Hydrolife Magazine December 2017/January 2018 [USA EDITION]

y Kent Gruetzmacher
Abiding by complex and thorough state laws
while operating the country’s largest cannabis
cultivation facility takes a strong team and a
lot of knowledge. Kent Gruetzmacher visited
Los Suenos Farms in Peublo, Colorado, to
find out how they do it and how they are
pushing the industry forward.
had the opportunity to visit Pueblo Colorado’s Los Suenos
I Farms in early October, the heart of harvest season. Los
Suenos has set a new precedence in cannabis horticulture,
transferring a once cottage industry into full-scale industrial
agriculture and in the process, earning it the title of the largest
legal cannabis cultivation facility in the United States.
CANNABIS IN A FORMER STEEL TOWN
Pueblo is an ex-steel town and its location marks the end of the
Rocky Mountains and start of the Great Plains, which sprawl
eastward throughout the heartland of the United States. Just
outside of town, Los Suenos’s massive outdoor grow facility
is located amidst a checkerboard of cornfields and family
farms—blending somewhat seamlessly into a landscape and
community based on agriculture and blue collar industry.
One of the most remarkable facets of Los Suenos is that the
feel of the cannabis farm is unmistakably “Americana.” It’s
like witnessing something strangely familiar in the novel
landscapes of the marijuana industry.
One of the most compelling business aspects of Los
Suenos Farms lies in the sheer size of the operation and the
subsequent ingenuity of operational logistics on the part of the
staff. The team at Los Suenos is forced to operate their farm
with all the zeal, competiveness, and efficiency of an industrial
agriculture operation while simultaneously paying vigilant
attention to detail concerning state mandated seed-to-sale
tracking standards. This is no small feat.
Thanks to the generosity and attentiveness of Jarrod Mason,
Los Suenos’s director of business development, Hydrolife got
an all-access tour of the operation amidst the hustle-andbustle
of harvest. Moreover, Los Suenos’s compliance director,
Jacob Faber, was extremely informative in explaining both
the legal and logistical nuances of the operation. Finally, Los
Suenos’s cultivation director, Aaron Hoare, shed fascinating
insight into marijuana cultivation on such a large scale. Hoare
is also the founder of Ambrosia Cropz, a Colorado-based
cannabis consulting firm that has recently released its own
line of powdered, water-soluble nutrients.
THIRTY-SIX ACRES AND 36,000 PLANTS
The massive scope of operations at Los Suenos Farms is its
most defining characteristic. This size precariously provides
both the farm’s brand identity and largest obstacle in logistics.
For starters, Los Suenos is legally licensed by the State of
Colorado to cultivate an astounding 36,000 marijuana plants—
this number covers all phases of plant growth. Within this
allocated number, the farm grows 24,000 full-season outdoor
plants that comprise a 28-acre garden canopy. Make no
mistake about it, witnessing an operation of this size during
peak flower will change one’s perspective about the cannabis
industry by providing glimpses of the future.
myhydrolife.com
grow. heal. learn. enjoy. 33