
returning next year, as Crockett has informed
me that I too am now an honorary member of
The Family. I just hope I don’t have to wait that
long to get my personalized shirt….
by the numbers:
Number of grows Crockett
Family Farms operate: 4
Number females in CFF’s
genetic library: 180
Number of males: 36
Amount of California
dispensaries that carry CFF
genetics: Approx. 50%
Most potent strain: Hell's Fire OG
(28% THC)
Awards won by CFF genetics: 100+
Largest Grow: “El Dorado”
el dorado
Land area: 10 acres
Canopy area: 8 acres
Area owned by CFF: 3 acres
Plants per greenhouse: 2500
Total plants: 7000
Average plant yield: 1/2-3 lbs.
Prep time: 2 months
Grow time: 4 months
Harvest time: 1 month
Number of strains planted: 54
Amount of crop to be run for
concentrates: 80%