Watch: Episode 6 of ‘Growing Exposed’—Back Country 300

What do you get when you have a grower who wants to set up a high-end, custom-built grow operation nestled in an old growth forest in a remote area of British Columbia?

With the help of our garden tour-guide Justin Cooper, a 20-year veteran in the hydroponics industry, we’ll find out in the sixth episode of Growing Exposed.

Red doors mean fortune in Chinese culture, and behind the red doors of solid steel is a vast fortune of green gold called Super Kush. With just under 1 million BTUs of air conditioning, 300 HID lights and 600 amps of 3-phase power, this grower has designed a facility that produces some of the most potent and high-quality cannabis in the world today.

Jeremy Deichen, producer of the series Growing Exposed noted: “The first thing I noticed during filming is the growers here are not messing around when it comes to security.”

Heavy-duty steel doors, armor-coated from top to bottom, were evident in each of the four 80 light rooms.

The intense heat produced by approximately 300 HID lights is cooled by a long row of 5-tonne air conditioners that produce an astounding total of just fewer than 1 million BTUs. The grower has a simple set-up, which often works the best. Everything is completely automated and irrigation systems are accessible. They use rows of troughs lined with 15-gallon pots, set up with three drip emitters feeding at two gallons per hour.

Moving into the reservoir room, Justin explained, “This grower is serious when it comes to nutrition. Using GP3 from Green Planet Nutrients, a high-quality, clean three-part fertilizer, he ensures his plants have perfected nutrition mixed into each of the four 1000 liter reservoirs that feed four separate rooms.”

We see this product in more and more commercial gardens, and I think it is safe to say the secret is out as it continues to out perform any competing three-part formula on the market today.

Beyond the feeding program, this particular grower understands the importance of environment and strongly believes air movement is key.

Why? It provides a number of benefits: it prevents bugs, pests, mold and mildew, and it allows the plant to transpire and absorb the maximum amount of CO2—but, that’s not the only reason to keep the fans blowing in your grow space.

As David Robinson explained: “Air movement mimics the gentle breeze plants encounter growing naturally outdoors, which creates a rhythmic movement that allows them to become stronger by creating tiny cracks in the stems that repair themselves.

This process is much like how our own muscles tear and repair themselves through healthy exercise to gain strength and endurance. By strengthening your plants with a healthy amount of air movement, or “exercise,” they become more able to hold the larger flowers they will naturally produce as they’re strengthened by airflow.

Going over to the flowering room, just to put into perspective the amount of product produced; Justin takes a look at a well-used T2 Twister trimmer, which is responsible for trimming an enormous amount of cannabis. This hash-coated twister is worn and has paid for itself many times over. Even though flat tires only support it, it’s still going strong.

Nearing the end of the tour Justin shows us that during the last week of flower, this grower uses an uncommon technique to bring out gorgeous colors in his final product.

He drops the temperature down to a staggering 55-60°F, which our tour guide explained “would normally slows down most plant processes.” However, this also accentuates the purples within the bud itself and brings out the autumn-like colors.

The resulting Super Kush is extremely dense and resinous with insane trichome production, beautiful coloration, and amazing aromas.

The flower room is a vast, even canopy of tops with huge, dense, aromatic buds. And according to our tour guide Justin, “it stinks so beautifully, you’ll wish you had smellovision.”

“A lot of plants don’t really give off a lot of flavor until you squeeze them and allow the terpenes to come to your nose.” Justin explained, bringing a huge flower to his nose. “These are sweet, very fragrant, fantastic smelling. I wish I had a scope so I could scope out the trichomes to let you know if they’ve gone amber or milky. But the bud structures itself, over 50 percent of the hairs have gone orange, and that’s a good indicator that this bud is ready to harvest. Completely snow covered, and once they remove all the fan leaves and do the trim, this is going to be a fantastic-looking harvest.”