As I made my way out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland I seemed to get more and more excited with each mile I drove. I was very familiar with CULTA's wonderful array of craft flower and getting the chance to see where it's all grown was something I've been eager to do for a while, and this was my chance!
Located in Cambridge, Maryland, which seems like your average sleepy maritime town, CULTA's facility has over 20,000 square feet of indoor cultivation space with about 3 acres of outdoor area as well. Their cultivation team is highly experienced, and they use state-of-the-art growing techniques to produce high-quality cannabis. Additionally, the company has over 20,000 square feet of processing space, and it uses a variety of extraction techniques to produce various cannabis products including concentrates, edibles, and topicals. As a vertically integrated company, they also have a retail dispensary in Baltimore near the Inner Harbor.
Upon arrival everyone was really relaxed, warm, and welcoming. Our tour group was small but the vibes were mighty and the mix of content creators, Maryland cannabis connoisseurs, and other industry insiders all seemed to share the same excitement for excellent flower that I had.
We started the tour with clear instructions regarding compliance guidelines - CULTA understandably adheres to strict policies as a measure of quality control. Then we strolled around their hand-constructed outdoor cultivation site where each plot had been built by their staff with the plants' optimal life cycle in mind.
As we roamed they explained that CULTA is a Clean Green Certified company. This program, developed by Chris Van Hook, who also worked on the USDA national organic program, was designed to standardize the certification of organic cannabis farms around the world. All certified cultivators are required to utilize sustainable cultivation practices, reject certain chemical pesticides, avoid synthetic chemical nutrients, and stay GMO free. What it means to consumers of CULTA's cannabis is that they can be confident their cannabis is kept clean and environmentally friendly from seed to sale.
We then transitioned from the outdoor site to my main point of interest: the controlled space of their indoor cultivation facility. Tyveks were distributed and compliance rules were re-discussed. Then they walked us through the sequence of operations starting from the water room and cracked open the door to their R&D designated space. This is where their experienced Director of Cultivation, Tom, gets to put on his "mad scientist" hat and find their next line of CULTA classic genetics. I always appreciate a facility that dedicates time and energy toward new product creation and find the particular process fascinating. Unfortunately, we couldn't walk through at that time because of the stage of reproductive cycle a pollinating male plant was in - this could easily compromise our suits for the remainder of the tour.
Next we ventured to their mother room - an extremely important area of any large grow. To have healthy flowering plants you need healthy specimens to splice and replicate. Without these mother plants they would be unable to produce the clones necessary to create their consistent, top-notch end product. Here, we were able to see the origin of some of Maryland's most beloved CULTA strains like Do-Si-Dos 22-22, Amnesia OG, Poochie Love, and their latest star, Hot Mint Sundae (all seen in the gallery below).
Reaching the peak of the tour, we came to the moment we had all been highly anticipating: the grow rooms! As the doors opened and the scent of developing buds filled my nose, we began walking through the aisles like adult candy enthusiasts in a candy store - after all we can't say "kids"because this is a 21+ tour.
We visited multiple rooms (both HPS and LED setups) and observed their protocols for each one. In all spaces and at all times it was "look, but no touch" - and we were very content just observing.
For the last leg of our CULTA tour we were ushered through the state of the art processing labs. The open vantage points in the room gave our group a literal window into their processing operations. We met with the Lab Director, Eric, and he walked us through their different processes for the concentrated medical products we see on the market today. He also gave us a very interactive experience, one where we could smell the samples of freshly produced live resin and their live diamonds and sauce.
The processing portion turned out to be my favorite part of the tour. I have a healthy respect for the cultivation centers coming from a cultivation background in my entrance to the East coast cannabis industry 6 years ago, but I have much adoration for what the labs turn their premium product into. It seems almost like magic, but it's actually just the beauty of cannabis science at work - so interesting!
As we wrapped up we were presented with merch bags and then taken out to a local brewery in the Cambridge Historic District for some lunch and light Q&A. This was a welcomed surprise for me - who knew just looking at so much cannabis could give you the munchies so bad! 😂
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to CULTA's Cambridge, Maryland cultivation facility and I couldn't be more impressed with their attention to detail, focus on quality, and truly positive culture. They certainly do have a "little slice of heaven" out in Eastern Maryland and the Maryland cannabis community are blessed to have such a knowledgeable and compassionate cultivator in their midst. I guess you can now call me an honorary member of the CULTA Club!
*Medical cannabis is for certified/qualifying patients only. Must be at least 18 years old to view content.
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