That doesn't look like fire to me, you'd be lucky to get on the mid grade shelf bro.
Getting on and staying on the top shelf is HARD. What we've learned is that the California medical-grade cannabis market can be a cold, cruel bitch. She don't care how hard we worked, or what nutes we used, or what newfangled light system was running, or how much we loved the strain and that all our friends drooled over it. She didn't care that we ran ten weekers a full ten weeks, that we threw away hard work when it didn't turn out right, that we spent hours and hours searching, experimenting and even had a member fly to Amsterdam for genetics (our Super Lemon Haze from Greenhouse).
Early on every time we walked into a collective it was a battle. The buyers/owners grind on price, the budtenders grind on everything else; the bag appeal, the nose, the moisture content, the hippie trim, etc. It's in their interest to provide as low a donation as possible for our products. Of course we wanted to get enough of a donation to cover our costs - that's how we are supposed to do this. And by the way, we rarely walk cold into a new collective these days - our rather ample production is generally spoken for before harvest. This allows us to select the collectives we want to work with (the ones that do it 100% according to California law) and let's us cull the shady operators. It's more paperwork and effort but it's the right way to operate.
Now on the donations - there has been an interesting development over the last three years or so. The donation curve has steepened. Once the product falls out of the top 5% level relative to quality across the overall market, the price plummets. Let's say we are working with a new collective on several units of Lemon. No trouble holding over $3k donation per unit for this strain, but if the product is only let's say 10% less in quality for whatever reason, the donation offers don't fall 10%. They plunge more like 40-50%! So a $3.2k unit drops to $1600-$1800. There seems to be no middle ground. We're either on the top shelf or slugging it out in the mosh pit below. And any where less than top shelf is a tough place to be.
I've seen young slingers with a backpack and a couple of units from their hobby or closet grows come in to a collective while we're there and it's heartbreaking to watch. I remember when I was at that point. So proud, so new, so confident I knew everything. Hell, I read it on the internet so it had to be correct, right? Right? LOL - "Hey, mister budtender look at this fire! Top shelf! Gimme top shelf $$$!" And then comes the long, hard swim. It's ugly to see. Been there, done that. Never again.
Keeping costs low is important for us. Purchasing AN, Dyna, H&G, Botanicare, etc. from storefront hydro stores is simply not cost effective. We go with online bulk nutrient salts and essentially make our own. Our master growers have learned how to read our cannabis plants and provide what they need. Sounds simple, huh? Well, not really. We do purchase some labeled products and additives but only those outside the regular N-P-K base. In our humble opinion there are better things to discuss than what brand nutrients can waste our money the fastest.
Peace & out. Gotta go make babies (Super Lemon Haze, Skywalker OG, SFV OG, GG#4, WiFi OG and Kryptonite) for next few runs ...
