A late North Coast cannabis harvest is made up for in quality, growers say

It can be said that patience and tenacity are necessary virtues required for cannabis farmers.

Take Glentucky Family Farm grower Mike Benziger. The longtime Glen Ellen cultivator noticed the 2023 cannabis harvest experienced a growth spurt like no other he’s seen in almost a half century of farming.

“Once the (Sept. 22, 2023) fall equinox came, I saw something I’ve never seen before — an accelerated ripening in the last two weeks. It’s like holding down the spring. (Then), the plants got the signal (to blossom),” Benziger told a group assembled for a panel discussion about the 2023 Sonoma Valley Harvest at the Sparc dispensary in Sonoma Oct. 26.

“This was one of the coolest years in 44 years. Usually, we have 15 days above 100 degrees,” he said of the harvest that traditionally happens in September through most of October. The growing season tends to start in June.

Cooler weather means plants that aren’t stressed or sunburned, resulting in “high quality pot” plants that could fetch $500 a pound, Benziger said.

That wholesale rate is almost twice the amount of a few years ago, when the market bottomed out after facing a potential collapse from too much product and too few places to sell it. On the high end, some growers say they may get $800 a pound now.

But Benziger also noticed a clear benefit to the last-minute haul.

“The quality is off the charts,” he said, echoing a similar sentiment expressed throughout Northern and Central California.

Benziger should know. His La Bomba cannabis strain won a gold medal at the California State Fair last year.

The pros and cons of the harvest

“What we’re seeing with the farmers now is all hands-on deck. But there’s anxiety going beyond October because November has not been kind,” said Sam Rodriquez, policy director for Good Farmers, Great Neighbors, a statewide cannabis cultivation advocacy organization.

With what has blossomed in the last few weeks, the temptation exists for cultivators to get what they can.

“We’re seeing fewer plants but a higher quality,” he said. “We’ve lost half our farmers.”

Rodriguez was referring to turbulence in the industry from cannabis growers complaining about over taxation. In addition, many growers have left or failed in the marketplace.

California growers, who start the revenue chain, were making less on the crops and paying high tax dollars to the state while competing with the illicit market. The Golden State’s legal market is valued at $5.9 billion in retail sales, according to MJ Biz Daily.

At a national level, Head of Brand Experience David Downs of Leafly, a Seattle-based data research and publishing company, has quantified the U.S. cannabis farming wholesale value at $5 billion. At a local level, Sonoma County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures — has not yet released its 2022 crop report, or provided recent cannabis numbers.

Nate Whittington is growing cannabis on three properties in Humboldt County in the heart of the Emerald Triangle. He said he lost up to 30% of his plants in this year’s harvest from botrytis mold in the Eel River Valley. The mold also showed up in some vineyards during harvest this year.

He set up humidifiers to do battle with the mold, which grows in a rust brown color on plants. If mold appears, contaminated plants are left alone to ensure the mold spores don’t spread to unaffected plants.

“That’s definitely going to make a dent (in profits). Part of it was harvest got off to a late start as last winter went so long,” he said of a phenomenal winter season in California that wiped drought conditions off the map.

Sonoma Valley and Anderson Valley growers indicated they didn’t have a mold problem with plants growing at higher elevations.

Neither did Whittington’s other property further inland, in Bridgeville, off Highway 36 with its drier microclimate.

“This harvest season, our farmers are very busy, hard at work addressing a somewhat challenging harvest due to early rain, and with it, some crop loss to mold,” said Genine Coleman, executive director and founder of Origins Council, a Ukiah-based cannabis advocacy organization that strongly supports legacy farmers.

“Most farmers have at least half, of their crop harvested now, reporting they’re pleased with how their crops have turned out overall,” she said.

Coleman also shared a bonus feature of this year’s harvest.

“There appears to be more diversity of genetics represented in the fall harvest than we’re seen in recent years,” she said. “(And) we’re all grateful for the rain and an absence of wildfires this year.”

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, production, tech, energy, transportation, agriculture as well as banking and finance. She can be reached at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com